http://www.ssireview.org/articles/ Strategies, Tools, and Ideas for Nonprofits, Foundations, and Socially Responsible Businesses en katiejh@stanford.edu Copyright 2008 2008-05-29T15:00:01-08:00 http://www.ssireview.org/articles/entry/15_minutes_with_martin_eakes/ http://www.ssireview.org/articles/entry/15_minutes_with_martin_eakes/ When Martin Eakes was a teenager growing up in a poor, rural community outside of Greensboro, N.C., his best friend, who was an African American, was shot and killed in a playground near Eakes’ home. On that day, Eakes vowed to live his life for the two of them. Eakes went on to graduate from Yale Law School, but instead of taking a lucrative position at a high-powered New York law firm, he returned to North Carolina to devote his energy and talents to improving the lives of the poor. In 1980, Eakes started Self-Help as a way to help the poor help themselves. His first loan was for $1,700, to help seven laid-off textile workers start a community bakery. From those modest beginnings, Self-Help has grown into a financial powerhouse. At its core is a credit union that takes in deposits and lends out money to low-income people who want to buy homes or start businesses, and to nonprofit organizations. Self-Help also repurchases home loans made by large banks to low-income buyers. The 501(c)(3) community development financial institution now has more than $1 billion in assets. Self-Help isn’t the only organization lending to low-income home buyers. In the last… Government 2008-06-15T14:00:00-08:00 http://www.ssireview.org/articles/entry/fast_food_and_the_family_farm/ http://www.ssireview.org/articles/entry/fast_food_and_the_family_farm/ Almost 30 years ago, my family bought a small farm along the Mississippi River in northwestern Illinois near the historic town of Galena. The farm has a couple of pastures where the neighbors’ black-and-white Holsteins graze, a hayfield that provides winter feed for the horses, a vegetable garden, fruit trees, and several beehives. It quickly became a cherished place to escape from the busy lives my siblings and I led three hours away in Chicago, as a young lawyer (me), doctor, and theater producer. Our neighbors had scraped out a living in this rough, rocky landscape for generations as dairy farmers. But today, most of them either are out of farming altogether or pursue it only as a hobby. They are among the well-documented casualties of our switch to large-scale agriculture—and there are other consequences of that change. In Illinois and elsewhere, we now produce vast amounts of corn and soybeans that become animal feed or ingredients in processed foods. As a result, the food we eat no longer comes from across the street or state, but from the other side of the country or world. It has typically traveled 1,500 miles or more before it appears on our dinner… Environment, Government 2008-05-29T14:00:01-08:00 http://www.ssireview.org/articles/entry/c_level_diversity/ http://www.ssireview.org/articles/entry/c_level_diversity/ Last September, on the 50th anniversary of the landmark desegregation of Little Rock Central High School, Americans acknowledged how the Little Rock Nine (as the first group of black students came to be called) prompted dramatic changes that would create new opportunities for minorities in the coming decades. Indeed, the face of America has changed dramatically in the last 50 years. Consider the demographics of Houston, for instance, our nation’s fourth largest metropolitan area. Although 55 percent of Houstonians age 50 and older are white, 77 percent of young adults ages 18 to 30 are minority. And demographics are shifting similarly across the United States—except in corporate America’s executive offices, that is. Despite composing 28 percent of the overall U.S. population, African Americans, Hispanics, and Native Americans represent only 14 percent of graduates from leading undergraduate colleges and universities. What’s more, these minorities fill only 6 percent to 7 percent of the fast-track entry-level jobs post-college, 8 percent of the major MBA programs, and 3 percent of senior executive positions at major corporations. Why the Problem Exists Students of color have always prioritized going to college, despite the many obstacles along their path. Still, only 45 percent of minority college… Nonprofit Management, Government 2008-05-29T14:00:01-08:00 http://www.ssireview.org/articles/entry/less_is_more/ http://www.ssireview.org/articles/entry/less_is_more/ The prevailing orthodoxy when it comes to helping the poor has boiled down to a catchphrase: Give adequate resources to those with inadequate resources. In our experience, however, flooding a country with financial aid reduces, and sometimes voids, the incentives to find innovative solutions to overcoming resource constraints. Afghanistan, for instance, has proved a dismal failure in development, despite an investment of some $20 billion in development funds. Sure, the numbers per capita are small, but at the least, people’s living standards should have improved in the capital. But as a group of us recently witnessed, Kabul has no regular electricity (people sleep in temperatures averaging 41 F), sewage runs along open trenches in the city streets, and there is no clean or hot water. Money flows to Afghanistan have also created inflation and distorted the economy. A year ago in Kabul, a decent office cost thousands of dollars per month. A textile entrepreneur we met could not afford to hire a general manager because nongovernmental organizations had inflated salaries. And a local doctor had given up medicine to chauffeur for an embassy—the pay was better. Imaginative Tinkering Works Development efforts dominated by resource-driven thinking caused this situation. They ignored… Economic Development, Government 2008-05-29T14:00:00-08:00 http://www.ssireview.org/articles/entry/a_lot_of_hot_air/ http://www.ssireview.org/articles/entry/a_lot_of_hot_air/ To its residents who still have a sense of smell, Mexico City is redolent with the perfumes of exhaust and ozone. The metropolis’s air pollution levels routinely rocket past the World Health Organization’s maximum limits, leaving people sick in their wake. Vehicles are the most generous contributors to the city’s acrid cloak, chortling forth 99 percent of the carbon monoxide, 81 percent of the nitrogen oxides, and 46 percent of the volatile organic compounds in the atmosphere, according to a Mexican federal report. And so in 1989, the Mexico City government rolled out a new program to get its denizens out of their cars and onto public transportation. The program, called Hoy No Circula, forces most drivers to give up their cars one weekday every week according to the last number of their license plate. For example, people with license plates ending in “5” cannot drive on Fridays. Regardless of what number their license plates end in, many residents seem to manage to drive on all days ending in “y,” finds Lucas W. Davis, an economist at the University of Michigan. In the February 2008 issue of the Journal of Political Economy, Davis shows that air pollution levels have not… Environment, Government 2008-05-29T14:00:00-08:00 http://www.ssireview.org/articles/entry/government_cares_the_most/ http://www.ssireview.org/articles/entry/government_cares_the_most/ In the early 19th century, U.S. local governments built public nursing homes to take care of their elderly residents. But now, 65 percent of nursing homes are for-profit, 28 percent are nonprofit, and a mere 7 percent are public, notes Anna A. Amirkhanyan of the school of public affairs at American University. This drive to privatize is for the worse, suggest her team’s findings in the spring 2008 Journal of Policy Analysis and Management. Their review of 14,423 nursing home inspection reports shows that public nursing homes not only provide better care, but also serve more impoverished clients than do their for-profit and nonprofit counterparts. “Maximizing quality and access is a zero-sum game for nonprofit and for-profit nursing homes,” notes Amirkhanyan. “For-profit ‘Medicaid mills’ have an incentive to offer worse care to more patients,” whereas nonprofit homes offer better care to fewer clients. “But public sector nursing homes seem to maximize both quality and access.” Patricia L. McGinnis, executive director of California Advocates for Nursing Home Reform, explains: “The key to decent care is staffing. Government nursing homes are unionized, and so have higher wages and better benefits. That leads to less staff turnover, more consistency in care, and therefore… Health Care, Government 2008-05-29T14:00:00-08:00 http://www.ssireview.org/articles/entry/the_price_of_going_left/ http://www.ssireview.org/articles/entry/the_price_of_going_left/ A few decades ago, developing countries were either one-party socialist states, absolute monarchies, or military juntas, and so were not privy to the planned chaos of elections. But with the spread of democracy, these countries now regularly enjoy the drama and disruption of voting. Multinational corporations (MNCs) not only watch these elections closely, but also plan their foreign investments according to the elections’ projected outcomes, finds Paul Vaaler, a professor of international business at the University of Minnesota’s Carlson School of Management. He finds that when the political leadership of developing countries seems poised to shift from left to right, MNCs announce more project investments. But when an election seems likely to go to the left, foreign-domiciled MNCs announce fewer investments. “MNCs don’t vote at the ballot box, but they do vote with their dollars,” says Vaaler, summarizing a study he published in the February 2008 Academy of Management Journal. He clarifies, however, that his study does not show that MNCs shape elections. Rather, they respond to them. Vaaler says his study is the first to examine how elections in developing countries influence foreign corporate investment. Traditionally, right-wing policies are more investor-friendly because they favor less inflation, lower taxes, and… Government 2008-05-29T14:00:00-08:00 http://www.ssireview.org/articles/entry/where_nice_is_naughty/ http://www.ssireview.org/articles/entry/where_nice_is_naughty/ With tea leaves still steeping in its harbor, Boston is the cradle of American independence. Yet the students wending through its cobblestone streets are remarkably cooperative, finds a study in the March 7, 2008, issue of Science. Put four Boston students—all strangers—in a game where they must distribute tokens among themselves using rules that reward both selfish and cooperative moves; allow them to punish each other by taking back tokens (albeit at a cost to themselves); and then watch the chips fall. The students not only penalize freeloaders— that is, players who don’t give enough tokens to the group— but also respond to each other’s punishment by giving more to the group in subsequent rounds. So do students in western European countries such as the United Kingdom, Germany, and Denmark. But half a world away, in the more collectivist cultures of Istanbul, Turkey; Riyadh, Saudi Arabia; and Muscat, Oman, the play is a little rougher. Students give less overall to the public weal. And when punished, the freeloaders strike back, exacting revenge from the do-gooders who penalized them in earlier rounds. Closer to home, students in Greece, Russia, and Belarus likewise act less altruistically and more readily ding their cooperative… Government 2008-05-29T14:00:00-08:00 http://www.ssireview.org/articles/entry/praise_the_lord_but_dim_the_lights/ http://www.ssireview.org/articles/entry/praise_the_lord_but_dim_the_lights/ When the Rev. Sally Bingham speaks from the pulpit of Grace Cathedral, a landmark Episcopal church atop San Francisco’s Nob Hill, she’s more likely to preach about saving the Earth than saving souls. Global warming is a moral issue, she tells the faithful: “If you profess a love for God, then you have a responsibility to be a steward of creation.” It’s a lofty message. But it turns out that doing the right thing, spiritually speaking, can be as easy as changing a lightbulb. Congregants at Grace Cathedral and thousands of other houses of worship are putting their good stewardship into practice by monitoring their energy use, installing energy-saving appliances, and even placing solar panels near their steeples. Bingham and her nonprofit organization, the Regeneration Project, have launched the Interfaith Power and Light Campaign, which is gaining converts across the United States – and garnering attention everywhere from Capitol Hill to CNN. The campaign includes 4,000 congregations in 23 state chapters. Starting with their places of worship, Muslims, Jews, Buddhists, and Christians of all denominations are taking deliberate steps to reduce their carbon footprint. “This kind of effort helps us celebrate our common ground,” says Dr.… Environment, Arts, Culture, and Religion, Government 2008-05-02T06:00:00-08:00 http://www.ssireview.org/articles/entry/the_mother_lode/ http://www.ssireview.org/articles/entry/the_mother_lode/ At a recent protest against the use of toxic flame retardants in furniture, a group of mothers burst into a catchy song about chemicals. The tune? “Frère Jacques.” “Moms make great protestors when they can get out,” says Joan Blades, cofounder and president of MomsRising. But mothers are often too busy to demonstrate, even on behalf of issues they care about. Enter MomsRising, a grassroots group that uses the Internet to bring mothers together. MomsRising members advocate for family-friendly policies at the state and national levels, including paid maternity and paternity leave, health care for all kids, flexible work arrangements, affordable child care, and fair wages for mothers. Blades got the idea for MomsRising after cofounding MoveOn.org, the online liberal advocacy group. Although Blades initially had no intention of starting another organization, a research finding caught her eye. “I read the data point that there was a huge wage gap between men and mothers – not between men and women,” she says. Intrigued, she explored the trend and co-authored the book The Motherhood Manifesto with Kristin Rowe-Finkbeiner. Next, Blades sought to partner with a group that was interested in organizing mothers online, much as MoveOn used… Government 2008-04-27T06:00:00-08:00