Skip to Content
Change lives. Change organizations. Change the world.

Center for
Social Innovation

Center for Social Innovation

Economic Development

Time, CNN -

Time nominated D.light Design founders Ned Tozun (MBA '07) and Sam Goldman (MBA '07) as one of their 25 Responsibility Pioneers.

Stanford Social Innovation Fellowships Awarded to Two MBA Students’ Ventures

Published: June 08, 2009
Topics: Economic Development, Human Rights
- Gina Jorasch

An interview with Dave DeForest-Stalls (EPNL '07)

Dave DeForest-Stalls (EPNL '07)

Published: August 31, 2009

Affiliation:
Executive Education Participant, Stanford Social Innovation Review Reader
What are your causes?

My personal mission in life is to empower young people to change the world. I work primarily with children who have a missing parent and want/need a mentor, and urban adolescents who are in gangs or who are susceptible to becoming involved in them. I'm also involved in the Colorado nonprofit industry's efforts to view and promote itself more as an active part of the state's economic engine rather than just a passive recipient of charitable handouts.

How do you contribute?

For the last four plus years I've been president and CEO of Big Brothers Big Sisters of Colorado, which provides professionally supported adult mentors to children. In the 1990s and early 2000s I was founder of the Spot Youth Center, an organization that targets and works with young people who are in or are vulnerable to gangs. The Center provided an engaging, arts and hip-hop focused, nighttime drop-in environment for urban adolescents. Over the last two years I've been a part of the Colorado Nonprofit Association's public policy efforts to be a recognized economic development partner and resource.

What are important lessons you learned?

Stay focused personally and professionally where your passion is the greatest. It's so much more enjoyable to get up in the morning -- or toss sleeplessly -- when you're engaged in something you love to do.

Everything we accomplish is done through our people -- our staff, volunteers, board members, investors (donors), and clients. So really focus on the individual and his or her growth and significance. Focus on building and growing a healthy relationship.

Listening well to people and being sincerely curious about who they are and what they think is the greatest leadership skill.

What are your favorite social innovation resources?

Social Innovation Review

Where can we learn more about what you're doing?

Big Brothers Big Sisters of Colorado
The Spot Youth Center

Entrepreneur -

In the wake of Hurricane Katrina, entrepreneurial organizations are taking the place of the old business culture, bringing creative new solutions to the city's economic and social problems. "We're creating a mecca for entrepreneurs," says Michael Hecht (MBA '98), president and CEO of Greater New Orleans Inc. IDEAcorps, directed by Stanford alum Daryn Dodson (MBA '07), is an example of the creativity and impact entrepreneurs are generating in New Orleans.

The New York Times -

Acumen Fund founder and CEO Jacqueline Novogratz (MBA '91) praises Scott Harrison for his visionary and wildly successful work in central Africa. Harrison founded and runs charity: water, a nonprofit that trains Africans to build and maintain wells in areas lacking clean drinking water.

The New York Times -

The number of nonprofits that offer microloans and business education is growing, and so is the number of successful entrepreneurs in developing countries. Bruce McNamer (JD/MBA ’96) is the CEO of one such nonprofit, TechnoServe, which is changing the world through business education for rural entrepreneurs.

The Cool and the Green: Expo Shows Off Innovative Design

Published: April 10, 2009
Topics: Economic Development

An interview with Mark Cafferty (EPNL '07)

Mark Cafferty (EPNL '07)

Published: July 28, 2009

Affiliation:
Executive Education Participant, Social Innovation Conversations Podcast Listener, Stanford Social Innovation Review Reader
What are your causes?

At San Diego Workforce Partnership, we care about empowering individuals and the community through career and economic development. We’re all about enhancing quality of life and creating a vibrant economy where people can thrive. We focus on helping those who historically have not had the resources gain access to employment, career advancement, and education. We work with all San Diegans in need of support, from workers who have recently lost jobs because of the downturn in the economy to military spouses who are stationed in San Diego, as well as military personnel coming back from Iraq and Afghanistan.

How do you contribute?

We receive money from the United States Department of Labor and various charitable organizations and channel it through a number of vehicles. One comprises one-stop career centers where anyone can walk in and receive free employment and training support—including those who have been unemployed for a long time, have little work experience, or have significant barriers to employment. Another resource we support is a network of 10 to 15 youth programs and service providers, including local school systems. We fund and support many of their efforts focused on career training for young people.

What are important lessons you learned?

When your budget is beholden to one funding stream, as ours was to the federal government, you’ve got to think about diversifying your funding base. That way, if the funding from your major source fluctuates due to economic and other factors, you can still achieve stability.  We are currently working hard to diversify our funding and develop a stronger foundation for our work. 

We also realized that we would serve the community better by putting our money into already existing programs, and supporting and enhancing their work, rather than trying to create our own. This helps us to avoid competing with other organizations and allows us to be an efficient and helpful partner.

What are your favorite social innovation resources?

Top Social Innovation Resource: Classmates and colleagues from the 2007 EPNL program
Good to Great and Good to Great and the Social Sectors (Jim Collins)
Harvard Business Review
Stanford Social Innovation Review

Where can we learn more about what you're doing?

www.sandiegoatwork.com

San Diego Workforce Partnership American Recovery and Reinvestment Act Information: http://www.sandiegoatwork.com/generate/html/About_Us/ARRA_information.html

An interview with Court Gould (EPNL '06)

Court Gould (EPNL '06)

Published: July 24, 2009

Affiliation:
Executive Education Participant, Stanford Social Innovation Review Reader
What are your causes?

Sustainable Pittsburgh is committed to promoting policies, practices, and growth patterns in Southwestern Pennsylvania that move us toward sustainable development. We want to assure our long-term competitiveness and quality of life by focusing on the intersection of the environment, social equity, and the economy.

How do you contribute?

For 12 years we’ve been working to inform decision makers in the region about system-level trends, patterns, and linkages among issues as they relate to sustainable growth, and we’re bringing the best practices in this regard to our region. We do this by building strategic networks. We’ve done regional indicator reports, for example. We bring in speakers and hold forums. We do policy work at the metropolitan level. And we provide technical assistance to municipalities on sustainability issues. We’ve been instrumental in introducing concepts of regional equitable development and smart growth that show the relationship among growth, social equity issues, and access to opportunity.

Also, we’re entrepreneurial in that we provide sustainability assessments for a fee to businesses, other nonprofits, and municipalities. We’ve found a way to advance our mission while being paid.

What are important lessons you learned?

Often those we think will be the least engaged and informed turn out to be some of the most valuable participants in visioning and understanding how living conditions and access to opportunity are tied to regional issues. These people sometimes come through with the most astute observations and practical solutions.

When you present complex information in easily digestible ways, the public can grasp how environmental, social, and economic issues are related. We don’t need to dumb things down. People are pretty smart.

What are your favorite social innovation resources?

World Business Council for Sustainable Development
http://www.wbcsd.org

Where can we learn more about what you're doing?

www.sustainablepittsburgh.org
http://pittsburghgives.guidestar.org/NonprofitProfile.aspx?OrgId=2953

An interview with Ruth Bolan (EPNL '06)

Ruth Bolan (EPNL '06)

Published: July 24, 2009

Affiliation:
Social Innovation Conversations Podcast Listener, Stanford Social Innovation Review Reader
What are your causes?

I run a small nonprofit in Honolulu, Pacific Islanders in Communications, funded by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. We’re based on the principle that in a democracy, even the smallest minorities should have a voice in public media. So we fund documentaries that raise the profile on social justice issues and the culture of the indigenous peoples of the Pacific Islands.

How do you contribute?

We give grants to new and emerging filmmakers to help seed their projects. For example, we funded a film on racial inequality and health care among the Marshall Islanders who settled in Arkansas. These were people in a We give grants to new and emerging filmmakers to help seed their projects. For example, we funded a film on racial inequality and health care among the Marshall Islanders who settled in Arkansas. These were people in a region where the U.S. government had done nuclear testing, and who developed drug-resistant tuberculosis as a result. Among the many other documentaries we’ve supported is a film that brought ancient Hawaiian hula to people’s living rooms via PBS.

What are important lessons you learned?

We receive $1 million from PBS annually, and that funding has remained flat for 15 years. So while attending the Stanford Executive Program for Nonprofit Leaders, I began thinking of how we could run ourselves more like a business. A key component of that was thinking about our competitive advantage: the film production experience of the staff and the time we had to devote to our work. This inspired me to help us shift our focus from giving out many small grants to funding a few worthy projects per year where the creative talent was high. As a result, my tiny nonprofit is now producing a multi-part series for PBS in collaboration with National Geographic to meet with some of the world’s last indigenous elders before they die.

Where can we learn more about what you're doing?

www.piccom.org
www.lehuafilms.com/pages/onevoice.html

Corner