Stanford Social Innovation Review

Many businesses serving lower income communities languish because they can’t raise enough money to fund their growth. To meet their needs, a new breed of private equity investment—development investment capital—has emerged. Although this style of investing is still in its infancy, it’s already showing promise.

It’s time to rethink the “C” in CSR.

Group attachment and commitment are what drive protesters to act.

Voluntary carbon offsets allow people to invest in projects that allegedly counteract their greenhouse gas emissions. But can voluntary offsets help slow global warming? Or are offsets simply a way for guilt-ridden consumers to buy their way out of bad feelings? —By Matthew J. Kotchen

Studies show that individuals are more susceptible to corrupt behavior when trying to avoid a loss.

When donor gifts are public, social approbation is reward enough.

From pink ribbons to Product Red, cause marketing adroitly serves two masters, earning profits for corporations while raising funds for charities. Yet the short-term benefits of cause marketing—also known as consumption philanthropy—belie its long-term costs. These hidden costs include individualizing solutions to collective problems; replacing virtuous action with mindless buying; and hiding how markets create many social problems in the first place. Consumption philanthropy is therefore unsuited to create real social change. —By Angela M. Eikenberry

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

To save the nation, the United States needs alternative teacher training

How the Positive Deviance Initiative helps communities solve their own problems

The poor are just like everyone else: they do not save as much as they would like.  Yet unlike their richer counterparts, poor people do not receive the cleverly marketed, carefully tested financial products that could help them reach their savings goals more easily.  To enrich the bottom of the pyramid, bankers to the poor should make saving money easier by using the latest findings from economics and psychology.

Social movement and grassroots organizations left in the cold.

Putting the science of influence to work in fundraising.

Gifts are not an incentive for donors to give, they’re an excuse.

When nonprofits earn taxable income, private donors give less.

The importance of social identity in giving.

Why some companies donate to charity.

How personalities count when
pairing protégés with Big Brothers and Sisters.