Center for Social Innovation

New Tools Help Smart Low-Income Kids Realize Great College Opportunities, Stanford Researcher Says

A new study finds that when low-income, high-achieving students get targeted information about their full range of college-going opportunities, they apply to selective colleges in larger numbers, attend and graduate.

Resource: News Article

Topic :

Stanford Program Produces Teachers With Long-Term Commitment to Schools, Survey Shows

Despite national problems with teacher retention, the vast majority of alumni of the Stanford Teacher Education Program are still in the classroom years after graduating.

Resource: News Article

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Duct Tape, Empathy, and Radical Collaboration: A Tool Kit for Changing the World

A class brings together students from across Stanford to create and build products for some of the world's poorest people.

Resource: News Article

Topic :

Economic Development

A British Entrepreneur Builds a Music Business in Nigeria

Michael Ugwu explains the challenges, and opportunities, of building a company in Lagos.

Resource: News Article

Topic :

Environment, Government, Leadership

At Stanford, Al Gore Connects Climate Change Inaction to Political Dysfunction

Speaking to a capacity crowd at Stanford's Memorial Auditorium, former Vice President and Nobel Peace Prize winner Al Gore calls for passionate action to reverse "degraded" state of democracy.

Resource: News Article

Topic :

New Tools Help Smart Low-Income Kids Realize Great College Opportunities, Stanford Researcher Says

A new study finds that when low-income, high-achieving students get targeted information about their full range of college-going opportunities, they apply to selective colleges in larger numbers, attend and graduate.

Resource: News Article

Topic :

Stanford Program Produces Teachers With Long-Term Commitment to Schools, Survey Shows

Despite national problems with teacher retention, the vast majority of alumni of the Stanford Teacher Education Program are still in the classroom years after graduating.

Resource: News Article

Topic :

Duct Tape, Empathy, and Radical Collaboration: A Tool Kit for Changing the World

A class brings together students from across Stanford to create and build products for some of the world's poorest people.

Resource: News Article

Topic :

Global Issues

What’s Next: It Takes a General Contractor

Stanford Social Innovation Review: Fall 2011

Nuru International identifies proven poverty-reduction programs and aims to take them to scale.

-Subscription Required

Resource: Stanford Social Innovation Review Article

Topic :

Philanthropy

Partnering for a Cure

Stanford Social Innovation Review: Fall 2011

The Myelin Repair Foundation is creating a process for the rapid development of new treatments and cures.

-Subscription Required

Resource: Stanford Social Innovation Review Article

Topic :

Global Issues, Education

The Missing Link in School Reform

Stanford Social Innovation Review: Fall 2011

In trying to improve American public schools, educators, policymakers, and philanthropists are overselling the role of the highly skilled individual teacher and undervaluing the benefits that come from teacher collaborations.

Resource: Stanford Social Innovation Review Article

Topic :

Transformational Networks

Stanford Social Innovation Review: Fall 2011

GLOBAL ACTION NETWORKS: Creating Our Future Together by Steve Waddell

Resource: Stanford Social Innovation Review Article

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Global Issues, Social Innovations, Environment

Networking for Sustainable Transport

Stanford Social Innovation Review: Fall 2011

EMBARQ, a network of sustainable transportation experts, has grown quickly, thanks to impressive fundraising and the design of a model program.

-Subscription Required

Resource: Stanford Social Innovation Review Article

Topic :

Nonprofit Management, Philanthropy, Responsible Investing

“Green Shoots” for New Philanthropic Forms

There are two kinds of philanthropy products: financial products and information products. They used to be bundled together, in the form of foundation staff, personal advisors, or community foundation program officers. In the early 1990s the advent of national donor advised funds showed that a huge market existed for unbundled products. The market worked, but now we are seeing another change in philanthropic giving due to the rise of the internet.

Resource: Blog Post

Topic :

Philanthropy, Responsible Investing

Impact Investing: The Brand

The Global Impact Investment Initiative (GIIN) is an important, but still forming, coalition of investors who focus on both social and environmental impact as well as financial return. GIIN wants to have a positive impact on poverty, economic justice and a sustainable environment. That means it needs to counter the exclusive nature of its innate and valuable club and be sure to include the voices and the perspectives of all; it has to be inclusive.

Resource: Blog Post

Topic :

Women, Giving Circles Reshaping Giving Sector

Women and giving circles are playing an increasingly influential role in the charitable marketplace. Women are shaping the future of charitable giving, while giving circles are making a bigger impact in giving. Those are the conclusions of two new studies that suggest nonprofits should be investing more in getting to know and engaging women and givers who pool and give away charitable funds through donor circles.

Resource: Blog Post

Topic :

Do Goals Hurt Your Chance of Success?

In a recent Harvard Business School working paper titled Goals Gone Wild, the authors make the case that setting goals can be counterproductive. The gist of the article is that when you set a goal, you tend to pursue it at the expense of everything else. This can be a good thing if the goal is very well defined and captures the core of what you are trying to achieve. But it can also literally blind you to other important things.

Resource: Blog Post

Topic :

Government, Nonprofit Management

Nonprofits’ Attraction to Stimulus Funds Could Prove Fatal

Nonprofits need to be careful not to betray what makes them essential to a healthy democracy and civic marketplace. The job of nonprofits is to take on social and global problems and make our communities better places to live and work. To do that, nonprofits need to deliver effective services, find innovative ways to address both the symptoms and causes of problems, and ride hard on government lawmakers and policymakers. But nonprofits should be careful that in chasing government money and access to power they do not devolve from entrepreneurial watchdogs into lazy and dependent lapdogs.

Resource: Blog Post

Video/Audio : All | Audio | Video

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Creating Forces for Good in Nonprofit Management

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.

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Resource: Audio

Topic:

Network Mindsets in Nonprofit Management

Nonprofit management is shifting to develop a networking mindset. In this audio lecture, Beth Kanter, author and leader in social media for nonprofits, discusses how nonprofits can utilize their professional networks and develop a “network mindset.” During her presentation at the Stanford Social Innovation Review's Nonprofit Management Institute, she evaluates various tools and experiences in nonprofit management that can develop the relationships needed to create a successful network.

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Resource: Audio

Topic:

Connection Technology to Save Lives

In Indonesia, warning technology exists to alert people to coming weather catastrophes like tsunamis, but too few people have access to the information. So says Ridwan Djamaluddin, Indonesia's deputy chairman for Natural Resources Development, in this university podcast. He discusses the important role of connection technology in increasing the efficiency of tools and enhancing partnerships between governments and their people. Djamaluddin spoke at the USRio+2.0 Conference, hosted by Stanford.

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Resource: Audio

Topic:

Using Social Media for Social Good

When a group of friends went to work using social media to help pair their colleague diagnosed with leukemia with a bone marrow donor, a project they named the Dragonfly Effect was born. In this university podcast, Stanford business professor Jennifer Aaker talks about how the lessons emerging from this simple and heartfelt enterprise can apply to any group that wants to use the Internet to promote a good cause. She spoke at the USRio+2.0 Conference, hosted by Stanford.

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Resource: Audio

Topic:

Entrepreneurship in Service to Economic Growth

Sustainable economic growth -- be it in the United States or beyond -- doesn't come through status quo thinking, it comes through connectivity, flux, and a "collision" of people and ideas. So says Paul Kedrosky of the Kauffman Foundation in this university podcast. Addressing an audience of international ministers from developing countries, and technology and NGO professionals at the USRio+2.0 Conference at Stanford, he argues for entrepreneurism as the path to innovation and growth.

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Resource: Audio

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Kung Wang: Energy and Cross-Strait Relations

Professor Kung Wang of China University of Technology discussed energy and cross-Strait relations at the "Innovations for Smart Green Cities: What's Working, What's Not, What's Next" conference.

Resource: Video

Topic:

Arts, Culture, and Religion, Human Rights, Leadership

Cory Booker's 2012 Commencement Address

Cory Booker, the mayor of Newark, New Jersey, challenges Stanford graduates to be courageous, never lose faith and always work together during Stanford's 121st Commencement. He extolls lessons from his own father and grandfather through stories of hardship, hope, and humor. Booker encourages graduates to find and join their own "conspiracy of love" -- people who will help lift them up in times of need, provide a community and challenge them to go beyond what they think is possible.

Resource: Video

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

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Cutting Greenhouse Gas Emissions: Perspectives from California

California, the ninth largest economy in the world, recently launched a new carbon cap-and-trade system to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to 1990 levels by 2020. Mary Nichols, chair of the California Air Resources Board, leads this program that could provide a model to support other regional or national efforts to cut greenhouse gas emissions.

Resource: Video

Topic:

US-wide Carbon Policy: Two MBAs' Perspectives

As part of the annual Conradin Von Gugelberg Memorial Lecture on the Environment, Mike Volpe, MBA '13, and Jake Saper, MBA '14, lay out an argument for a US-wide carbon policy.

Resource: Video

Topic:

New Skills for the New Social Economy

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.

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Resource: Audio

Topic:

Creating Forces for Good in Nonprofit Management

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.

You are missing some Flash content that should appear here! Perhaps your browser cannot display it, or maybe it did not initialize correctly.

Resource: Audio

Topic:

Network Mindsets in Nonprofit Management

Nonprofit management is shifting to develop a networking mindset. In this audio lecture, Beth Kanter, author and leader in social media for nonprofits, discusses how nonprofits can utilize their professional networks and develop a “network mindset.” During her presentation at the Stanford Social Innovation Review's Nonprofit Management Institute, she evaluates various tools and experiences in nonprofit management that can develop the relationships needed to create a successful network.

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Resource: Audio

Case Studies : All | Academic Cases

Topics:

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:

Environment, Social Entrepreneurship

Touring in the Galapagos Islands

Various economic and environmental issues face the owners of a cruise business in the Galapagos Islands. The case gives special attention to the efforts of locals to preserve and enhance their own ecotourism business prospects.

Resource: Academic Case

Topics:

Healthcare

VaxGen Inc., Fighting the AIDS Epidemic

VaxGen is working to obtain approvals for phase III clinical trials in Thailand for an experimental vaccine against HIV. The company must cope with a host of ethical questions.

Resource: Academic Case

Topics:

Nonprofit Management, Philanthropy, Responsible Investing

John Goldman: Creating the Next Generation of Philanthropists

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

Topics:

Ma Jun and the IPE: Using Information to Improve China's Environment

The Institute of Public and Environmental Affairs is Chinese environmental non-profit that has single-handedly revolutionized brought pollution standards and compliance to more than 47,000 sites and 22 multinational corporations in China. This case tells the story of the organization and its founder, environmental entrepreneur Ma Jun.

Resource: Academic Case

Topics:

Maria Yee Inc.: Making 'Green' Furniture in China

Maria Yee Inc. occupies a unique position as an environmentally conscious premium household furniture maker with two direct-owned factories in China and distribution through several large U.S. retailers. This case addresses the unique challenges that an entrepreneurial company faces in reaching its full potential as a business while advancing its green strategy.

Resource: Academic Case

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Tipping Point Community

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

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Using Social Media to Save Lives: HelpVinayAndSameer.org

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

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Social Service Mergers: HOPE Services and Skills Center

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

Topics:

Corporate Social Responsibility, Healthcare

Exubera and NICE

This case details the 2006 decision by the United Kingdom to deny coverage for a new form of inhaled insulin. In doing so, it highlights the challenges to innovators in managing conflicts over the costs, benefits, and risks of new technology.

Resource: Academic Case

Topics:

Environmental Enhancements in Road Vehicle Technologies

In 2007, the issue of global warming brought carbon dioxide emissions to the forefront of Americans’ minds. This paper examines some of the emerging innovations designed to reduce oil consumption.

Resource: Academic Case

Topic :

The Siebel Foundation and the Meth Project

This case details the innovative work of business executive Tom Siebel, who launched the Meth Project in 2005 to 'unsell' meth to first time users in Montana. The program used an innovative research-based marketing campaign and has since scaled to other states.

Resource: Academic Case

Topic :

Healthcare

Canary Fund and the San Jose Grand Prix (B): Results of the First Race

The Canary Fund supports the development of methods for early cancer detection. This second case presents the results of the sponsorship created to raise funding and awareness.

Resource: Academic Case

Topic :

Healthcare, Philanthropy, Responsible Investing

The Kinetics and Michael J. Fox Foundations (B): New Directions

The Kinetics and Michael J. Fox Foundations both support research on Parkinson’s disease. This second case explores how these two organizations collaborate toward a common mission.

Resource: Academic Case

Topic :

Environment, Nonprofit Management

Wild Salmon Center

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

Topic :

Corporate Social Responsibility, Environment, Social Entrepreneurship

Gardenburger

The CEO of Gardenburger, a seller of veggie burger products and other food alternatives to meat, considers the company’s advertising strategy. He aims to take the company from the small health-food niche to the consumer mainstream.

Resource: Academic Case

Research Papers : All

Topics:

Healthcare

Vertical integration and optimal reimbursement policy

[photo - vertical integration & Medicare Reimbursement]

Health care providers may vertically integrate not only to facilitate coordination of care, but also for strategic reasons that may not be in patients’ best interests.

Resource: Research Paper

Topics:

Government, Leadership

Does an Effective Media Reduce Politicians' Incentives to Pander to Voters?

Elections sometimes give policy makers incentives to pander — to implement policies that voters think are in their best interest even though the policy maker knows they are not, says Professor Kenneth Shotts. In general, an effective media reduces this tendency to pander, "but there are some exceptions to this general rule."

Resource: Research Paper

Topics:

Leadership

Power Corrupts, Especially When It Lacks Status

Individuals in roles that possess power but lack status have a tendency to engage in activities that demean others, according to new research from Stanford Graduate School of Business, USC, and the Kellogg School.

Resource: Research Paper

Topics:

Give Them the Gift They're Expecting

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

Topics:

Health Care

Evaluating Options for Reform of the Medical Malpractice System

There are many potential ways to reform the United States' health care malpractice system that currently adds nearly 4% to costs. Stanford Graduate School of Business political economist Daniel Kessler has surveyed the alternatives created by laws in different states and finds that "wisely chosen reforms have the potential to reduce health care spending significantly with no adverse impact on patient health outcomes."

Resource: Research Paper

Courses : All

Topic :

Social Enterprise: STRAMGT 341

This course explores the challenges and opportunities related to social entrepreneurship. Students study nonprofit, for-profit, and hybrid organizational forms, and examine issues from a variety of perspectives, including that of entrepreneur, CEO, funder, and board member.

Resource: MBA Course

Topic :

Corporate Social Responsibility

The Business World: Moral and Spiritual Inquiry through Literature: POLECON 349

This course uses novels and plays as a basis for examining the moral and spiritual aspects of business leadership and of the business environment. The literature covered illuminates the character of business people and the cultural contexts of values and beliefs in which commercial activities take place in a global economy.

Resource: MBA Course

Topic :

Government

Homeland Security: Operations, Strategy, and Implementation: OIT 571

This course covers a variety of topics in homeland security. Among them are bioterrorism, influenza pandemics, nuclear security at ports and around cities, the biometric aspects of the U.S. VISIT program, the intersection of homeland security and immigration, and suicide bombings.

Resource: MBA Course

Topic :

Environmental Science for Managers and Policy Makers - advanced: OIT 339

Designed for students with strong modeling/optimization/simulation skills, this course allocates more time to environmental and energy science and its implications for management and policy, and less time to the basics of modeling/optimization/simulation. Students apply spreadsheet modeling, optimization, and Monte Carlo simulation to resource management and environmental policy.

Resource: MBA Course

Topic :

Environmental Science for Managers and Policy Makers: OIT 338

This course explores the fundamental science of ecosystems, climate, and energy. Students learn to apply spreadsheet modeling, optimization, and Monte Carlo simulation to resource management and environmental policy.

Resource: MBA Course

Innovators : All

Topic :

Economic Development, Environment

How Growth Can Be Green

A Stanford GSB student looks at the value of renewable energy in the developing world.

Resource: Student

Topic :

Economic Development, Leadership, Social Entrepreneurship

Creating Peace, One Entrepreneur at a Time

It was the suicide of a young man that turned Vivek Garg toward using business as a means of fostering peace and reconciliation.

Resource: Student

Topic :

Skoll's Philanthropy Focuses on World's Biggest Challenges

The March/April edition of Stanford magazine features a profile of alumnus Jeff Skoll, one of only 20 people who've ever given away $1 billion. He hopes to engage everyone in the planet's survival by leveraging the power of Hollywood.

Resource: Alumni

Topic :

Government

Ernie Ting (MBA '80)

Ernie Ting helps voters find relevant information to become more engaged in our democracy with the League of Women Voters of California Education Fund.

Resource: Alumni

Topic :

Steve Zuckerman (MBA '87)

The lessons and skills Steve Zuckerman acquired throughout his career were perfect preparation for his current work building Self-Help Federal Credit Union into a state-wide financial institution designed to responsibly serve low-income families and communities in California.

Resource: Alumni

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