Center for Social Innovation

We Are the Possible: Meet Samuel Isaac Richard

Rosetta Thurman, author of Perspectives from the Pipeline blog, interviews Samuel Isaac Richard, an emerging, young, nonprofit leader based in Phoenix. She shares his insights on the next generation's ability to implement social change.

Resource: Blog Post

Topic :

Nonprofit Management

Three Museums in One

The author interviews board chair, Frank-Paul King, about the decision to merge the three museums that now make up the Museum of Nature & Science in Dallas, Texas. King says it worked because "after it had been talked about on and off for a decade ... we created a vision for the Museum of Nature & Science for the next century."

Resource: Blog Post

Topic :

Technology’s Positive Impact on Human Rights

The author details a Web that tells stories and exposes human injustice and trauma rather than gossip. She proposes this exposure will help drive the change that is needed.

Resource: Blog Post

Video/Audio : All | Audio | Video

Topic:

Mobile Technology for Healthcare

In a world in which there may not be enough capacity to take care of an increasingly older and sicker population, how may mobile and home-based technologies will be used to facilitate healthcare? That's the question explored by Eric Dishman, director of health innovation at Intel, in this university podcast. He looks at how technologies such as broadband can inexpensively support non-acute healthcare services. Dishman spoke at the USRio+2.0 Conference, hosted by Stanford.

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Resource: Audio

Topic:

Info Technology and Sustainable Development

Technology is increasingly being used to support sustainable development, and Google is on the leading edge of that trend. In this university podcast, Google's chief technology advocate, Michael Jones, addresses an audience of international government ministers from developing countries as well as technology and NGO professionals convened by the US State Department and the Stanford Graduate School of Business on the topic. He spoke at the USRio+2.0 Conference, hosted by Stanford.

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Resource: Audio

Topic:

Technology and Environmental Sustainability

Collective intelligence, man-machine symbiosis, real time feedback loops from sensors… Such concepts are harbingers of a new cooperation between humans and machines. In this university podcast, media expert Tim O'Reilly discusses how lessons from technology can apply to sustainable global development. He spoke at the USRio+2.0 Conference hosted at Stanford.

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Resource: Audio

Topic:

Environmental Sustainability, Economic Realities

Climate change, over-consumption of natural resources, and pollution are all contributing to the failing health of our planet, but what can we do to more effectively promote environmental sustainability? In this university podcast, Fabien Cousteau, the third generation to carry on the tradition of deep-ocean adventure and exploration originally pioneered by his grandfather more than half a century ago, offers some solutions. He spoke at the USRio+2.0 Conference at Stanford.

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Resource: Audio

Topic:

Technology and International Development

How important are science, technology, and innovation to international development? They're nothing less than critical for lifting people out of poverty, says Maura O'Neill, chief innovation officer at USAID, in this university podcast. Speaking at the USRio+2.0 Conference hosted at the Stanford Graduate School of Business, O'Neill discusses how connection technologies, in particular, can support sustainable development around the world.

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Resource: Audio

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:

Bill Gates Says Foreign Aid is Threatened, but Big Ideas Can Turn the Tide

Just off a plane from Africa, Bill Gates visits Stanford to talk about innovation, but not the software kind. Scientists and engineers, he said, need to focus on products that help improve the lives of the world's poor even though the market directs people to help the wealthiest.

Resource: Video

Topic:

Rethinking Learning with Salman Khan

The Mastery in Communication Initiative and the Stanford GSB Education Club hosted Salman Khan, who spoke about the history and evolution of the Khan Academy and how it is reshaping the way people learn today.

Resource: Video

Topic:

Gloria Steinem: Ms. at 40 and the Future of Feminism

Stanford welcomes Gloria Steinem, co-founder and first editor of Ms. Magazine, in celebration of Ms.'s 40th anniversary. Steinem reflected on Ms. Magazine's role over forty years and looked ahead to what feminism may mean for future generations.

Resource: Video

Topic:

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:

Connection Technology to Save Lives

Education for Everyone

Co-founder Andrew Ng, also the Director of the Artificial Intelligence Lab and an associate professor in computer science at Stanford, presented at the Leading Education By Advancing Digital (LEAD) Symposium held at the Stanford Graduate School of Business in September 2012.

Resource: Video

Topic:

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

Topic:

Mobile Technology for Healthcare

In a world in which there may not be enough capacity to take care of an increasingly older and sicker population, how may mobile and home-based technologies will be used to facilitate healthcare? That's the question explored by Eric Dishman, director of health innovation at Intel, in this university podcast. He looks at how technologies such as broadband can inexpensively support non-acute healthcare services. Dishman spoke at the USRio+2.0 Conference, hosted by Stanford.

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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:

Healthcare, Nonprofit Management

Institute for Healthcare Improvement: The Campaign to Save 100,000 Lives

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

Topics:

Social Entrepreneurship: Kiva

Inspired by Professor Muhammad Yunus, Jessica and Matt Flannery experimented with micro-lending connecting Ugandan entrepreneurs to friends and family through a pilot internet trial. Kiva, the first person-to- person microlending organization was born.

Resource: Academic Case

Topics:

Economic Development, Nonprofit Management, Social Entrepreneurship

As Green As It Gets

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

Topics:

Nonprofit Management, Philanthropy, Responsible Investing

Creating an Online Information Marketplace for Giving

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

Topics:

Corporate Social Responsibility, Environment

Disclosure Dilemma: Financial Reporting of Contingent and Environmental Liabilities

The case discusses U.S. and international accounting guidance regarding the disclosure of contingent and environmental liabilities.

Resource: Academic Case

Topics:

Economic Development, Nonprofit Management

Endeavor

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

Topics:

Environment

Fuel Economy Standards 2007

In 2007, Congress was discussing a 40 percent increase in required fuel efficiency. The automobile industry had a choice to fight the ruling., but instead decided to focus on influencing the details of the legislation.

Resource: Academic Case

Topics:

Kiva

By 2007, Kiva had gone through a rapid growth phase. The case recounts the debut of the first online person-to-person microfinance organization and looks at the founders' plan for future development.

Resource: Academic Case

Topics:

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

Topics:

Environment

Note on Energy

Entrepreneurs and investors will find in this note a broad overview of the energy sector in 2008, highlighting trends and market dynamics.

Resource: Academic Case

Topic :

Government

Transparent Markets: Promoting Public Values Through Private Enterprise

Luis Moreno Ocampo, an attorney who had fought human rights abuses in Argentina, views corruption in public procurement as the next major human rights issue. He established a company to collect and distribute information on public procurements to make the entire process more transparent.

Resource: Academic Case

Topic :

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

Topic :

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

Topic :

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

Topic :

Environment

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

Research Papers : All

Topics:

Healthcare, Philanthropy, Responsible Investing

Venture Capital Should Invest in Improving the Health Care Safety Net

Young companies trying to enter parts of the health care industry by focusing on helping patients stay healthy and allowing safety net providers to use their resources have a hard time attracting venture capital funds that focus more on traditional profit. A recent article by two Stanford Graduate School of Business researchers argues that it's time to change this pattern.

Resource: Research Paper

Topics:

Government

TV Ads Do Influence Consumers — In Elections and Beyond

By studying the outcome of the 2000 U.S. presidential election, Stanford professor Wesley Hartmann and his coauthor have proved that television advertising sells products. Along the way they also found that television advertising tipped the election in favor of George Bush over Al Gore.

Resource: Research Paper

Topics:

Taking the Macho Out of Offshore Oil Rigs

Crew members on an offshore oil rig toned down their bluster and macho behavior as an unexpected side effect of an initiative to cut down on-the-job injuries. The case study, coauthored by Debra Meyerson of the Stanford Graduate School of Business, could present a model for minimizing the effects of gender in other work settings.

Resource: Research Paper

Topics:

A Brief Social-Belonging Intervention Improves Academic and Health Outcomes of Minority Students

A brief intervention aimed at buttressing college freshmen's sense of social belonging in school was tested in a randomized controlled trial, and its academic and health-related consequences over 3 years are reported. The intervention aimed to lessen psychological perceptions of threat on campus by framing social adversity as common and transient.

Resource: Research Paper

Topics:

Government, Healthcare

Evaluating the Medical Malpractice System and Options for Reform

The U.S. medical malpractice liability system aims to compensate patients who are injured through the negligence of healthcare providers and to deter providers from practicing negligently. Though the system has failed to deliver on these goals, evidence from several studies suggests that wisely chosen reforms may reduce healthcare spending significantly with no adverse impact on patient health outcomes.

Resource: Research Paper

Courses : All

Topic :

Economic Development, Social Entrepreneurship

Design for Extreme Affordability: OIT 333/4

Students apply engineering and business skills to design product prototypes, distribution systems, and business plans for entrepreneurial ventures in developing countries. The aim is to address challenges faced by the world's poor.

Resource: MBA Course

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 :

Social Entrepreneurship

Leadership in Diverse Organizations: OB 393

This course is designed to help students understand and manage human systems, exercise leadership, and work effectively with other people, specifically within the context of culturally diverse groups and organizations. The underlying premise is that diversity can present unique challenges and opportunities.

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 :

Lives of Consequence: How Individuals Discover Paths to Meaningful Engagement: OB 383

This course examines the lives of individuals who have contributed greatly to society, either through business, politics, arts and entertainment, or other pursuits. We take a close look, for example, at the "paths to prominence" of individuals such as Steve Jobs, Condi Rice, George Lucas, John F. Kennedy, and Martin Luther King.

Resource: MBA Course

Innovators : All

Topic :

Government

Steve Westly (MBA '83)

Steve Westly reflects on his years as a public servant, including State Controller and CFO for the State of California, and his candidacy for Governor in 2006.

Resource: Alumni

Topic :

Monte Rosen (MBA '85)

Monte Rosen discusses founding The Essential Learning Group, a Shanghai-based, self-funded social venture that provides special education services to expats and Chinese children with autism.

Resource: Alumni

Topic :

Mark Conroe (MBA '85)

Mark Conroe is leveraging his real estate experience and decades of volunteer work to help build the San Francisco House of Hope, a supportive housing project for the homeless.

Resource: Alumni

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, Social Entrepreneurship

Jo Ivester (MBA '81)

Jo Ivester shares how the interactions and impact she has had as a professor complete the beautiful circle of a family legacy in education.

Resource: Alumni

Topic :

A Crash Course on Creativity

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.

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Resource: Audio

Topic :

The Critical Role of the Strategic Brand

Branding plays a unique and powerful role in the nonprofit sector. In this audio lecture from Stanford Social Innovation Review’s Nonprofit Management Institute, Harvard researcher Nathalie Kylander discusses how a strategic brand can enable an organization to build capacity and impact. Based on research conducted at Harvard University’s Hauser Center for Nonprofits, Kylander shares the framework that she and her colleagues developed to help nonprofit leaders develop a more strategic approach to managing their nonprofit brand—one that creates greater social impact and tighter organizational cohesion.

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Resource: Audio

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 :