Center for Social Innovation

More than Beans

Stanford Social Innovation Review: Spring 2011

Sustainable Harvest grows a new supply chain.

Resource: Stanford Social Innovation Review Article

Topic :

Positive Distraction Workforce

Stanford Social Innovation Review: Spring 2011

Habitat International has grown its bottom line using a largely disabled workforce.

Resource: Stanford Social Innovation Review Article

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Research: One Villager, One Vote

Stanford Social Innovation Review: Winter 2011

Direct participation by African villagers proves that process matters, even when outcomes don’t change.

Work-Life Balance: Men Want It, Too

Resource: Stanford Social Innovation Review Article

Topic :

Business, Nonprofits, Social Policy, Human Rights, Leadership, Nonprofit Management

The pay gap is narrowing between men and women in the workplace as is the percent of time men and women spend on family duties, but workplace policies have not caught up with these new realities, Professor Myra Strober says in an essay in U.S. Banker.

Resource: News Article

Topic :

Government, Healthcare, Human Rights

Medical Supply Chain Aids Haitian Quake Victims

When Paul Auerbach arrived in Haiti, after the January 2010 earthquake, he faced a sea of death and misery the likes of which he'd never seen. A member of Stanford Emergency Medicine's rapid response team under the auspices of International Medical Corps, Auerbach, Sloan '89, eventually assumed the role of lead physician coordinating the medical and logistical efforts of teams from around the globe.

Resource: News Article

Topic :

Economic Development, Education, Human Rights, Leadership, Social Entrepreneurship

An Academy for All Africa: Stanford Magazine

Troubled by the fact that an estimated 20,000 educated professionals leave Africa every year, Fred Swaniker, MBA '04 and Chris Bradford, MBA '05 founded the African Leadership Academy in Johannsburg, a secondary school they hope will help change the face of the continent.

Resource: News Article

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SEIU Head Urges Unions "Join Today’s Economic Revolution"

"No single generation has ever witnessed so much change in a lifetime," SEIU President Andy Stern told a Business School audience, and unions must be part of that change.

Resource: News Article

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Economic Development, Human Rights

What’s in Your Cup? On a Study Trip to Guatemala, Students Sample the Socioeconomics of Coffee

Blythe Yee, MBA '09, recalls a service learning trip she and her classmates took to examine the coffee market in Guatemala, where organic and Fair Trade coffee are becoming the future of the industry as more and more people look for sustainable and humane ways to enjoy their morning brew.

Resource: News Article

Topic :

Human Rights, Nonprofit Management

What’s Next: Stopping Child Porn

Stanford Social Innovation Review: Winter 2011

Computer imaging technology gets put to work to fight child porn fast—five-millisecond-fast.

Human Rights, Nonprofit Management

Resource: Stanford Social Innovation Review Article

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The Power of Many

Stanford Social Innovation Review: Winter 2011

The Tahirih Justice Center multiplies its impact by creatively using pro bono attorneys.

Resource: Stanford Social Innovation Review Article

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Research: Can’t Buy Me Laughter

Stanford Social Innovation Review: Winter 2011

While more money may translate to a higher valuation of oneself, when it comes to happiness, money is no indicator.

Global Issues, Nonprofits, Human Rights, Social Entrepreneurship

Resource: Stanford Social Innovation Review Article

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What’s Next: Drowning Out Hate

Stanford Social Innovation Review: Fall 2010

Throughout history, acts of hatred have plagued communities and dominated media attention. The website Not In Our Town is working to combat that by broadcasting anti-hate stories and campaigns.

Lessons from an Organizer

Resource: Stanford Social Innovation Review Article

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Global Issues, Nonprofits, Human Rights

Stanford Social Innovation Review: Summer 2010

CREATIVE COMMUNITY ORGANIZING: A Guide for Rabble-Rousers, Activists, and Quiet Lovers of Justice by Si Kahn

Resource: Stanford Social Innovation Review Article

Topic :

Peep Show

Expect a battle between a cause-wired citizenry and governments that want to block the free flow of information.

Resource: Blog Post

Topic :

Economic Development, Human Rights

Censorship.org

Governments are banning the digital flow of information on human rights abuses.

Resource: Blog Post

Video/Audio : All | Audio | Video

Topic:

Empowering Women in Latin America

One of the best methods proven to alleviate poverty is microlending to women, who have a great track record for using loans wisely to create small business enterprises that sustain their entire families. Host of the Center for Social Innovation at Stanford, Lynne Patterson talks about the creation of Pro Mujer, an international microfinance and women's development network in Latin America. She details the mission, objectives, methods, and progress, illuminating the organization's empowering impact on the lives of its many clients.

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Resource: Audio

Topic:

Education, Human Rights, Social Entrepreneurship

Creating Hope for Afghan Women

During turbulence and social upheaval most people retreat into themselves and focus on only one task--survival. Fortunately for the women and children of Afghanistan, Sakena Yacoobi did more. With only $20,000, Yacoobi formed what is now the Afghan Institute of Learning (AIL). Until the fall of the Taliban in 2001, AIL operated underground. AIL now serves 350,000 women and children each year. Yacoobi explains her vision for AIL to Design for Change host Sheela Sethuraman as well as her incredible journey and experiences along the way.

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Resource: Audio

Topic:

Business Preparedness Lessons from Katrina

When Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans, Stuart Smolkin's conveyor belt manufacturing company, Intralox, had no disaster plan in place. The company had to deal with the disruption of electricity, phones, and computer systems in order to organize evacuated employees into recovery teams. How did Intralox get running again in a mere 30 days? In this Stanford podcast, Smolkin offers lessons on preparedness for businesses faced with disruption.

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Resource: Audio

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Nike Efforts to Empower Young Girls

Nike has taken pains to clean up its act since the media brought public attention to human rights violations in its supplier factories in the 1990s. Through the Nike Foundation, the sports and fitness giant is taking a proactive approach to some of the world's most challenging social problems. In this audio lecture, Nike Foundation president Maria Eitel talks to a Stanford MBA audience about how the organization is focusing on creating economic opportunities for adolescent girls around the world as a means of alleviating poverty.

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Resource: Audio

Topic:

Corporate Social Responsibility, Economic Development, Human Rights

Fighting Corruption at Every Level

Many countries that should be thriving are dragged into poverty and strife by the burden of corruption. The loss goes far beyond the sums that change hands dishonestly; the true price must take the ensuing opportunity costs into account. In this audio lecture, Peter Eigen describes strategies that can be used by companies, governments, and citizens to break the cycle of corruption and lift themselves to more efficient, fair, and honest dealings.

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Resource: Audio

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Stanford's South Africa Service Learning Trip, 2008-4

Always Staying Informed: For Logan Deans, MBA '09, seeing the generation that went through apartheid gave him a sense of its dedication to learning and to always staying informed.

Resource: Video

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Stanford's South Africa Service Learning Trip, 2008-3

Strong Reaction to Apartheid: During the trip to South Africa, the most striking thing for Tsai, a native of Taiwan, was the legacy of apartheid.

Resource: Video

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Stanford's South Africa Service Learning Trip, 2008-2

Students Helped Each Other Out: It wasn't all smooth sailing on the trip. When Tsai lost her luggage her classmates stepped in to help out.

Resource: Video

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Stanford's South Africa Service Learning Trip, 2008-1

South Africa Brought Students Closer: Pamela Tsai, Class of '09, and other Stanford students met with entrepreneurs in South Africa. The trip brought a closer bond between the MBAs, an experience that "felt like a big family traveling together."

Resource: Video

Topic:

Corporate Social Responsibility, Economic Development, Human Rights

International Coffee Markets - Panel Discussion

Over 125 million people rely on coffee for their livelihood. What are Starbucks and the Fair Trade certification doing to help them out of the coffee crisis? This panel describes the mechanics of the global coffee crisis and explores strategies to address sustainability issues.

Resource: Video

Topic:

Economic Development, Human Rights, Nonprofit Management

Fostering Entrepreneurship in New Orleans

The Idea Village was launched in New Orleans by "five guys who wanted to change the world." The more modest goal of these entrepreneurs was to revitalize the city economically--a mission that became especially important when Hurricane Katrina hit in 2005. In this audio lecture, sponsored by the Stanford Center for Social Innovation, Tim Williamson shares how his nonprofit has been helping rebuild the devastated city economically, and the progress inspired through a powerful network of talented individuals.

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Resource: Audio

Topic:

Say What You Think, Then Take Action

San Francisco's young and charismatic mayor, Gavin Newsom, has suffered his share of punches for taking bold positions on controversial issues. In this Stanford Center for Social Innovation sponsored audio lecture, Newsom tells of the courage and persistence it takes to make real social change as a leader. He outlines progressive reforms in areas such as education, health care, and business, and reflects on the personal and professional price paid for supporting one particularly contentious issue: gay marriage.

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Resource: Audio

Topic:

Economic Development, Healthcare, Human Rights

Scaling Up Health Care in Rwanda

AIDS, malaria, and maternal mortality are some of the chronic public health issues that plague Africa. Invited to Stanford, Paul Farmer talks about how his Boston-based organization, Partners In Health, is spending donor dollars to bring the lessons garnered from its work in Haiti to scale up health care services in war-torn Rwanda. As dicussed in this audio lecture, his organization seeks to fill the gap that exists between medical R&D and health care delivery so preventions and cures can be brought to more of the people who need them.

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Resource: Audio

Topic:

Economic Development, Human Rights

Empowering Women in Latin America

One of the best methods proven to alleviate poverty is microlending to women, who have a great track record for using loans wisely to create small business enterprises that sustain their entire families. Host of the Center for Social Innovation at Stanford, Lynne Patterson talks about the creation of Pro Mujer, an international microfinance and women's development network in Latin America. She details the mission, objectives, methods, and progress, illuminating the organization's empowering impact on the lives of its many clients.

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Resource: Audio

Topic:

Education, Human Rights, Social Entrepreneurship

Creating Hope for Afghan Women

During turbulence and social upheaval most people retreat into themselves and focus on only one task--survival. Fortunately for the women and children of Afghanistan, Sakena Yacoobi did more. With only $20,000, Yacoobi formed what is now the Afghan Institute of Learning (AIL). Until the fall of the Taliban in 2001, AIL operated underground. AIL now serves 350,000 women and children each year. Yacoobi explains her vision for AIL to Design for Change host Sheela Sethuraman as well as her incredible journey and experiences along the way.

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Resource: Audio

Case Studies : All | Academic Cases

No Results Found

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Monitoring Factories Around the Globe: The Fair Labor Association and the Worker Rights Consortium

Two nonprofits, the Fair Labor Association (FLA) and the Worker Rights Consortium (WRC), were created in 1999 and 2000, respectively, to monitor factories around the world for sweatshop-related infractions. The two organizations had similar goals, but very different histories, strategies, and ways of operating. Their shared history has been controversial and tumultuous.

Resource: Academic Case

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Dr. Frances Conley (A): The Resignation, (B): The Return

In 1991, Frances Conley, the first female, tenured full professor of neurosurgery in the United States, resigned from her position at Stanford Medical School over the appointment of a new department chair who was known for sexual harassment. As she becomes thrust into the media limelight, she wonders what she should do next.

Resource: Academic Case

Topics:

Economic Development, Human Rights, Nonprofit Management, Philanthropy, Responsible Investing

Global Fund for Women

The CEO of the Global Fund for Women, an organization that seeds and supports women’s rights groups, must examine how to guide the fund’s growth without having it lose its connections with donors and grantees. She also wonders how the fund could do better at assessing grant outcomes and sharing success stories.

Resource: Academic Case

Topics:

Human Rights, Philanthropy, Responsible Investing

The September 11th Fund

The September 11th Fund was created to support the short- and long-term needs of the people and communities affected by the World Trade Center tragedy. Many foundation leaders evaluated the difficult lessons learned in interacting with the media, and wondered how they could better use communication strategies to demonstrate their accountability.

Resource: Academic Case

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Mobil in Aceh, Indonesia (A) & (B)

In 1998, the chief executive of Mobil in Indonesia considered how he should respond to allegations that Mobil had been complicit in human rights abuses. The cases reflect on the challenges of managing operations in a place like Aceh.

Resource: Academic Case

Topics:

Environment, Human Rights

The World Trade Organization and the Seattle Talks

In 1999, the World Trade Organization talks in Seattle were sidelined by people protesting against the organization and issues of free trade. The case describes the nature of the protests, and the WTO’s dispute resolution process.

Resource: Academic Case

Topics:

Environment, Human Rights

Gordon Biersch Vignettes

The case offers a view into day-to-day management issues faced by entrepreneurs managing a growing business. The focus is the Gordon Biersch Brewing Company, which had to address a sexual harassment lawsuit and other ethical dilemmas.

Resource: Academic Case

Topic :

The World Trade Organization and the Seattle Talks

In 1999, the World Trade Organization talks in Seattle were sidelined by people protesting against the organization and issues of free trade. The case describes the nature of the protests, and the WTO’s dispute resolution process.

Resource: Academic Case

Topic :

Gordon Biersch Vignettes

The case offers a view into day-to-day management issues faced by entrepreneurs managing a growing business. The focus is the Gordon Biersch Brewing Company, which had to address a sexual harassment lawsuit and other ethical dilemmas.

Resource: Academic Case

Research Papers : All

Topics:

Feminist Theory and Critical Theory: Unexplored Synergies

Although both feminist theory and critical theory focus on social and economic inequalities, and both have an agenda of promoting system change, these fields of inquiry have developed separately and seldom draw on each other's work. This paper argues that synergies between these two fields could, and should, be explored.

Resource: Research Paper

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Protest and Policymaking: Explaining Fluctuation in Congressional Attention to Rights Issues, 1960-1986

The authors reexamine the relationship between protest and policy change at the agenda-setting stage of policymaking. They find that protest, issue legitimacy, and issue competition account for variation in the number of congressional hearings granted to rights issues.

Resource: Research Paper

Topics:

Corporate Social Responsibility, Government, Human Rights

Reputation When Threats and Transfers Are Available

The authors present a model where a long-run player uses money transfers and threats to influence the decisions of a sequence of short-run players. The model is useful for the debate around judicial corruption.

Resource: Research Paper

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Racial Stereotypes Can Be Unconscious but Reversible

Negative stereotypes about various racial groups bombard us every day in the mass media and deposit their residue deep into our minds, often without our realizing it, says Brian Lowery.

Resource: Research Paper

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Women and Power: Conformity, Resistance, and Disorganized Co-Action

The paper examines micro-processes that undermine the formal power of high-ranking women in a male-dominated organization. It shows how the capacity of these women to reduce systemic causes of gender inequality is therefore more limited than it might appear.

Resource: Research Paper

Courses : All

Topic :

The Quest for Happiness Exploring the Psychology of Human Fulfillment: OB 552

In this seminar, we explore the nature of human happiness from psychological perspectives, and how such knowledge can be applied in personal and business contexts. To illustrate the ideas discussed, we examine in detail a number of fascinating individuals, including Bill Gates, Warren Buffet, Oprah Winfrey, venture capitalist Tom Perkins, Steven Spielberg, Martha Stewart, and the Nobel physicist Richard Feynman.

Resource: MBA Course

Topic :

Women in Organizations: OB 387

This course focuses on women's working experiences in managerial and professional positions in business and some nonprofit organizations. Using business cases, small group work, videos, lectures, and class discussions, we examine a wide variety of career-related gender issues.

Resource: MBA Course

Topic :

Entrepreneurship from the Perspective of Women: STRAMGT 508

This seminar will showcase successful women entrepreneurs and the challenges they encountered on the paths to success such as finding funding, dealing with different communication styles, and balancing work and lifestyle.

Seminar participants will study mini-cases, engage in panel discussions and hear from experienced entrepreneurs.

Resource: MBA Course

Innovators : All

Topic :

Arts, Culture, and Religion, Corporate Social Responsibility, Economic Development, Education, Human Rights, Social Entrepreneurship

An interview with Dave DeForest-Stalls (EPNL '07)

Dave DeForest-Stalls wants to help kids stay out of gangs. He's providing mentorship and hip ways to keep youth on the straight and narrow.

Resource: CSI Affiliates

Topic :

Economic Development, Human Rights, Nonprofit Management, Social Entrepreneurship

An interview with Federico Lozano (MBA '09)

Federico Lozano is working to alleviate poverty by connecting poor, semi-skilled laborers from the developing world with jobs in the developed world.

Resource: Fellow

Topic :

Corporate Social Responsibility, Economic Development, Education, Human Rights, Nonprofit Management, Philanthropy, Responsible Investing, Social Entrepreneurship

An interview with Daniel Grossman

Daniel Grossman's Wild Planet creates toys that parents love as much as kids. His aim is to inspire learning and inventiveness.

Resource: Alumni

Topic :

Human Rights, Philanthropy, Responsible Investing

Gloria Steinem at Stanford: The Feminist Struggle Continues

Author and activist Gloria Steinem challenged a Stanford audience to fight social injustice with outrageous acts, and offered several targets in the struggle for equal rights.

Resource: Video

Topic :

Research: The Emotions of Aid

Stanford Social Innovation Review: Summer 2011

“One death is a tragedy; 1 million is a statistic,” Joseph Stalin is supposed to have said. The more people we see suffering, the less we care.