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

Philanthropy

VolunteerMatch Launches Cool Annual Report

You don’t often see the words “cool” and “annual report” in the same sentence. For the most part nonprofit annual reports are either “compliance documents” or highly polished brochures that donors flip through and then put in the recycling.

But a few nonprofits have been playing with new formats for annual reports that help donors better understand their organization. The key to an annual report being useful and compelling for a donor is that the report... (continue reading this blog post)

Social Innovations

Information Overload, Action Deficit

Have you ever felt overwhelmed by information? Then you’d appreciate this quote:

"...the [Gulf] oil spill is truly a metaphor for our Information Age: a time when raw and live data gushes over us without any filter, but instead of informing and guiding action, it simply pollutes the infosphere and leaves us transfixed and dazed".

My friend and social innovator, Kavitha Kannan, emailed me this quote recently. She found it on Personal Democracy TechPresident blog @ The Oil Spill as Metaphor for Our Times .

Let’s not focus on the obvious fact that the Internet has given us access to information and knowledge in remarkable and once unimaginable quantities. It’s true, but what’s seems particularly concerning... (continue reading this blog post)

Nonprofits

It’s Not about Apple - It’s about Community

There's been some interesting discussion about Apple, donations and This American Life's iPhone application lately that I want to touch on. Not because I'm really all that invested in either pro- or anti- Apple camp, and not because I love This American Life (which I do - and yes, I have donated). It's because this is another example of how our tools are defining community. (Last month's post focused on that topic using Causes, Ideablob and Ning as references for the conversation.) Let's start at the beginning...

A recent conversation sparked on the Ars Technica blog focused on the use of push-notifications by the This American Life application on iPhones... (continue reading this blog post)

Social Innovations

Connectivity for Youth

This week, I met Professor Iqbal Quadir, the founder of Grameenphone, at Net Change—a week-long event in Toronto that explores the exciting intersection between technology and social change. Professor Quadir’s well-known quip, “connectivity is productivity” is perhaps most relevant to youth in developing countries because they are early adopters of technology. Connectivity has great potential for promoting youth education, entrepreneurship and social innovation.

From Nairobi to Dakar to the West Bank, young people have grasped the power of connectivity. They are adept at using mobile phones... (continue reading this blog post)

Social Innovations

New Frontiers of Financial Inclusion in Africa

Will mobile telephones become the new super highway to connect the poor to the financial grid? Africa has the world’s fastest-growing mobile communications market with 350 million mobile phone subscriptions. Yet, only one in five households has access to financial services. New mobile-enabled services could push the frontiers of financial inclusion and be a win for the region’s development agenda... (continue reading this blog post)

Nonprofits

Four Ways to Create a Successful Nonprofit Career Path

In most industries, there’s a clear path to leadership positions in your organization. In many companies, you might start out as an assistant, then get promoted to manager, then director, then VP, then senior VP, then hopefully one day the President if you have the ambition to be so. We love to read stories like that of Ursula Burns, the new CEO of Xerox who first came to the company as a summer intern... (continue reading this blog post)

Social Innovations

Micro-multinationals Rising

Social media are enabling a new kind of social enterprise: micro-multinational companies. They're small, Web-wired startups that are using social media to find, then recruit, the best new talent from around the globe and leverage it for immediate innovation, impact and sustainability. Unlike traditionally large, multinational companies, micro-multinationals are new digital startups that are global by virtue of the development teams they’ve hired from around the world... (continue reading this blog post)

Nonprofits

How Our Tools Define “Community”

I've talked about issues and ideas over the last year about the use of certain tools or platforms in the social technology for social impact sector, from Causes to Ideablob to Ning. These conversations have moved through a version of the stages of grief: outrage, doubt, fear, wonder. We're now, as a community, emerging into a great place and ready to figure out what we do now... (continue reading this blog post)

Social Innovations

TEDxVolcano: Stranded in London

Cara Mertes, the director of the Sundance Institute's documentary film program, called it the first "flash forum" she'd ever attended. Truth is, last night's TEDxVolcano gathering was the first such instant event that any of us had ever attended -- a little over two hours of short talks, film clips and music that had been pulled together (crowdsourced) spontaneously by blogger Nathaniel Whittemore and several other cause-wired souls for the hundreds of Skoll World Forum attendees stranded in London... (continue reading this blog post)

Social Innovations

Five People You Should Be Following on Twitter

Taking a page from Chris Brogan’s book, today I’m highlighting a few awesome people on Twitter that I think all you dear readers would benefit from following. Consider these my “Follow Friday” recommendations for the week as is the tradition on Twitter. Wait, you’re still not on Twitter yet? For shame! If you’re not tweeting yet, read my Twitter 101 guide and make these folks the first people you follow... (continue reading this blog post)