http://www.ssireview.org/articles/ Strategies, Tools, and Ideas for Nonprofits, Foundations, and Socially Responsible Businesses en nicholas_jenna@gsb.stanford.edu Copyright 2010 2010-02-24T07:00:54+00:00 http://www.ssireview.org/articles/entry/the_ingredients_of_growth/ http://www.ssireview.org/articles/entry/the_ingredients_of_growth/ In recent decades, many economists have advised governments to stabilize, privatize, and liberalize markets. Economists do know how markets work, and they can often predict how mature market economies will respond to certain events and policies. But developing economies lack both mature markets and the institutions that support them—including institutions that define property rights, enforce contracts, convey prices, and bridge gaps between buyers and sellers. These are precisely the institutions that political leaders must establish and then modify as economic growth introduces new problems and opportunities. The work of the Commission on Growth and Development tended to confirm that political leaders play pivotal roles in the success—and the failure—of economic development. As detailed in its publication The Growth Report, the commission closely examined 13 nations whose gross domestic product (GDP) grew at least 7 percent a year for at least 25 years after World War II. In other words, these economies at least doubled in size each decade. Although these high-growth countries used different economic models and political structures and had different resources and histories, their governments followed broadly similar paths. Often ushered in by a crisis, new leadership chose a promising economic model and then stabilized the nation long… Economic Development, Government 2010-02-24T06:00:36+00:00 http://www.ssireview.org/articles/entry/strength_through_flexibility/ http://www.ssireview.org/articles/entry/strength_through_flexibility/ In June 1992, the five founders of what became the Forum for African Women Educationalists (FAWE) met at the Rockefeller Foundation’s Bellagio Center on Lake Como, Italy. Each woman was a minister of education in her home country (Burkina Faso, Gabon, Ghana, the Seychelles, and Zimbabwe). And each lamented that only half of Africa’s school-age girls enrolled in school. FAWE’s founders understood the obstacles that girls met on the way to the schoolhouse. Many parents simply couldn’t afford school tuition and fees. Others preferred to keep their daughters at home to perform household chores and to take care of younger siblings. Girls who did make it to school encountered such indignities as bathrooms shared with boys, discrimination from teachers, and sexual harassment from both teachers and students. For the few girls who did make it through elementary school, pregnancies often cut short their middle and high school educations. But FAWE’s founders also knew that the rewards were great for girls who did manage to secure an education. Educated girls were—and are—less likely to suffer from violence and harassment. They live longer and contract HIV/AIDS less. They have fewer and healthier children. And they make greater contributions to their country’s economic… Education, Social Entrepreneurship, Government 2010-01-20T22:35:59+00:00 http://www.ssireview.org/articles/entry/an_ounce_of_advocacy/ http://www.ssireview.org/articles/entry/an_ounce_of_advocacy/ For years before Hurricane Katrina laid waste to the Gulf Coast, scientists, engineers, and journalists warned that New Orleans’ levees might not withstand the inevitable “Big One.” Yet government officials at every level ignored the warnings and cut the programs designed to fortify the city’s defenses. So when disaster finally struck in late August 2005, government agencies were woefully unprepared to deal with the devastation. Into this breach waded nonprofits and businesses. The American Red Cross, for instance, spent more than $2 billion and deployed 220,000 volunteers to assist 1.2 million families, reports a Congressional committee.1 Smaller nonprofits like PRC Compassion also sent their best. This group of ministers distributed more than 62 million pounds of food, clothing, and other aid. Likewise, businesses large and small raised funds and donated profi ts to the relief effort. General Electric, for example, donated $22 million in cash, goods, and services, and raised an additional $50 million for the Red Cross, reports the Philanthropy Journal.2 In total, private donations for Katrina relief came to $3 billion— the most ever donated for a single event in the United States—with corporate donations making up about one-third of that sum. Yet the private sector’s unprecedented outpouring… Government 2010-01-11T21:38:30+00:00 http://www.ssireview.org/articles/entry/keeping_an_eye_on_parks/ http://www.ssireview.org/articles/entry/keeping_an_eye_on_parks/ Not so long ago, San Francisco’s Franklin Square was a good place to avoid. Playground sand was a dumping ground for used condoms and hypodermic needles. Fed up with what officials politely described as an “underperforming park,” neighbors got organized. They used an interactive Web tool called ParkScan to pinpoint infractions on a satellite map, add text descriptions of the problem, and upload photos of trash or vandalism. Their data-gathering campaign helped convince the city to invest in a complete park makeover. “Franklin Square is a great success story for the neighborhood— and for ParkScan,” says Meredith Thomas, executive director of the Neighborhood Parks Council. The San Francisco- based parks advocacy nonprofit has spent several years developing ParkScan, with $1 million in grant support from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation and other backers. Now the tool is being rolled out to other cities interested in engaging their residents as park monitors. Once ParkScan is adopted by a community and customized with satellite photos, maps, and other information about local parks, the tool enables anyone with Internet access to report a broken swing set, low-hanging tree limb, graffiti, or other concern. Each “observation” is assigned a tracking number and referred to… Government 2009-11-18T18:00:00+00:00 http://www.ssireview.org/articles/entry/fresh_faces_at_city_hall/ http://www.ssireview.org/articles/entry/fresh_faces_at_city_hall/ When recent college graduates go prospecting for public service jobs, few bother to drop off their résumés at city hall. “Local government is not even on their radar,” admits Micki Callahan, San Francisco’s human resources director. Across the country, many big cities face the same empty pipeline just as a wave of baby boomers prepares to retire. A new program dubbed City Hall Fellows is designed to bring eager young faces into municipal government and help avert a looming talent shortage. “City halls are gray,” says Bethany Rubin Henderson, a 32-year-old Los Angeles trial lawyer who started the fellowship program. “Cities have not been able to get bright young folks in the door.” Her solution: build an elite national service corps for America’s cities. City Hall Fellows receive entry-level wages, paid by the host city, for a yearlong stint in local government. They tackle work under the direction of top-level city officials on everyday challenges such as transportation, public works, or housing. Fellows also receive extensive training in how cities work. To design the program, Henderson borrowed from other well-known programs that recruit idealistic recent graduates, such as New York City’s Urban Fellows Program (of which she is a veteran),… Government 2009-11-18T18:00:00+00:00 http://www.ssireview.org/articles/entry/a_light_in_city_hall/ http://www.ssireview.org/articles/entry/a_light_in_city_hall/ In 2005, a new day arrived in Los Angeles, when citizens elected the charismatic Antonio Villaraigosa as their mayor. Serving on his transition team, I remember surveying his winning coalition at a meeting: East and South Los Angeles organizers and West Side philanthropists; Asian and Armenian immigrant businesspeople; and corporate, labor, and nonprofi t leaders from every culture and community. “Come dream with me, Los Angeles,” the new mayor said in his inaugural speech. And a great many of us did. Mayor Villaraigosa sought creative solutions and silo busting inside and outside government. His signature phrase was “strategic partnership,” and, unlike most government officials, his vision always included nonprofi ts and philanthropy. In short order, he hired me to a newly created position as liaison between the mayor’s offi ce and the philanthropic sector. For 20 years before I took that post, I labored in the social sector, where my relationship to government zigzagged from advocate, to negotiator, to parallel funder. But never did our shared public-private concern for the common good or our work tackling the same issues (such as poverty or AIDS) result in joint planning or coordination. Some other cities were beginning to change that, and I… Government 2009-11-11T00:46:01+00:00 http://www.ssireview.org/articles/entry/public_private_alliances_transform_aid/ http://www.ssireview.org/articles/entry/public_private_alliances_transform_aid/ In 1994, 800,000 Rwandans were murdered in the last genocide of the 20th century. When Paul Kagame became president of Rwanda, the nation’s economy was still in shambles, with few resources other than its people and its coff ee crop. But Rwanda’s coff ee beans were of such poor quality and unappealing taste that they were sold at the lowest possible prices. Traders made most of the modest profits, leaving growers impoverished. To make Rwanda’s coff ee crop more profitable, the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and the Rwandan government organized an unusual alliance between coff ee farmers and several international coffee companies, including Starbucks Corp. and Green Mountain Coffee Roasters Inc. The alliance trained the farmers to process specialty coff ee beans that would fetch premium prices. USAID played a central role in linking the coff ee farmers to U.S. coffee retailers, as well as in training farmers in how to grow and process the coffee to meet high specialty coff ee standards. USAID also helped coffee farmers secure bank loans to buy or upgrade equipment. By 2006, exports of Rwandan specialty coff ee had grown to $8 million, and coffee farmers’ per capita income had more… Economic Development, Government 2009-10-26T20:02:00+00:00 http://www.ssireview.org/articles/entry/review_the_unfinished_presidency/ http://www.ssireview.org/articles/entry/review_the_unfinished_presidency/ Many of us will confront a luxury that our parents and grandparents never dreamed possible: the opportunity to create and live a “second act” of our adult lives. Retirement was once a brief window, enjoyed by the few and often filled with travel, television, and tedium. Now, as people retire earlier and live longer, many are discovering that there are two, three, or even four decades to fill. Ideally, older people would watch the curtain rise on Act 2. Yet many Americans are failing miserably at creating a second life. A doctor friend of mine at a private clinic in Vail, Colo., reports that the leading prescription drug for wealthy retirees is antidepressants and the biggest family counseling problem is alcoholism. Rather than seizing the opportunity to use the wisdom of age and experience to redefine themselves, many Americans choose to languish. For those interested in staging a second act, I strongly encourage reading The Unfinished Presidency, a stunningly inspiring and entertaining account of President Jimmy Carter’s “journey beyond the White House.” Noted historian Douglas G. Brinkley provides an account in depth of Carter’s resurrection from a failed one-term President to a widely respected, globe-trotting do-gooder. The ashes from which… Government 2009-05-21T06:01:35+00:00 http://www.ssireview.org/articles/entry/reward_progress_reduce_poverty/ http://www.ssireview.org/articles/entry/reward_progress_reduce_poverty/ Derek had recently been released from juvenile hall in San Francisco, after serving time for robbery—a robbery in which his friend Benjamin had refused to participate. Benjamin convinced Derek to go with him to apply for a construction training program that would help them get “real jobs” and end their involvement in gangs and crime. I was the director of the training program, and we had only one open slot. Like most social services, my program prioritized the “most in need,” so Derek got that last slot. I told them whom we accepted and why. “See! You should have gone on that job with me!” Derek said to Ben. It was then that I realized the message my organization and I were sending. A decade later in 2004, Flora, a single mother of four, was participating in Hawaii’s Family Independence Initiative (FII), an antipoverty project I started. I distinctly remember what she told me: “I work as a cashier, and every day these guys who were just released from drug rehab come in to buy food. They have their EBT card (ATM-like food stamp cards) and some of them have thousands of dollars on them.” “They have more money for… Economic Development, Government 2009-05-21T06:01:00+00:00 http://www.ssireview.org/articles/entry/millennials_moveon/ http://www.ssireview.org/articles/entry/millennials_moveon/ On Oct. 23, 2008, the political action committee (PAC) MoveOn.org deployed one of its most successful e-mail campaigns. In support of presidential hopeful Barack Obama, the organization sent a message that contained a phony news video from the fictitious network CNNBC. The customized video flamed its recipient by name, claiming that he or she was the one person whose uncast vote lost the presidential election to Republican candidate John McCain. In one segment, former President George W. Bush and conservative commentator Bill O’Reilly personally thanked the recipient. In another, a church marquee read “ All God’s Children Welcome Except [recipient’s name].” MoveOn originally sent the clip to its 3.5 million members— politically active citizens who were already likely to vote. The organization then expected these members to forward the video to friends and relatives whose will to vote might waver. Indeed, by Election Day, more than 20 million people—almost 10 percent of the U.S. voting-age population—had viewed the video. With a full quiver of Web 2.0 technologies, MoveOn blazed a new trail in American political campaigns. The organization proved especially effective at mobilizing voters under age 30, who accounted for at least 60 percent of the increase in… Arts, Culture, and Religion, Government 2009-04-30T17:30:00+00:00