Inside Social Innovation

According to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, more than 65 million people around the world have been forced from home—the highest levels of displacement on record.

In her recent SSIR article, “Let Refugees Be Their Own Solution,” Emily Arnold-Fernandez, executive director of the nonprofit Asylum Access, and Brian Rawson, the organization’s associate director of advocacy and communication, make the case that better policies in host countries can enable refugees to rebuild their own lives and contribute to host economies. Priss Benbow, a fellow at Stanford’s Distinguished Careers Institute, interviews Arnold-Fernandez about what enabling environments look like in practice and how nonprofits and other social sector players can help create them.

Additional resources:
@EDAsylumAccess

As director of the Anti-Defamation League’s (ADL) Silicon Valley-based Center for Technology and Society, Brittan Heller oversees efforts to track cyber-hate, and works in partnership with technology companies and law enforcement agencies to reduce bigotry and promote justice and fair treatment in online environments.

At a time when tech companies are struggling to respond to the rise of online hate speech and cyber harassment, the ADL is attempting to take a proactive approach.

At SSIR’s 2018 Data on Purpose conference, Kim Meredith, executive director of the Stanford Center on Philanthropy and Civil Society, spoke with Heller about the ADL’s data-driven tactics as well as Heller’s background in international criminal and human rights law, and her role in one of the first high-profile, cyber-harassment cases in the United States.

Additional resources:
@brittanheller
Leading Through Turbulent Times

To solve “wicked problems” like deforestation and persistent poverty, we not only need better data but also better indicators to identify problems and patterns in real time. Planet Inc., a geospatial organization that has deployed the largest constellation of Earth-observing satellites in history, is leading the way—using data insights to help solve these complex global problems.

At our 2018 Data on Purpose conference, Andrew Zolli, Planet’s vice president of global impact initiatives, discusses what he sees as the coming age of “big indicators.” Breakthroughs in artificial intelligence, computer vision, crowdsourcing, and other related analytical approaches are converging, allowing us to detect patterns in data that would elude even the most sophisticated human analysis—collectively, these tools are known as big indicators.

We have the tools to help us monitor the health of our planet instantaneously, and we are on the cutting edge of being able to predict crises like flood or famine thanks to big indicators, Zolli says. He argues that the next step is to restructure data-collection funding to create instruments that will allow us to intervene in extremely precise ways.

Additional Resources:
After Big Data: The Coming Age of “Big Indicators”
Andrew Zolli - Globeshakers with Tim Zak
The Mismeasure of Impact
@Andrew_zolli

Good ideas and intentions are not enough to solve the world’s most pressing problems. Many early-stage organizations fail because they lack the tools they need to grow—especially when it comes to collecting data and measuring impact. Data is essential for nonprofit scaling because it not only attracts funders but also allows organizations to prove and improve on their mission.

In this recording from our 2018 Data on Purpose conference, Kathleen Kelly Janus, a social entrepreneur, Stanford lecturer, and author of Social Startup Success: How the Best Nonprofits Launch, Scale Up, and Make a Difference, shares insights on the strategies organizations need to succeed. As Janus writes, 75 percent of organizations report that they collect data, yet only 6 percent feel they use it effectively. Data is only as good as an organization’s ability to use it.

Janus argues that the nonprofit sector as a whole has a responsibility to help organizations improve in this regard. To do this, funders must end the “nonprofit starvation cycle” by supporting data collection. And nonprofits must focus their data collection on long-term outcomes and instill the importance of data collection within their staff and organizational culture. Not every outcome can be measured, but every nonprofit can find metrics that fit its services and goals.

Additional resources:
Creating a Data Culture
Social Startup Success: How the Best Nonprofits Launch, Scale Up and Make a Difference
Three Things Every Growing Nonprofit Needs to Scale
@kkellyjanus

Social sector organizations are increasingly under pressure to better protect the privacy and security of their data. How should they examine their data governance practices to align with the demands of governments, their constituents, and their mission?

At our 2018 Data on Purpose conference, Lucy Bernholz, a senior research scholar at Stanford’s Center on Philanthropy and Civil Society and the director of the Digital Civil Society Lab explored this topic with Alix Dunn, executive director and co-founder of the Engine Room, a nonprofit that helps activists and other organizations make the most of data and technology to increase their impact, and Amy O’Donnell, the information communications technology program lead at Oxfam.

           
The speakers argue that civil society organizations have an opportunity to positively model responsible data use and offer some tips for getting started. For most nonprofits, a rights-based approach to data governance requires a culture shift and involving staff from all parts of an organization, Dunn and O’Donnell explain. In this podcast you’ll also hear from conference participants who help underline the knotty ethical considerations responsible data governance often involves.

Additional resources:
Corporate Social Responsibility for a Data Age
Using Data for Action and for Impact

@p2173
@alixtrot
@engnroom
@amy_odonnell

Given the largely unaccountable position of power held by philanthropists, what role
should they play in democratic societies? In this recording from the 2017 Philanthropy Innovation Summit, hosted by Stanford’s Center on Philanthropy and Civil Society, Rob Reich, a Marc and Laura Andreessen faculty co-director of Stanford PACS, facilitates a conversation with Reed Hastings, cofounder and CEO of Netflix, and Darren Walker, president of the Ford Foundation.

They discuss their differing approaches to charitable giving and grantmaking and how in their own ways they aim to inspire public confidence that they are learning from mistakes and improving their effectiveness.
    

Says Walker, “I’m less obsessed with ‘Are we holding these rich people accountable?’ than I am in saying, ‘Are we helping philanthropists have the right approach to their philanthropy,’ and ‘Are we pushing back?’ because there is a lot of arrogance.”

Additional resources:
Does Philanthropy Threaten Democracy?
Democracy and Philanthropy

@darrenwalker
@reedhastings
@robreich

Nonprofit leaders can’t continue to do the same things and expect different results in their work to help move the United States toward greater equity.

In this podcast from our 2017 Nonprofit Management Institute, PolicyLink President Michael McAfee (@mikemcafee06) shares his perspective on being both angry and excited about the changes America needs to make—and using both of those emotions in a productive way.

Before taking the helm of PolicyLink, McAfee was the inaugural director of the racial- and economic-justice research organization’s Promise Neighborhoods Institute.
Before that, he was a senior community planning and development representative with the US Department of Housing and Urban Development.

Here he offers advice on thinking big and having the courage to lead and advance systemic change.

Additional resources:
Bringing Soul to the Work of Collective Impact
The Curb-Cut Effect
The Role of Public Policy in Alleviating Poverty
@mikemcafee06

Since its founding in 1913, the ADL has fought against the defamation of Jewish people, and to secure justice and fair treatment for all.

That mission has kept Jonathan Greenblatt (@JGreenblattADL)
very busy over the past two years. His tenure has coincided with the 2016 US election, a rise in hate crimes and hate groups, and an increase in cyber-hate.

In this podcast from our 2017 Nonprofit Management Institute, SSIR Senior Editor David Johnson (@contrarianp) interviews Greenblatt about leading the organization through turbulent times and fostering a culture of innovation within an established organization.

During the conversation, Greenblatt draws from his background in the private, public, and nonprofit sectors. During the Obama administration, he served as special assistant to the President and head of the Office of Social Innovation and Civic Participation at the White House. He previously cofounded Ethos Water, a bottled water company that donates a portion of its profits to help clean water initiatives around the world, and ran the media company GOOD.

Additional resources:
Speaking Out When Our Values Are in Play
The Lean Startup Goes to Washington
@JGreenblattADL

Youth, families, and residents are the leaders of their own destinies, and yet public institutions oftentimes don’t reflect the demographics of their communities and are not guided by strategies defined community members.

In this podcast from our 2017 Nonprofit Management Institute, Paola Peacock Friedrich, a consultant with Achieve Mission, interviews Dorian Burton (@Dorian_Burton), assistant executive director and chief program officer at the William R. Kenan, Jr. Charitable Trust, and Brian Barnes (@BCBBarnes), a speaker on the topic of responsiveness to education and health in communities.
     

Barnes and Burton argue for the importance of shifting the philanthropic sector’s framework from one grounded in traditional notions of charity to one centered on justice and addressing economic, social, and political inequalities holistically, an idea they outlined in their SSIR article, “Shifting Philanthropy From Charity to Justice.”

They are co-founders of TandemEd, which aims to put this justice-minded agenda into practice, supporting youth and communities to reclaim leadership of strategies and actions for communal progress.

“It’s extremely important that communities are their own heroes of their own stories,” Burton says to foundation leaders. “We are not the saviors of communities.”

Additional resources:
“Paying in Full”
“Shifting Philanthropy From Charity to Justice”
@Dorian_Burton
@BCBBarnes

Our Winter 2018 cover story, “The Investment Gap that Threatens the Planet,” takes a detailed look at investments in discovering and developing new solutions to address climate change. It finds that such investments are woefully low and have even been falling in recent years. The article concludes that philanthropists are particularly well-suited to bridging this investment gap in the market.

On this related podcast, David Johnson (@contrarianp), senior editor of Stanford Social Innovation Review, interviews Sarah Kearney (@swoodkearney) and Scott Burger (@burgersb), who co-authored the article along with Fiona Murray and Liqian Ma. Kearney is the founder and executive director of PRIME Coalition, a public charity that empowers philanthropists to inject charitable capital into market-based solutions to climate change. Burger is a doctoral candidate in the Institute for Data, Systems, and Society at MIT and the technology investment advisor to the PRIME Coalition.
                 

They discuss why we need to continue developing new solutions to climate change in addition to harnessing existing solutions, why agriculture—one of the largest sources of greenhouse gas emissions—gets so little investment compared to other sectors, and why the venture capital industry in the United States is not in the business of solving social problems.

“Most [venture capital] funds are in a race to go first for the next Instagram,” Kearney says, “but no one wants to go first for the grid capacity energy storage company or industrial waste heat-to-electricity conversion company that might take longer and cost more and have uncertain exit options than the 10-year venture fund structure can afford.”

Additional resources:

• The Investment Gap that Threatens the Planet
• A New Vision for Funding Science
• 10 SSIR Articles on Climate Change Solutions
• @swoodkearney
• @burgersb