Stanford Social Innovation Review

Most nonprofits don’t know how to lobby and, worse, think that it entails cutting shady deals with sleazy characters. Yet lobbying is nothing more than educating legislators – a right that our democracy guarantees. To make change, nonprofits must learn to lobby. And who knows? They may even learn to love it.

Conventional wisdom says that scaling social innovation starts with strengthening internal management capabilities. This study of 12 high-impact nonprofits, however, shows that real social change happens when organizations go outside their own walls and find creative ways to enlist the help of others.

How Changemakers’ “collaborative competitions” harness the wisdom of crowds.

Foundations can move past traditional
approaches to create social change through
imaginative – and even controversial – leadership.

Too often, individuals make decisions about how much money to donate to charitable causes on an ad hoc basis. As a result, many people give less money than they can actually afford.  If the affluent contributed as much to nonprofits as the authors believe they can, charitable giving in the United States would increase by $100 billion a year – enough to solve many of the world’s most pressing problems.

Most people think of networking as a means for advancing their own self-interest.  But successful social innovators take a different tack, nurturing close ties between members and infusing their networks with a common set of values.  As a result, their networks power both personal transformations and large-scale social changes. 

Responsible Wealth, a Boston-based nonprofit, is convincing many affluent Americans to challenge the very rules that made them rich. Far from mere check writers or “limousine liberals,” these wealthy activists work against their self-interest to stamp out inequality at its source: unfair laws and policies. Their unique strategy of using privilege to contest privilege not only has attracted the rich and famous to their ranks, but also has bent the ears of senators and CEOs.