Stanford Social Innovation Review : Informing and inspiring leaders of social change

SUBSCRIBE | HELP

Articles

 

Nonprofits

Research: Strong Women, Strong Sector

The more empowered a country's women, the more vibrant its nonprofit sector.

By Alana Conner | Winter 2010
 
image

Nonprofits

Research: Start Them Younger

Children between the ages of 8 and 12 are an energetic, useful, yet largely overlooked pool of volunteer labor.

By Alana Conner | Winter 2010
 
image

Nonprofits

What Workforce Crisis?

How do nonprofits find and keep workers even in troubled economic times?

By Lester M. Salamon & Stephanie L. Geller | Winter 2010
 
image

Urban Development

Grow Your Own

Forget about luring big companies with tax incentives and subsidized space. Chris Gibbons focuses Littleton, Colorado's efforts on growing home-town businesses.

By Anne Stuhldreher | Winter 2010
 
Advertisement

Nonprofits

Recreating Fine Arts Institutions

The fine arts in America are on a perilous path. Attendance at opera, theater, jazz, symphony, and ballet performances has dropped precipitously in recent decades. Just as worrisome, the median age of people attending these events has increased dramatically. If the fine arts are to survive as a living, creative, and significant force in American life, arts institutions need to radically recreate themselves.

By Diane E. Ragsdale | Fall 2009
 

Nonprofits

Research: How to Survive the Recession

The current recession has left few nonprofits unscathed and has hit theaters particularly hard. Creative entrepreneurial changes have proven more effective than the traditional belt-tightening.

By Alana Conner | Fall 2009
 
Advertisement

Philanthropy

The Nonprofit Starvation Cycle

A vicious cycle is leaving nonprofits so hungry for decent infrastructure that they can barely function as organizations—let alone serve their beneficiaries. The cycle starts with funders’ unrealistic expectations about how much running a nonprofit costs, and results in nonprofits’ misrepresenting their costs while skimping on vital systems—acts that feed funders’ skewed beliefs. To break the nonprofit starvation cycle, funders must take the lead.

By Ann Goggins Gregory & Don Howard | 24 | Fall 2009
 
image

Social Innovations

The Madoff Philanthropic Implosion

With many in the community losing their savings in the Madoff scandal, Jewish philanthropies took a hard hit.

By Max L. Kleinman | Fall 2009
 
Advertisement

Nonprofits

Art Mimics Art

Manchester Bidwell Corporation replicates by adapting general strategies to local cultures.

By Suzie Boss | Summer 2009
 
Advertisement

Nonprofits

Mission-Driven Governance

The prevailing governance model is fundamentally adversarial, pitting board members in a never-ending struggle with executives. This model may ensure that the legal requirements of oversight and compliance are met, but it does little to advance the organization’s goals. The authors propose a new and more effective framework, one where board members and executives work together to advance the organization’s mission.

By Raymond Fisman, Rakesh Khurana, & Edward Martenson | 1 | Summer 2009