Center for Social Innovation

Over the last two years, our team at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government’s Ash Center for Democratic Governance and Innovation has interviewed about 100 leading social entrepreneurs and thinkers from philanthropy and city government. We are hoping to discover better ways to make social change. Specifically, we want answers to two questions: How can social entrepreneurs catalyze transformative results in public systems such as education? And how can innovation enhance existing social programs and networks of families, neighbors, and peers so as to better people’s lives?

We studied these entrepreneurs’ past successes; public and social sectors have long intersected to good effect. Government delivers almost all of its social services for homelessness, domestic violence, and drug and alcohol counseling through nonprofit organizations; the Corporation for ... Read more