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

Nonprofits

Creatively Combining the Back Office: Shared Services Alliance Part 2

I announced in May 2010 that I would be writing a series on nonprofit back-office integrations or what these organizations refer to as Shared Service Alliances. In my first posting on this topic I explained that shared service alliances are partial integrations of nonprofit back office services for a group of agencies, provided on a fee-for-service basis, in order to achieve economic and program efficiencies. For organizations which are community-based and their autonomy is arguably an important aspect of their service delivery... (continue reading blog post)

Nonprofits

Danny Lopez: A Profile in Third Sector Grit

Growing up in Miami, Danny Lopez was exposed to drugs and alcohol at a very young age. At just 12 years of age, he began experimenting with hardcore drugs. By the age of 20, Danny was addicted, jobless, and living on the streets. Setting up camp on the side of US 1 in Miami, his daily existence centered on determining where and how he was going to get his next fix... (continue reading this blog post)

Nonprofits

Achieving Greater Impact Through Model-Sharing

After Hurricane Katrina decimated New Orleans, the entire social infrastructure of the city swiftly collapsed. The education system, for example, had to be rebuilt from ground zero because the storm destroyed 110 out of 126 public schools. Today, as New Orleans struggles to reinvent effective public education, the city has more public charter schools than any public school system in the nation... (continue reading this blog post)

Social Innovations

Skoll Award Recipients Focus on Ecosystem Services Market

Having focused much of my research at Oxford on carbon markets and the development of ecosystem services markets, I was thrilled to see the Skoll Foundation’s recent investments in this area at the ceremony for their 2010 Awards for Social Entrepreneurship. Three of the seven recipients of this year’s awards were from the field of ecosystem services and avoided deforestation. While past recipients have included incredible organization such as the Global Footprint Network, the Marine Stewardship Council, and Water.org, a quick count of those who received a Skoll award from 2005-2009 reveals that only 8 of the past 59 awardes... (continue reading this blog post)

Social Innovations

From Lemons to Lemonade: Clevelanders Find New Uses for Abandoned Spaces

The Galleria Erieview in Cleveland is only a shell of the once vibrant downtown shopping destination. The mall, which used to host 48 retail shops, is now mostly empty with a handful of food court restaurants.

While the Galleria has lost nearly all the retail shops, two fruitful things remain: the barrel-shaped glass ceiling and resourceful, dedicated employees... (continue reading this blog post)

Social Innovations

TED Prizewinner and Chef Jamie Oliver: Food Revolutionary?

It’s TED Week, when the granddaddy of social change fests meets again in California to air the latest, best and brightest ideas to help the world. This year, organizers formally awarded a young British social entrepreneur — a chef — their prestigious TED Prize, an honor conferred annually to someone with a dream and the organizational chops to change the world, at least a bit of it… (continue reading this blog post)

Nonprofits

Five New Nonprofit Voices to Follow

I commented on Twitter recently that I’m seeing lots of new nonprofit blogs. Some of them good, some of them God-awful. Ironically (or not), the best new nonprofit blogs I’ve seen are being written by the younger folks in the sector… (continue reading this blog post)

Nonprofits

An Example of Strategic Mergers in the Nonprofit Sector: Arizona Children’s Association

Philanthropy

‘Blood Money’ that Became a Force for Good

The Peter C. Alderman Foundation uses rigorous analysis to outlast hundreds of failed nonprofits that were launched in response to 9/11.

Nonprofits

On Collaboration: Lunch with Sustainability Solutions Group

A consultancy that walks its talk.