10 Great Social Innovation Reads: January 2012

I can’t believe that January is already over, it was a complete blur. Nonetheless there was lots to read and ponder in the past month in the world of social innovation. Below are my ten picks of the best reads, but as always, please add what I missed in the comments. And if you want to see other things that caught my eye, follow me on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn or Pinterest (I’m starting to really love this new one!).

1. Socialbrite has created a mega calendar of 2012 nonprofit & social good conferences. Perfect for planning your year ahead.




2. In their Fast Company article, It’s Time To Start Judging Nonprofits Like For-Profits, Alexa Clay and Jon Camfield tell donors “Do not be turned off by high overheads. They’re healthy. They mean the organization has a longer-term view on its role in making change.” Amen to that!




3. Crowd-sourcing meets behavioral economics meets iPhone apps. A new approach to getting people to eat better. Love it.




4. FastCompany profiles the business pioneers who really understand and embrace the new chaos in which we all now operate. This should be required reading for any leader (for-profit or nonprofit).




5. I love it when we can use history to understand current trends. Phil Buchanan, CEO of the Center for Effective Philanthropy, reviews historian Oliver Zunz’s new book, Philanthropy in America. In so doing, Buchanan describes 7 “new” philanthropic concepts that really aren’t so new.




6. Jason Cohen from A Smart Bear always has a way of finding hope in the entrepreneurial process. Although this post is focused on “traditional” entrepreneurs, I think it holds for social entrepreneurs as well: Entrepreneurship is a torturous chaos, until it isn’t.




7. I have always said that in order to be a truly effective social change leader, you must be able to fully wield the financial sword. Kate Barr from the Nonprofit Assistance Fund in Minnesota breaks it down in the Executive Director’s Guide to Financial Leadership




8. January saw a pretty impressive mobilization of people via social media to protest against SOPA (the Stop Online Piracy Act) and PIPA (Protect Intellectual Property Act). Dowser helps us understand what it means for online protest more broadly.




9. In an increasingly competitive and resource-strapped environment it is even more critical that nonprofits be able to demonstrate the impact of their work. Here is a great example of how a Michigan arts collaboration demonstrates the economic impact of the arts in their community.




10. Hull House, one of the oldest and most impressive American nonprofit organizations closed its doors in January. The Bridgespan Group explains the implications.

Photo Credit: ilovememphis

Tags: Bridgespan Group, Center for Effective Philanthropy, crowd-sourcing, executive director, Hull House, Nonprofit Assistance Fund, nonprofit conferences, nonprofit economic impact, nonprofit financial management, Phil Buchanan, Philanthropy, PIPA, social change conferences, Social Entrepreneurship, SOPA

10 Great Social Innovation Reads: November

November was another great month in the world of social innovation. Here is my pick of the top 10 posts, articles, graphics, and discussions. As always, please add your favorites from the month to the comments. And if you want to see a longer list of what catches my eye, follow me on Twitter @nedgington. You can also read past months’ 10 Great Reads lists here.

1. Some very interesting reports and predictions on how nonprofits and philanthropy are changing. First, the Philanthropic Ventures Foundation predicts a pretty exciting future for philanthropy. And Blackbaud released a report on what 35 experts think it will take to grow philanthropic giving in the US. And finally the 2011 Nonprofit Almanac is out. The annual report shows the nonprofit sector growing and that giving is back to 2000 levels




2. DC Central Kitchen founder and nonprofit sector advocate Robert Egger launched a new group called CForward to help nonprofits fight for their rightful place at the political table.




3. The Washington Post gets into the social innovation business by launching a new “On Giving” section to discuss philanthropy, social entrepreneurship, socially responsible business and much more.




4. The Nonprofit Finance Fund offers a great worksheet to assess a nonprofit’s strengths and weaknesses in order to link their financial health to their impact. Love it!




5. HubSpot offers a great infographic on pull vs. push marketing, but I’d argue it applies to fundraising as well.




6. The Alliance for Global Good is launching a $10 million fund to promote innovation in philanthropy. The new fund will “draw attention to charities that have found new approaches to tough problems and provide money to help them expand their work.”




7. On the Unsectored blog Jeff Raderstrong encourages us to start asking the right questions about the charitable deduction currently the focus of so much debate.




8. Always one to tell it like it is, Mario Morino from Venture Philanthropy Partners offers 6 Wrenching Questions Every Board Member Must Answer.




9. Jim Kucher argues on his blog that there is a bipolar disorder in social entrepreneurship, between the competing, and sometimes conflicting, social and business perspectives.




10. Tom Tierney, chairman of Bridgespan Group, a nonprofit consultancy, has written a paper, “The Donor-Grantee Trap, about the dangers of the nonprofit starvation cycle. In a recent interview about it, he argues “Nonprofits should be clear about their definition of success, articulate their strategy for achieving success and be up front about what that costs. That includes understanding the organization’s true overhead costs and making a case for funding good overhead.” Amen to that!

Photo Credit: Sim Van Gyseghem

Tags: charitable deduction, Nonprofit Almanac, nonprofit board members, nonprofit trends, Philanthropy, Social Enterprise, Social Entrepreneurship, social innovation

The Road to a Better World is Jammed with Red Bikes

Note: This post originally appeared on the Change.org Social Entrepreneurship blog last year.

There is something pretty amazing going on in Denver, and it might just change the world. B-cycle, a nonprofit that provides rental bikes around the city, has found a cheap, fun way to make Denver a cleaner city and its inhabitants and visitors healthier.  I spent last weekend playing tourist in Denver and the experience was made so much better, and cleaner, because of the rows of red B-cycle rental bikes around the city. Denver is demonstrating that change really is possible, especially when it’s easy and fun.

Denver is the first U.S. city to do what European, Canadian, Chinese and Mexican cities have already done–share bikes. Here’s how it works. You buy a short or long-term “membership” via credit card online starting at $5. Then grab one of the 500 bikes waiting for you at the 50 kiosks around the city (found through a pretty cool iPhone app) and ride. When you’re done, return it to any of the kiosks, and your card will be charged for the amount of time you rode. The first 30 minutes are free, and it goes up in increments of around $1-2 for each 30 minutes after that.

As tourists, my husband and I found enormous value in B-cycle. Because of the availability of the shared bikes, we decided not to rent a car. By the end of 3 days we had (according to the computers embedded in our bikes) ridden 49 miles, burned 1,944 calories, created a carbon offset of 46 pounds and saved $25.76 in gas money. In addition, we saved about $150 in rental car costs and parking.   Our total bike rental fees was only $26. So we saved about $150 in costs, got some fabulous exercise, did not pollute the city, and actually got a much more intimate view of the city than we would ever have by car. Not bad for a holiday weekend.

But it’s not just for tourists, by far. The idea is that Denver residents can climb on a bike “for trips that are too far to walk but too short to drive.” With a shared bike you can run an errand, get out for a bit at lunch, travel from the bus stop to your office, and much more.

Denver’s B-cycle program is actually part of a national B-cycle organization, which is a partnership between Humana, Trek Bicycle and Crispin Porter + Bogusky. Denver is B-cycle’s first installation, but according to their online vote of which cities B-cycle should expand to next, they have big plans for growth. And in fact, Boston and Minneapolis are already slated to install bike sharing programs later this year.

Denver’s B-cycle is funded through an impressively diverse mix of corporate sponsorships (like lead sponsor Kaiser Permanente), federal energy block grants (no city funding), foundation grants and earned income (through memberships and usage fees). I haven’t seen their financials, but I’d guess that in a few years when user volume is high enough they could probably become self-sustaining, the holy grail for nonprofit organizations.

What makes me most excited about B-cycle is that it is solving several problems simultaneously, yet it is incredibly simple and fun, making it much more likely that people will adopt the solution. B-cycle truly proves the Fun Theory, that change is possible when it’s fun to change.

Photo Credit: Denver B-Cycle

Tags: B-cycle, bicycle sharing, corporate sponsorships, Fun Theory, public transportation, social change, Social Entrepreneurship, transportation issues

A Monster List of Social Innovation Books, Blogs, Conferences, Funders

Since today is Halloween, I thought I’d offer a monster list of resources for nonprofit leaders, social entrepreneurs, philanthropists, board members and others involved in creating social change.

The following list comes from the Resources page of the Social Velocity web site. The page includes social innovation conferences, organizations, funders, blogs, books and other things that anyone involved in the social change space should be aware of. It could be a starting point or an ongoing exploration of what’s going on in the space.

We are constantly adding to the Resources page, so if we are missing something, let us know in the comments.

Organizations Moving Social Innovation Forward

Funders

• 130 Ways to Fund Your Social Venture
• Center for Effective Philanthropy
• Dell Social Innovation Competition
• Echoing Green
• New Profit
• Nonprofit Finance Fund
• Public-Philanthropic Partnerships at the Council on Foundations
• Robert Wood Johnson’s Pioneer Portfolio
• Sea Change Capital
• Unreasonable Institute
• Venture Philanthropy Partners

Conferences

• Accelerating Social Entrepreneurship in the Age of Austerity
• Bottom Billions Bottom Line
• Clinton Global Initiative Annual Meeting
• Conference on Scaling Impact (by Social Impact Exchange)
• FSG and SSIR Collective Impact Conference
• Grantmakers for Effective Organizations Conference
• Harvard Social Enterprise Conference
• Net Change Week
• Net Impact 2011 Conference
• NextGen: Charity
• The Nonprofit Management Institute (by Stanford Social Innovation Review)
• Opportunity Collaboration
• ReVisioning Value
• Skoll World Forum on Social Entrepreneurship
• Social Capital Markets Conference
• Social Enterprise Summit
• Social Enterprise World Forum
• Social Good Summit
• Social Venture Capital / Social Enterprise (Miami)
• Social Venture Network Conference
• Social Venture Partners International Annual Conference
• Sustainatopia
• The Feast
• UST Symposium on Social Entrepreneurship

Philanthropic Thought Leaders

• Blue Print Research and Design
• The J.W. McConnell Family Foundation
• Tactical Philanthropy Advisors

Things to Read

Blogs

• A Smart Bear: Startups & Marketing for Geeks
• About.com Nonprofit Charitable Orgs
• Against the Grain
• Beth's Blog: How Nonprofits are Using Social Media to Power Change
• Dan Pallotta: Harvard Business Review
• Deep Social Impact
• Dowser
• Full Contact Philanthropy
• GuideStar: Bob Ottenhoff Blog
• Money and Mission
• New Philanthropy Capital's Blog
• NFF's Social Currency Blog
• Philanthropy 2173
• PhilanTopic
• SocialEarth
• SSIR Opinion Blog: Nonprofit Management
• SSIR Opinion Blog: Social Entrepreneurship
• Tactical Philanthropy
• UnSectored

Financing Impact

• Beyond Fundraising
• Nonprofit Growth Capital, Building is not Buying
• The Nonprofit Starvation Cycle
• Social Finance
• Social Impact Bonds
• The Task Force on Social Finance
• Understanding Nonprofit Financial Statements

Using Social Media

• The Dragonfly Effect
• The Networked Nonprofit

Being Strategic

• Built to Last: Successful Habits of Visionary Companies
• Creating Public Value
• Forces for Good: The Six Practices of High-Impact Nonprofits
• Good to Great
• Good to Great and the Social Sector
• Leap of Reason: Managing to Outcomes in an Era of Scarcity
• Strategic Management of Charter Schools

Finding Inspiration

• Getting to Maybe: How the World is Changed
• How to Change the World
• One Day, All Children…: The Unlikely Triumph Of Teach For America And What I Learned Along The Way
• Social Innovation Generation
• The Power of Unreasonable People: How Social Entrepreneurs Create Markets That Change the World
• The Social Innovation Dynamic
• Work on Purpose

Growing Solutions

• Franchise Organizations
• Scaling Social Impact: Strategies for Spreading Social Innovations. Stanford Social Innovation Review
• The Five Meanings of Scale
• The Nonprofit Outcomes Toolbox

Leading Well

• Leadership Without Easy Answers
• Real Change Leaders

Photo Credit: annabellaphoto

Tags: funding for social entrepreneurship, nonprofit, nonprofit financing, nonprofit funders, nonprofit leadership, nonprofit strategy, Philanthropy, social change funders, Social Entrepreneurship, social entrepreneurship conferences, social innovation, social innovation blogs

A Movement for Climate Solutions

After 90 days over 100 degrees, a complete lack of rain, and wildfires burning out of control, this summer in Texas has been a particularly bad one. Indeed, the weather around the globe increasingly proves that climate change is alive and well. Which is why this video is particularly inspiring. On September 24th people around the world took to the streets to demand action on climate change. Moving Planet inspired 2,000 events in 180 countries all bringing attention to the need for solutions. It was an inspiring thing to see.

If you’d like a little inspiration on a Friday, take a look.

Tags: climate change, environmental activism, Moving Planet, Social Entrepreneurship, social media

This Week’s The Giving Show

I’m delighted to announce that I will be Michael Chatman’s guest on this week’s Giving Show. Michael was voted America’s Maverick Philanthropist and one of the nation’s leading authorities on new philanthropy. He heads the nation’s largest network of mission-related philanthropists giving up to $50,000 annually, The Association of Maverick Philanthropists.

Michael hosts a weekly radio show, called the Giving Show, the largest weekly audience devoted to the topic of philanthropy.

I’ll be Michael’s guest this week on Thursday, September 8th at 11:30am Eastern. You can click here to listen then.

We’ll be talking about Financing Not Fundraising, how to get your donors to be more effective, how philanthropy is changing, what the social entrepreneurship movement means for nonprofits and much more. I hope you’ll join us.

Click here to listen to the Giving Show on Thursday at 11:30am Eastern.

Tags: financing not fundraising, Michael Chatman, nonprofit fundraising, nonprofit innovation, nonprofit trends, Philanthropy, Social Entrepreneurship, The Giving Show

10 Great Social Innovation Reads: July

I’ve been out exploring the Western states of the country (which I HIGHLY recommend) for the last few weeks, so my blog posts have been sparse, and my 10 Great Reads for July a bit delinquent, so please forgive me.

Below are the 10 things that got me thinking last month. You can also read past months’ 10 Great Reads here. As always, please let me know what I’ve missed in the comments below.

1. In the Stanford Social Innovation Review, Paul Connolly argues that foundation support of fundraising capacity has limited returns. Although I completely agree that you cannot build fundraising capacity without building the capacity of other aspects of the organization, I think he takes this a bit too far. It is critical that more donors, not less, support the organizational capacity, as opposed to just the programs, of nonprofits.




2. Talk about innovative, arts groups try the airline company pricing approach to ticket sales.




3. From the Harvard Business Review blog comes a great idea: A Gap Year for Grown-ups. Far beyond the author’s argument about the benefits to the individual, something like this could dramatically increase the ranks of national service programs.




4. An MBA myself, I love the fact that more MBA students are turning to social enterprise.




5. The Nonprofit Tech 2.0 blog gives us 11 examples of innovative nonprofit websites that are designed for the social web.




6. Khan Academy, an education website, is being used to teach kids in new, interesting, and controversial ways.




7. From one of my favorite blogs, Full Contact Philanthropy, comes an argument about how even simple evaluation can help create more effective programs.




8. Extending Mario Marino’s argument in Leap of Reason, Phil Buchanan from the Center for Effective Philanthropy argues that foundations need to provide support to nonprofits working on performance measurement.




9. And echoing Leap of Reason’s core argument, Paul Light argues in a Washington Post OpEd that “nonprofit leaders have to get better at measuring the value they produce.”




10. Guest blogging on the Tactical Philanthropy blog, Tony Wang argues that philanthropy needs to be more critical of itself.

Photo Credit: Infrogmation

Tags: 10 Great Reads, Center for Effective Philanthropy, Fundraising, Leap of Reason, national service, nonprofit capacity, program evaluation, Social Enterprise, Social Entrepreneurship, social innovation, Stanford Social Innovation Review

10 Great Social Innovation Reads: June

In our ongoing blog series, 10 Great Social Innovation Reads, below are my top 10 picks for the best reads in the world of social innovation in June.

What were your favorite reads this month? Add to the list in the comments.

1. The SocialEarth blog argues that the staggering unemployment numbers for America’s youngest workers could be an opportunity for entrepreneurship.
2. As IBM and the Carnegie Corporation both turn 100, Matthew Bishop from the Economist analyzes which has done more social good.
3. The Philanthropy411 blog gives us an updated list of foundations and funder networks on Twitter.
4. With the advent of greater tools for understanding social return on investment, Adin Miller asks the question: Do funders need exit plans when they determine a better SROI elsewhere?
5. Lucy Bernholz makes a call for more transparent philanthropy.
6. Sean Stannard-Stockton takes large foundations to task for not participating more actively in the Social Innovation Fund.
7. “Perhaps a useful definition of visionary leadership is the ability to not be unduly swayed by the implied or expressed goals of those outside your own tent,” argues Craig Reigel on the Nonprofit Finance Fund blog.
8. FastCompany provides a great list of what business, CSR and nonprofit leaders are reading this summer.
9. The PhilanTopic blog gives a useful analysis of what the recently released GivingUSA 2011 data tells us about where giving is going. And Bob Ottenhoff from GuideStar gives his take.
10. Curtis Chang argues that blaming the recession for a budget shortfall just isn’t going to cut it anymore.

Photo Credit: Simon Cocks

Tags: 10 Great Social Innovation Reads, Bob Ottenhoff, Curtis Chang, Giving USA 2011, Lucy Bernholz, Matthew Bishop, nonprofit fundraising, Sean Stannard-Stockton, Social Entrepreneurship, The Economist