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Center for Social Innovation

Nonprofit Management

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The recession should be spurring nonprofits, giving organizations and individual givers to regroup and find innovative ways to address urgent social and global needs that only are getting worse because of the growing economic crisis. Foundations are creatively adjusting to the current economic crisis.

Resource: Blog Post

The giving sector, especially in the face of the continuing economic crisis, needs to retool its model for charitable giving and fundraising. Nonprofits, for example, should start looking at building social media into their overall fundraising and communication strategies. Often reluctant to move beyond traditional strategies, whether or not those actually produce positive results, nonprofits should look at social-media tools that are changing the way people communicate, connect and spur one another to action.

Resource: Blog Post

Unionizing charter-school teachers brings to light the ever-present income inequity that takes place within the nonprofit sector. The Nonprofiteer firmly believes that charter schools–like other nonprofits–are the most fertile territory for union organizing, and she’s not surprised to see that organizing professionals have figured that fact out as well. Combine the relative immobility of most nonprofits–the Art Institute of Chicago won’t pick up stakes and move to Singapore–with their routine underpayment and general exploitation of their employees, and it shouldn’t be a surprise when the union comes to call.

Resource: Blog Post

An interview with Gavin Glabaugh, long-time IT guru at the Charles Stuart Mott Foundation, gives incite on where nonprofits have been and where we’re going in terms of using technology.

Resource: Blog Post

Foundations can do much more to address the economic crisis and the human toll it is taking. Instead of hoarding their assets so they can perpetuate their wealth and their power, foundation boards should be voting to pay out more in assets and better fulfilling their governance role by taking a more active role as shareholders. Foundations should be putting all their assets, including those they pay out and those they invest in the capital markets, to more productive use to address the critical and escalating social and global problems we face.

Resource: Blog Post

What inspires people to act selflessly, help others, and make personal sacrifices? Unusual acts of kindness—like giving something away to someone you don’t even know and getting nothing in return—happens numerous times every day, in the form of blood donation, providing online reviews, and so on. In each case, someone provides a useful good, service, or bit of advice free of charge. In academic circles, this type of giving is referred as “generalized exchange.” Generalized exchange stands in contrast to “direct exchange,” in which payments are made or reciprocity is expected. Professor Frank Flynn and colleagues, Robb Willer and Sonya Zak, looked at these unusual acts of kindness and examined whether generalized exchange systems can create more solidarity than direct exchange systems.

Resource: News Article
[photo - Recycle]

Recycling programs abound, but people are often lackadaisical about putting plastic, paper, glass, and metal into those bins. How can we get more people to recycle? An intervention recently conducted in Canada is pointing the way, and the message is all about ... well, the messaging.

Resource: News Article
[photo - Guilt]

Stanford GSB researchers find that how people respond to mistakes can be a "clue to who they are.”

Resource: News Article
[photo - Jennifer Aaker]

GSB Marketing Professor Jennifer Aaker says social media can help for-profits, nonprofits, and government organizations address a deficit of trust in our current culture.

Resource: News Article

As Japan shifts from disaster relief to rebuilding, GSB alumni see opportunities for change and renewal.

Resource: News Article
Stanford Social Innovation Review: Summer 2008

From the Girl Scouts to Partners In Health to the city of Providence, R.I., great organizations have one thing in common: great managers. These managers, in turn, share four simple management principles that they use to guide organizations from mere mediocrity to stand-out stardom. —By Mark Gottfredson, Steve Schaubert, & Elisabeth Babcock

Resource: Stanford Social Innovation Review Article
Stanford Social Innovation Review: Summer 2008

Would-be EDs cite inadequate mentoring, low pay, and poor lifestyle as career obstacles.

Resource: Stanford Social Innovation Review Article
Stanford Social Innovation Review: Spring 2008

The most trusted employees cash in on lax internal controls to fleece nonprofits.

Resource: Stanford Social Innovation Review Article
Stanford Social Innovation Review: Spring 2008

When the Salk polio vaccine proved to be effective in 1955, the National Foundation for Infantile Paralysis had to choose whether to close up shop or to pursue a new agenda. The foundation first broadened its mission, but lost donations, volunteers, and public support. After honing its mission to birth defects, however, it recovered. Here’s how the organization that eventually became the March of Dimes planned—and survived—its transitions. —By Georgette Baghdady & Joanne M. Maddock

Resource: Stanford Social Innovation Review Article
Stanford Social Innovation Review: Spring 2008

Management wisdom says that nonprofits must be large and in charge to do the most good. But some of the world’s most successful organizations instead stay small, sharing their load with like-minded, long-term partners. The success of these networked nonprofits suggests that organizations should focus less on growing themselves and more on cultivating their networks. By Jane Wei-Skillern & Sonia Marciano

Resource: Stanford Social Innovation Review Article

Three nonprofit mental health and substance abuse agencies in Hawaii consolidate

Resource: Blog Post

Doing good is not the same as giving something away for free.

Resource: Blog Post

Collaboration among nonprofits could save money.

Resource: Blog Post

In picking board members, first figure out what you want out of them.

Resource: Blog Post

Nonprofits and givers need to drop their sense of entitlement. 

Resource: Blog Post
Video/Audio : All | Audio | Video
[photo - Sal Giambanco]

Attracting, engaging, and retaining the right talent is key to successful nonprofit management. In this audio lecture from the Stanford Social Innovation Review’s Nonprofit Management Institute, Omidyar Network partner Sal Giambanco discusses how a nonprofit can build a strong team to reach its organization’s core objectives. He shares specific approaches to building a talent pipeline and maximizing productivity to enrich a nonprofit’s management strategy.

Resource: Audio
[photo - Akaya Windwood]

In an increasingly polarized and complex world, leaders can no longer afford to work in isolation. In this audio lecture from the Stanford Social Innovation Review’s Nonprofit Management Institute, Rockwood Leadership Institute president Akaya Windwood discusses how we can get our movements and sectors to work together to advance the common good. Windwood discusses specific tools that we can utilize to build communities of interconnected leaders in order to make social movements more effective.

Resource: Audio
[photo - Tina Seelig]

Creativity often feels like a mystery. Struggling to unleash our creative potential can sometimes hinder us on the path to social innovation. In this audio lecture from Stanford Social Innovation Review’s Nonprofit Management Institute, Stanford Professor Tina Seelig discusses the tools and conditions each of us has that allow us to increase our creativity—our own, our team’s and our organization’s. She shares specific approaches to rethinking questions and reframing problems to unlock the path to innovation.

Resource: Audio
[photo - Lucy Bernholz]

What is a “social economy” and how is it affecting leaders in nonprofit management? In this audio lecture from Stanford Social Innovation Review’s Nonprofit Management Institute, Lucy Bernholz and Rob Reich, thought leaders in philanthropy and technology, describe what the social economy is and how it came about, the changes it has sparked, and the implications for how nonprofits are run.

Resource: Audio
[photo - Heather McLeod Grant]

Can smaller and local nonprofit organizations still have major impact? In this audio lecture from Stanford Social Innovation Review’s Nonprofit Management Institute, Heather McLeod Grant, senior consultant at the Monitor Institute and co-author of Forces for Good, shares successful strategies of high-impact nonprofits and how small and local nonprofits can apply them.

Resource: Audio
[Video-Remedying Group Disparities in School Achievement]

Inequalities between socially marginalized and non-marginalized groups have led to poorer school and health outcomes for African Americans, Latino Americans, and other non-Asian ethnic minorities. Although many structural factors contribute to these inequalities, this study examines one psychological factor: concern about social belonging — a sense of having positive relationships with others. 

Resource: Video
[Video-A Behavioral Science Perspective on Why People Vote]

The investigation into what messaging motivates people to vote and the effectiveness of facilitating a voting plan during a presidential election.

Resource: Video
[Video-The Effectiveness of Message Framing to Influence Behavior]

Most observers agree that human consumption is on a crash course with the environment. Although recycling programs have been implemented in many cities around the world, people often do not participate as often as they could. This research examines the effectiveness of messages that highlight the negative consequences of not recycling (loss frames) versus those that emphasize the positive consequences of recycling (gain frames) in influencing people's behavior.

Resource: Video
[Video-Using People's Irrationality To Do Good]

Identifying effective obesity treatment is both a clinical challenge and a public health priority. Can monetary incentives stimulate weight loss? Leslie John presents a study that examines different economic incentives for weight loss during a 16 week intervention.

Resource: Video
[Video-Know Your Sector]

Nonprofits in the U.S. generate $1.1 trillion every year, which is more than the entire economies of Saudi Arabia and Sweden combined. "Know Your Sector", a video created  by alum Ben Klasky (MBA '98), is intended as a resource for nonprofit employees, volunteers, and donors to better know the impact of their sector.

Resource: Video
[photo - Barak Ben-Gal, Peter Fortenbaugh, Heidi Krauel]
Do you want to have a measurable social impact without giving up a challenging and rewarding career path? Speakers provide a range of perspectives on high-quality jobs in the nonprofit sector. The panel discussion, from Bridging the Gap, the Stanford 2005 Net Impact Conference organized by the Stanford Graduate School of Business, dispels the myth that MBAs going into nonprofits can't have successful, high-profile careers.
Resource: Audio
[photo - Rick Aubry, David Bonbright, Paul Brest]
Measuring the social impact created by philanthropic projects has forever been the nonprofit sector's philosopher's stone. This panel discussion, at the Stanford 2005 Net Impact Conference sponsored by the Stanford Graduate School of Business, highlights innovative examples of measurement systems and explores some of the complex problems that arise when attempting to apply metrics to social impact.
Resource: Audio
[photo - Kyle Zimmer, Kathy Franklin]

The corporate world is oftentimes approached for favors, but very few evolve into mutually beneficial alliances between nonprofits and private-sector companies. As described in this audio lecture, First Book's Kyle Zimmer and Disney executive Kathy Franklin explain what it takes to build a successful long-term strategic relationship.

Resource: Audio
[photo - Cheryl Dorsey]

In the early 1990s, Cheryl Dorsey got a fellowship from Echoing Green to launch the Family Van, a community-based mobile health unit that provides basic medical and outreach services to at-risk residents of inner-city Boston neighborhoods. Now president of Echoing Green, Dorsey talks with Globeshakers host Tim Zak in an audio interview about the challenge of building on the impressive track record of one of the world's leading investors and supporters of worldwide social change.

Resource: Audio
[Video-The Next Social Leaders]

Social entrepreneur veteran Laura Scher and more recent entrants, Kirsten Gagnaire and Jenny Shilling Stein, offer advice on what it takes to create a successful for-profit or nonprofit organization with a social purpose. 

Resource: Video
Case Studies : All | Academic Cases

Commissioned by KaBOOM! and authored by Katherine Fulton and alumna Heather McLeod Grant of the Monitor Institute, this case study looks at the challenges KaBOOM! faced and lessons the organization learned while pioneering an online strategy to scale its impact. This strategy involves giving away the nonprofit model online for free to empower others to act on KaBoom's behalf.

Resource: Practitioner Case
[photo - William P. Barnett]

The Wild Salmon Center was created to provide anglers access to excellent fishing in return for funding research and conservation. The case discusses the Center’s efforts to protect the pristine watersheds of the Kamchatka Peninsula by developing ecotourism to raise funds for conservation.

Resource: Academic Case

John Goldman established the South Peninsula Jewish Community Teen Foundation in 2003, an innovative program that teaches Bay Area Jewish teens to run their own charitable foundation by developing mission statements, raising money, and distributing funds. As of 2009, the program has scaled to four chapters and raised and distributed $178,321 in funds. 

Resource: Academic Case

This case details the Tipping Point Community's attempts to quantify and grow its impact on poverty in local communities; while it was raising more than $14 million for organizations, it was still struggling to improve performance and outcomes. 

Resource: Academic Case

This case study presents new evidence on the power of social media for social good, using the example of Sameer Bhatia, whose friends created a website to help him find a bone barrow match to fight leukemia. 

 

Resource: Academic Case
[photo - Walter W. Powell]

Four years after HOPE Services merged with the Skills Center, everyone considered the merger a success. But as with most for-profit and nonprofit mergers, the change was not without its costs and challenges.

Resource: Academic Case
[photo - Hayagreeva Rao]

In December 2004, the president of the Institute for Healthcare Improvement challenged U.S. hospitals to reduce unnecessary deaths by 100,000 in the next 18 months. The case describes a campaign that incorporated lessons from politics and social activism.

Resource: Academic Case
[photo - Jesper B. Sorensen]

As Green as It Gets was a nonprofit economic development organization supporting small, independent producers in disadvantaged Guatemalan communities. The founder pondered how to grow and sustain the organization.

Resource: Academic Case
[photo - William F. Meehan III]

The best nonprofits don’t necessarily get the most money, observed William and Flora Hewlett Foundation's Philanthropy Program officer Jacob Harold and president Paul Brest in 2007. From there they started exploring how they could improve the marketplace and how donors give their money. To that effect they hired consulting firm McKinsey & Company to explore the online information marketplace for giving space at a macro level, looking at trends and opportunities. Armed with data they then tried to figure out what to do.

Resource: Academic Case
[photo - Garth Saloner]

Endeavor selects promising entrepreneurs and helps them develop and grow their businesses through mentorship and guidance. In 2007, founder and CEO Linda Rottenberg looked at the organization's expansion strategy.

Resource: Academic Case
[photo - Hau L. Lee]

Riders for Health is a U.K.-based nonprofit dedicated to the improvement of transportation systems for health workers in Africa. In 2007, after 11 years in existence, the organization was at a critical point and had to decide what strategies were necessary to expand.

Resource: Academic Case

Commissioned by KaBOOM! and authored by Katherine Fulton and alumna Heather McLeod Grant of the Monitor Institute, this case study looks at the challenges KaBOOM! faced and lessons the organization learned while pioneering an online strategy to scale its impact. This strategy involves giving away the nonprofit model online for free to empower others to act on KaBoom's behalf.

Resource: Practitioner Case
[photo - William P. Barnett]

The Wild Salmon Center was created to provide anglers access to excellent fishing in return for funding research and conservation. The case discusses the Center’s efforts to protect the pristine watersheds of the Kamchatka Peninsula by developing ecotourism to raise funds for conservation.

Resource: Academic Case

John Goldman established the South Peninsula Jewish Community Teen Foundation in 2003, an innovative program that teaches Bay Area Jewish teens to run their own charitable foundation by developing mission statements, raising money, and distributing funds. As of 2009, the program has scaled to four chapters and raised and distributed $178,321 in funds. 

Resource: Academic Case

This case details the Tipping Point Community's attempts to quantify and grow its impact on poverty in local communities; while it was raising more than $14 million for organizations, it was still struggling to improve performance and outcomes. 

Resource: Academic Case

This case study presents new evidence on the power of social media for social good, using the example of Sameer Bhatia, whose friends created a website to help him find a bone barrow match to fight leukemia. 

 

Resource: Academic Case
Research Papers : All
[photo - Ask for help]

How can a certain kind of behavior actually contributes to inequalities? Specifically, do children’s social-class backgrounds affect when and how they seek help in the classroom, thereby teasing out children’s own role in educational stratification? We consider how teachers may use such information to correct these dynamics, and thus contribute to more equal access for all children at school.

Resource: Research Paper

When it comes to gift giving, most people are simply not paying enough attention to what others want says Professor Frank Flynn. They miss the boat by ignoring direct requests, wrongly assuming that going a different route will be seen as more thoughtful than something the recipient specifically requested.

Resource: Research Paper

To determine whether profit status is associated with differences in hospital days per patient, an outcome that may also be influenced by provider financial goals.

Resource: Research Paper

Self-regulation is the private provision of public goods and private redistribution. This paper examines the scope of self-regulation motivated by altruistic moral preferences that are reciprocal and stronger the closer are citizens in a socioeconomic distance.

Resource: Research Paper
[photo - baron]

Social pressure plays a major role in determining corporate strategy and performance according to an award-winning paper coauthored by Professor David Baron. The researchers find that social pressure and social performance reinforce each other, greater social pressure is associated with lower financial performance, and financial and social performance are largely unrelated.

Resource: Research Paper
Courses : All
[photo - William Meehan]

This course surveys strategic, governance, and management issues facing a wide range of nonprofit organizations in an era of venture philanthropy and social entrepreneurship. It introduces students to core managerial issues in the nonprofit sector, such as development/fundraising, investment management, performance management and nonprofit finance.

Resource: MBA Course
Innovators : All

Nonprofit executives dedicate their lives to many of society’s most intractable problems, yet are often overstretched and under-resourced. Ken Saxon speaks about founding Courage to Lead to build support and community around nonprofit executive leaders.

Resource: Alumni
[photo - Susan Rothstein (MBA '78)]

Susan reflects on her experience volunteering with a grassroots NGO in Cambodia and how she gained a new perspective on both the developing world and herself.

 

Resource: Alumni
[photo - Michael DeLapa]

Michael DeLapa is heavily involved in environmental, land use, and energy issues.  He has launched several non-profits in the Bay Area as well as the California Fisheries Fund.

Resource: Alumni
[photo - Chari Ratwatte]

One of the first two Stanford GSB Social Innovation fellows, Chari works to provide economic opportunities to farmers in Sri Lanka.

Resource: Alumni , Fellow
[photo - Court Gould (EPNL '06)]

Court Gould is pushing for Pittsburgh to grow sustainably. He's working hard to inform decision makers about to accomplish that most effectively.

Resource: CSI Affiliates
[photo - McKinsey on Africa]

Bruce McNamer, MBA '96, examines how a nonprofit's work in Mozambique and in other developing countries is showing businesses how to break the cycle of poverty.

Resource: News Article

Commissioned by KaBOOM! and authored by Katherine Fulton and alumna Heather McLeod Grant of the Monitor Institute, this case study looks at the challenges KaBOOM! faced and lessons the organization learned while pioneering an online strategy to scale its impact. This strategy involves giving away the nonprofit model online for free to empower others to act on KaBoom's behalf.

Resource: Practitioner Case
Stanford Social Innovation Review: Summer 2010

Scaling requires not only fidelity to core processes and programs, but also constant adjustments to local needs and resources.

Resource: Stanford Social Innovation Review Article
Stanford Social Innovation Review: Summer 2010

Most nonprofits use social media like Facebook and Twitter as an ancillary part of what they do. A few organizations, however, are using these tools to fundamentally change the way they work and increase their social impact.

Resource: Stanford Social Innovation Review Article

His career has taken Jonathan Reckford, MBA '89, from corporate leadership to his current post as chief executive officer with global nonprofit Habitat for Humanity. His success, he says, comes from following his faith and his heart.

Resource: News Article
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