Nonprofit Management : Center for Social Innovation (CSI)

Articles : All | News Articles | Stanford Social Innovation Review Articles | Blog Posts

Topic :

Environment, Government, Nonprofit Management

Stanford Social Innovation Review: Summer 2011

Under the EPA’s Audit Policy, violators who voluntarily report themselves can get certain penalties reduced or waived if they commit to ongoing self-regulation…. But is that promise any more than window dressing?

-Subscription Required

Resource: Stanford Social Innovation Review Article

Topic :

Arts, Culture, and Religion, Nonprofit Management, Social Entrepreneurship

One Acre at a Time

Stanford Social Innovation Review: Summer 2011

One Acre Fund feeds the world’s poor by helping them feed themselves.

-Subscription Required

Resource: Stanford Social Innovation Review Article

Topic :

Nonprofit Management

What’s Next: Thriving on Failure

Stanford Social Innovation Review: Summer 2011

Engineers Without Borders’ new website, Admitting Failure, gives new life to “good failures.” It aims to help organizations learn from others’ mistakes.

-Subscription Required

Resource: Stanford Social Innovation Review Article

Topic :

Nonprofit Management

Local Empowerment Through Rapid Results

Stanford Social Innovation Review: Summer 2011

Why local ownership and commitment are the exception and not the norm in most development efforts—and what development professionals can do about this problem.

-Subscription Required

Resource: Stanford Social Innovation Review Article

Topic :

Nonprofit Management

Achieving Sustainability Through Integrated Reporting

Stanford Social Innovation Review: Summer 2011

Integrated reporting—the combination of a company’s ﬁnancial and non-ﬁnancial performance in one document—is a crucial step to creating a more sustainable society. It is being practiced around the globe by companies as varied as Philips, Novo Nordisk, PepsiCo, and Southwest Airlines.

-Subscription Required

Resource: Stanford Social Innovation Review Article

Topic :

Philanthropy & Responsible Investing, Leadership, Nonprofit Management

Don't Waste Volunteers' Time

Many nonprofits fail to use their volunteers effectively, asking them to stuff envelopes when they could be doing more skilled and mission-critical work, speakers told a Stanford conference. While financial donations dropped in 2008, volunteering rose to more than 8 billion hours of service, worth an estimated $162 billion.

Resource: News Article

Topic :

Nonprofit Management

From a Crisis Emerges a Laboratory of Innovation

Stanford MBA students on a service learning trip advise small businesses in New Orleans. They partner with nonprofit the Idea Village to create a model program for business students from all over the world to provide pro bono business consulting services and become part of the rebirth of the city.

Resource: News Article

Topic :

Nonprofit Management, Philanthropy, Responsible Investing

Baby Boomers Find Second Careers Working for Social Change

Increasingly, older workers are choosing to spend their later working years doing things that matter to them, providing a "wellspring of innovation" by either working for or volunteering with nonprofits, government programs, or foundations. That's good since estimates are nonprofits will need 640,000 new executives over the next decade.

Resource: News Article

Topic :

Nonprofit Management

Researchers Find Nonprofits More Business-Focused

The Stanford Project on the Evolution of Nonprofits found that nonprofits are becoming more and more businesslike, with many hiring directors with private sector experience and implementing quanitative measures of accountability to track the "numeric" success of social change and to prove sustainability to donors and grantees.

Resource: News Article

Topic :

Economic Development, Nonprofit Management, Social Entrepreneurship

Actress-Activist Natalie Portman Urges Students to Help Alleviate Poverty

With a presentation on microfinance, actress-turned-activist Natalie Portman kicked off the Social Innovators Speaker Series launched by the Center for Social Innovation at the Stanford Graduate School of Business. She also called on students to take social action to alleviate poverty.

Resource: News Article

Topic :

Education, Nonprofit Management

New School Economics

Stanford Social Innovation Review: Summer 2011

MORE THAN GOOD INTENTIONS: How a New Economics Is Helping to Solve Global Poverty by Dean Karlan & Jacob Appel

Resource: Stanford Social Innovation Review Article

Topic :

Nonprofit Management

The Holy Grail for Nonprofits

Stanford Social Innovation Review: Summer 2011

NONPROFIT SUSTAINABILITY: Making Strategic Decisions for Financial Viability by Jeanne Bell, Jan Masaoka & Steve Zimmerman

Resource: Stanford Social Innovation Review Article

Topic :

Government, Nonprofit Management

The Elusive Craft of Evaluating Advocacy

Stanford Social Innovation Review: Summer 2011

The political process is chaotic and often takes years to unfold, making it difficult to use traditional measures to evaluate the effectiveness of advocacy organizations. There are, however, unconventional methods one can use to evaluate advocacy organizations and make strategic investments in that arena.

Resource: Stanford Social Innovation Review Article

Topic :

Nonprofit Management, Social Entrepreneurship

The Miracle of Financial Inclusion

Stanford Social Innovation Review: Summer 2011

The founder of the Kashf Foundation argues that microfinance can improve the lives of Pakistan’s next generation.

-Subscription Required

Resource: Stanford Social Innovation Review Article

Topic :

Corporate Social Responsibility, Nonprofit Management, Social Entrepreneurship

What’s Next: Retailing with Heart

Stanford Social Innovation Review: Spring 2011

Venture into a Panera Cares café and you’ll see the same menu and racks of freshly baked breads that are staples at the 1,400 Panera Bread restaurants across the United States. The only thing missing is the cash register. Instead, there’s a donation box where customers pay on the honor system.

Resource: Stanford Social Innovation Review Article

Topic :

Nonprofit Management

Data Mining from The Collaboration Prize Applicants

The Collaboration Prize competition entries prove a rich resource for non-profit mergers. A grant of $250,000 will be shared between the co-winners: The Museum of Nature and Science in Dallas, Texas and the YMCA and JCC of Greater Toledo. But they were not the only winners in this competition; the rest of us now get to mine the wonderful data that remains from the 644 applications submitted to the Lodestar Foundation for the competition.

Resource: Blog Post

Topic :

Arts, Culture, and Religion, Nonprofit Management

Generation Y and the Perils of Milli Vanilli Leadership

Generation Y leaders benefit from acting their age. The key to successful next generation leadership is to be who you are, not what you think an “official” nonprofit leader looks like. Craft your own brand of leadership, and others will see you as an authentic person they can follow and trust.

Resource: Blog Post

Topic :

Arts, Culture, and Religion, Nonprofit Management

Nonprofit Advantage for Future of Twitter and Search

Twitter and Search prove promising to the nonprofit world.

Resource: Blog Post

Topic :

Nonprofit Management

From Entry Level to Leadership: How to Join a Nonprofit Board of Directors

Board experience proves invaluable to leadership development.

Resource: Blog Post

Topic :

Nonprofit Management

Membership Trends: A Word to the Wise Art Museum

Art museums are having trouble drawing a crowd, what are they doing wrong?

Resource: Blog Post

Video/Audio : All | Audio | Video

Topic:

Nonprofit Management, Social Entrepreneurship

Pairing Nonprofits with Professionals

Catchafire is a New York City-based, for-profit social mission business that matches professionals who want to give their skills to nonprofits and social enterprises that need their help. In this audio interview, CEO and founder Rachael Chong speaks with host Ashkon Jafari about the ins and outs of the organization, from its founding, to its funding, to how it finds "matches."

Resource: Audio

Topic:

Nonprofit Management, Philanthropy, Responsible Investing

The Power of Leadership in Social Enterprise

Habitat for Humanity is an exemplary social enterprise that has helped build more than 350,000 houses for low-income people in thousands of communities worldwide. In this university podcast, Jonathan Reckford, the organization's CEO, talks about what it takes to be a great leader. He shares lessons learned from his own career, and how he put his knowledge to work in successfully guiding Habitat for Humanity since 2005.

Resource: Audio

Topic:

Social Innovations, Nonprofit Management

Crowd-Sourcing Disaster Relief

Incident responders can use social media as they rush to put aid in place after disasters. Jeannie Stamberger, of the Disaster Management Institute at Carnegie Mellon University, shares her studies of crowd-sourcing. When disasters impact populated areas, social media helps agencies quickly identify the extent of the damage. This audio interview covers utilization of social media for disaster response, planning and risk analysis.

Resource: Audio

Topic:

Environment, Nonprofit Management

The Role of Social Norms in Energy and Water Conservation

If you stayed in a hotel recently, you may have seen signs that encouraged you to reuse your towel in an effort to conserve resources. What drives you and others to participate in this environmentally and economically beneficial program? Professor Noah Goldstein studies the factors that motivate individuals to engage in prosocial actions using descriptive norms to design effective messages. He presents his research in this audio lecture presented by the Center for Social Innovation.

Resource: Audio

Topic:

Nonprofit Management

Ending the Nonprofit Starvation Cycle

A vicious cycle is leaving nonprofits so hungry for decent infrastructure that they can barely function as organizations -- let alone serve their beneficiaries. In this audio lecture, Ann Goggins Gregory and Don Howard of The Bridgespan Group, a leading nonprofit management consulting firm, unveil the forces that deprive organizations of much-needed overhead funding. They then reveal what grantees can do to break out of this nonprofit starvation cycle, so that they can focus on the work ahead.

Resource: Audio

Topic:

Education, Nonprofit Management

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

Topic:

Government, Nonprofit Management

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

Topic:

Arts, Culture, and Religion, Environment, Nonprofit Management

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

Topic:

Arts, Culture, and Religion, Health Care, Nonprofit Management

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

Topic:

Nonprofit Management

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

Topic:

Nonprofit Management, Philanthropy, Responsible Investing

Leadership Trends of the 21st Century

Less than one in 10,000 companies will survive long enough to celebrate their 100th anniversary. For those who do, how does brand identity change over the decades while staying true to its core values? In this panel discussion, the CEOs of three such organizations discuss the rewards and challenges of carrying on a corporate legacy in the nonprofit sector: Peter Goldberg, of the Alliance for Children and Families, Cathy Tisdale, of Campfire USA, and Jim Gibbons, of Goodwill Industries International.

Resource: Audio

Topic:

Government, Healthcare, Nonprofit Management

The Role of the Voluntary Sector in the Era of Health Reform

Despite falling to number 49 on the list of countries ranked by life expectancy, the United States still spends roughly twice as much on health care per capita as other top-ranked nations. In this panel discussion, Dr. David Shern and Father Larry Snyder discuss the role of the voluntary sector in this period of necessary reform, and what their organizations specifically are doing to improve the quality of American lives.

Resource: Audio

Topic:

Corporate Social Responsibility, Leadership, Nonprofit Management, Philanthropy, Responsible Investing

Leveraging Business Assets in Nonprofit

Can business be a power for good? Jean Oelwang, CEO of Virgin Unite, would argue yes. Virgin Unite is the nonprofit foundation of Richard Branson's Virgin Group, a conglomerate of more than 400 world-wide companies. In this audio lecture, Oelwang discusses the need to address root causes of social and environmental issues, the unsustainable nature of the growing disparity between rich and poor, and the potential to make a difference by adapting existing product and service innovations.

Resource: Audio

Topic:

Nonprofit Management, Philanthropy, Responsible Investing

Connecting Nonprofits

Connecting good, effective nonprofits and other organizations that get the job done is the mission of Craigconnects, the latest enterprise of Craigslist founder Craig Newmark. In this audio interview with host Ashkon Jafari, Newmark discusses the organization's philosophy, primary activities, and future plans.

Resource: Audio

Topic:

Nonprofit Management, Social Entrepreneurship

Pairing Nonprofits with Professionals

Catchafire is a New York City-based, for-profit social mission business that matches professionals who want to give their skills to nonprofits and social enterprises that need their help. In this audio interview, CEO and founder Rachael Chong speaks with host Ashkon Jafari about the ins and outs of the organization, from its founding, to its funding, to how it finds "matches."

Resource: Audio

Case Studies : All | Academic Cases

Topics:

Nonprofit Management

Breaking New Ground: Using the Internet to Scale

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

Topics:

Economic Development, Nonprofit Management, Philanthropy, Responsible Investing

The McKay Foundation: The Fight for a Living Wage in San Francisco

The McKay Foundation played a key role in convening the diverse constituencies that had a stake in the living wage issue. The executive director considered what to focus on next after a city ordinance authorized worker pay increases.

Resource: Academic Case

Topics:

Environment, Nonprofit Management

Bozeman, Montana, and the Yellowstone Business Partnership

The economy of Bozeman, Mont., has grown rapidly, but concerns have arisen over the development of environmentally sensitive areas, impact on local businesses, and affordability. The Yellowstone Business Partnership could have a role in directing the city’s future.

Resource: Academic Case

Topics:

Nonprofit Management, Philanthropy, Responsible Investing

The Broad Education Foundation: Transforming Urban K-12 Public Education

The Broad Education Foundation was established in 1999 to focus on K-12 public education reform. As the foundation sought to expand its reach, its ability to transition the management of its flagship investments would become increasingly important, and maintaining accountability to stakeholders would also be critical.

Resource: Academic Case

Topics:

Nonprofit Management

Asian Neighborhood Design C

Asian Neighborhood Design has undergone a period of rapid growth. How will the new business-oriented interim director assess its stability and lead the organization through its transformation in a manner suited to the nonprofit world?

Resource: Academic Case

Topics:

Environment, Nonprofit Management, Philanthropy, Responsible Investing

Trust for Public Land

In April 1999 the leaders of a nonprofit that acquired private land for transfer to public use met to discuss their latest internal auditors’ report. They wanted to decide how best to analyze the findings in order to explain to the board why the results did not appear as good as they actually were.

Resource: Academic Case

Topics:

Economic Development, Healthcare, Nonprofit Management

Interplast

Interplast was the first international humanitarian organization to send U.S. doctors overseas to provide free reconstructive surgery in developing countries. This case and its campanion videocase chronicle the debates that arose as the organization began to shift its focus from direct service to education.

Resource: Academic Case

Topics:

Nonprofit Management, Philanthropy, Responsible Investing

Asian Neighborhood Design B

The community development arm of The Roberts Foundation must decide whether to continue its investment in Asian Neighborhood Design. The housing and community development organization has been experiencing operational challenges due to rapid growth.

Resource: Academic Case

Topics:

Nonprofit Management, Philanthropy, Responsible Investing

Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation Portfolio Management in the Nonprofit Sector: Measuring Performance and Optimizing Results Across Multiple Programs

The Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation has approved a $110 million nursing initiative to improve patient care in hospitals. The case addresses how the Foundation can determine which grants to make under the initiative, and how it may most effectively allocate funds.

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:

Nonprofit Management, Social Entrepreneurship

Lutherwood-CODA (Community Opportunities Development Association)

The Canadian nonprofit Lutherwood-CODA is engaged in a bold real estate project to develop a retirement community. Can the organization face a new level of financial risk associated with creating an assisted living center?

Resource: Academic Case

Topic :

Arts, Culture, and Religion, Nonprofit Management

Circus Oz

Circus Oz, Australia’s premier, international circus, was exploring offering the new development officer position a higher-than-normal salary. The case and its companion videocase cover the organization’s dilemmas around this, and the situation’s resolution.

Resource: Academic Case

Topic :

Economic Development, Healthcare, Nonprofit Management

PacifiCare's African American Health Solutions (AAHS)

By early 2006, PacifiCare's African American Health Solution had made significant headway in its two primary markets of Dallas and Los Angeles. Now the health insurance program had to define its purpose more clearly in the face of growing competition for the business of African Americans.

Resource: Academic Case

Topic :

Nonprofit Management, Social Entrepreneurship

Minnesota Public Radio: Social Purpose Capitalism

Minnesota Public Radio had evolved from a small public radio station to a network of 38 stations, mainly through social purpose capitalism. The founder came under criticism after creating for-profit ventures to support and build the enterprise.

Resource: Academic Case

Topic :

Education, Nonprofit Management

Teach For America: The Bay Area Expansion (A)

Teach for America, a nonprofit that places talented college graduates in teaching positions in under-resourced areas, needed to expand its placements in the San Francisco Bay Area. Case A details the challenges of TFA’s attempt to expand into the San Francisco Unified School District.

Resource: Academic Case

Topic :

Nonprofit Management, Philanthropy, Responsible Investing

A conference at Stanford brought together professionals from foundations to share best practices, discuss emerging innovations, and build professional networks. This summary presents key issues discussed.

Resource: Academic Case

Research Papers : All

Topics:

Arts, Culture, and Religion, Nonprofit Management

The Economic Environment of American Symphony Orchestras

This study collects facts about cyclical and trend-related economic developments in the symphony orchestra industry. It also examines influences on performance and nonperformance revenues and expenses of orchestras.

Resource: Research Paper

Topics:

Nonprofit Management

Social Movements in Organizations and Markets

The agendas of organization studies and the study of social movements are converging. Scholars of both fields contribute to a special issue of Administrative Science Quarterly dedicated to building stronger connections among scholars of social movements, organizations, and markets.

Resource: Research Paper

Topics:

Corporate Social Responsibility, Nonprofit Management

Organizational Diversity, Labor Markets, and Wage Inequality

Despite advances in organizational theory, there has been little progress in understanding how organizational processes shape the evolution of inequality. The paper draws greater attention to the consequences of organizational diversity for matching and wage inequality in the labor market.

Resource: Research Paper

Topics:

Nonprofit Management

Fitting In: The Effects of Relational Demography and Person-Culture Fit on Group Process and Performance

The authors integrate two complementary streams of research on ‘fit’ with an organization's culture that document impacts of similarity in values and demographics.

Resource: Research Paper

Topics:

Nonprofit Management

Inferring the Popularity of an Opinion from its Familiarity: A Repetitive Voice Can Sound Like a Chorus

This article describes six experiments that demonstrate the effect of people's tendency to infer that a familiar opinion is a prevalent one among their group. Implications for social consensus estimation and social influence are discussed.

Resource: Research Paper

Courses : All

Topic :

Nonprofit Management

Strategic Management of Nonprofits: STRAMGT 368

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

Topic :

Nonprofit Management

Ken Saxon (MBA '88)

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

Topic :

Nonprofit Management

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

Topic :

Board Governance, Business, Cause Marketing, Nonprofits, Social Enterprises, Socially Responsible Business, Environment, Leadership, Nonprofit Management

An interview with Michael DeLapa (MBA '85)

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

Topic :

Economic Development, Education, Nonprofit Management, Social Entrepreneurship

An interview with J. Charitha ("Chari") Ratwatte (MBA '09)

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

Resource: Alumni , Fellow

Topic :

Corporate Social Responsibility, Economic Development, Environment, Government, Nonprofit Management, Social Entrepreneurship

An interview with 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

Topic :

Nonprofit Management

Marketing for Good

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

Topic :

Environment, Nonprofit Management

Sustainable Water Treatment

How can a young nonprofit organization make a tangible improvement in people's health through clean water using only the power of gravity? This was the challenge for Daniel Smith and the AguaClara team when they began work to introduce community-level drinking water treatment plants in Honduras. In this audio interview, Sheela Sethuraman learns from the 2011 Intel Environment Award winners about the importance of using local resources and experts to encourage horizontal learning.

Resource: Audio

Topic :

Nonprofit Management

Leveraging Online Collaboration

How can nonprofit and crowdsourcing experts collaborate to make media more accessible? In this audio interview, Sheela Sethuraman talks to Dean Jansen, co-Founder of Universal Subtitles, a volunteer platform for doing collaborative subtitling and translation of videos. As the winner of The Tech Awards 2011 Katherine M. Swanson Equality Award, Jansen discussed Universal Subtitles' current challenges and future potential in leveraging internet volunteerism.

Resource: Audio

Topic :

Nonprofit Management

Partnering for Scale and Impact

Melissa Bradley, CEO of Tides, explores how partnerships between for-profit and nonprofit organizations--and everything in between--can increase scale and impact. In this audio lecture, recorded at the Stanford Social Innovation Review's 2011 Nonprofit Management Institute, Bradley discusses the current landscape of the social sector, and what scale and impact really mean. She also shares case studies of successful partnerships and the "top ten" lessons we can draw from collaborations.

Resource: Audio

Topic :

Nonprofit Management

Ken Saxon (MBA '88)

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: Innovators

Center for
Social Innovation

Center for Social Innovation

CSI

More content

Follow us :