Inside Social Innovation

Latest Episodes:

Lean Experimentation for the Social Sector: Build Smart to Learn Fast Aug 22, 2016

Show notes

How do you know if your idea will work, without burning through all your time and money? To solve this problem, many nonprofits are turning to the "lean startup" approach, which emphasizes flexibility, pragmatism, and experimentation. The method, pioneered by entrepreneurs such as Steve Blank, allows organizations to learn as quickly as they can about what works, so that they can build and scale successful programs while avoiding huge up-front investments that might lead in the wrong direction.

In this podcast, Blank and fellow author-entrepreneur Giff Constable lead a discussion of the lean process at our 2015 Nonprofit Management Institute. Chase Adam, founder of global healthcare crowdfunding platform Watsi, and Alethea Hannemann, who formerly served as vice president of product and national programs at the Taproot Foundation, share their personal experiences with the methodology.

https://ssir.org/podcasts/entry/lean_experimentation_for_the_social_sector_build_smart_to_learn_fast

Thriving in an Age of Volatility Aug 11, 2016

Show notes

In a time of profound and sustained disruption and volatility, organizations need greater agility, innovation, and creativity than ever before. In this talk from our 2015 Nonprofit Management Institute, Andrew Zolli provides a big-picture view of critical trends and forces of change that will shape the decade to come. He discusses the biases that limit our understanding and explores new ways that organizations can create more resilient organizational strategies and cultures.

Zolli is the co-author of Resilience: Why Things Bounce Back and the former director of the innovation and social change network PopTech. He serves as an advisor to organizations including DataKind and The Workshop School.

https://ssir.org/podcasts/entry/thriving_in_an_age_of_volatility

The Evolving Role of Social Innovation Aug 02, 2016

Show notes

How can the social sector develop to meet new and ongoing challenges in the 21st century? And how can individual social entrepreneurs and organizations find their place within this changing environment? In the concluding session of our Frontiers of Social Innovation forum, Zia Khan, vice president for initiatives and strategy at the Rockefeller Foundation, discusses questions such as these with Johanna Mair, academic editor at SSIR and professor of management, strategy, and leadership at the Hertie School of Governance.

https://ssir.org/podcasts/entry/the_evolving_role_of_social_innovation

How Can We Advance Health Equity? Jul 19, 2016

Show notes

Health is more than health care. It's also a product of several social factors, including education, income, race or ethnicity, and neighborhood environment—which means that attaining health equity will require addressing many larger social and economic issues.

How can we accomplish this goal? That's the topic of this panel from our Frontiers of Social Innovation conference, featuring Faith Mitchell, president and CEO of Grantmakers In Health, Dr. Robert Ross, president and CEO of The California Endowment, and Nick Tilsen, the founding executive director of the Thunder Valley Community Development Corporation, an grassroots organization of the Oglala Lakota Nation. They discuss how they are applying a health equity perspective to their work, what they have accomplished, and what it will take to achieve an inclusive—and healthy—society.

https://ssir.org/podcasts/entry/how_can_we_advance_health_equity

What Foundations Can Do to Address Inequality Jul 05, 2016

Show notes

In this panel from our Frontiers of Social Innovation forum in May, Rob Reich, professor of political science at Stanford University and faculty co-director of the Stanford Center on Philanthropy and Civil Society, moderates a discussion about how foundations, which are arguably the product of marketplace excess, can nevertheless be a vehicle to remedy inequality and advance social justice.

The first panelist is Darren Walker, who as president of the Ford Foundation has spearheaded the organization's shift toward a focus on inequality. The second is Craig Newmark, the founder of the popular online classified advertising site Craigslist, who has since established Craigconnects, a platform to support a range of organizations in areas from veterans affairs to women in tech to ethical journalism.

https://ssir.org/podcasts/entry/the_role_of_foundations_in_addressing_inequality

What Have We Learned About Fighting Poverty? Jun 20, 2016

Show notes

Organizations around the world spend billions of dollars each year trying to lift people out of poverty. Despite the best of intentions, many of these efforts fail, and many others achieve less than optimal results. But some organizations have successfully designed, funded, implemented, and scaled impressive anti-poverty interventions. In this panel, SSIR's Eric Nee talks to leading experts from three.

Asif Saleh, senior director of strategy, communications, and empowerment at BRAC, talks about what the world's largest NGO has learned about scaling up programs. Yale economist Dean Karlan outlines lessons that Innovations for Poverty Action, the nonprofit research and policy organization he founded, has drawn from more than a decade of evaluating poverty programs around the world. And Kevin Starr talks about the evidence-based approach that the Mulago Foundation, where he is managing director, uses to find and fund poverty-fighting organizations.

https://ssir.org/podcasts/entry/what_have_we_learned_about_fighting_poverty

Opportunities for a Fresh Start on Race Jun 06, 2016

Show notes

In this talk from our Frontiers of Social Innovation forum in May, Trabian Shorters offers perspective and perception tools that we all can use to update our narratives on race, communities, and America's future. He demonstrates how far too often, we focus on negative statistics about groups such as Black men, rather than emphasizing their strengths, positive contributions, and future potential. And he shows how a technique called "asset-framing" can help us tell positive stories about people and encourage the understanding, empathy, and optimism that are necessary for meaningful social change.

Shorters is founder and CEO of BMe Community, a network of all races and genders committed to building better communities across the United States and promoting and celebrating the contributions of Black men. Before starting BMe Community, Shorters served as vice president of the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation and worked as a tech entrepreneur. His work on "asset-framing" earned him an Aspen Institute Fellowship and an Ashoka fellowship, and he is the co-editor of the New York Times bestseller REACH: 40 Black Men Speak on Living, Leading and Succeeding.

If desired, you can follow along with the slideshow that accompanied Shorters's presentation here.

https://ssir.org/podcasts/entry/opportunities_for_a_fresh_start_on_race

The Role of Public Policy in Alleviating Poverty May 27, 2016

Show notes

In this recording from our recent Frontiers of Social Innovation conference, Angela Glover Blackwell talks about why, for United States to grow and prosper, policymakers must adopt new approaches to produce good jobs, ensure reinvestment in low-income communities, upgrade the education and skills of an increasingly diverse workforce, and create opportunities for everyone to apply their talents. She also shows how equity, inclusion, and fairness are no longer just moral issues but also economic imperatives: Equity is the superior growth model.

Blackwell is founder, president, and CEO of PolicyLink, an organization working to advance economic and social equity. A lawyer by training, she previously served as senior vice president at the Rockefeller Foundation and founded Urban Strategies Council in Oakland, Calif.

https://ssir.org/podcasts/entry/the_role_of_public_policy_in_alleviating_poverty

Practice Safe Stats! A PSA May 10, 2016

Show notes

In the opening keynote at SSIR's February 2016 Data on Purpose conference, Jake Porway shares best practices for data storytellers and shows why knowing what the data is or is not saying is critical to creating ethical and accurate visualizations. Among other things, he explains the pitfalls of pie charts, why you should be wary of word clouds, and why good data storytelling ultimately means good statistics. He also argues that the real power of data storytelling lies not just in reporting on past activity, but in making decisions that drive decision-making in the future.

Porway is the founder and executive director of DataKind, a nonprofit that uses data science in the service of humanity. He previously worked at the New York Times R&D Lab, Google, and Bell Labs, and has spoken at IBM, Microsoft, and the White House. He holds a bachelor's degree in computer science from Columbia University and a master's degree and a doctorate in statistics from the University of California, Los Angeles.

If desired, you can follow along with the slideshow that accompanied Porway's presentation here.

https://ssir.org/podcasts/entry/podcast_practice_safe_stats_a_psa

Whose Story Are We Telling? Apr 28, 2016

Show notes

In the closing keynote of SSIR's February 2016 Data on Purpose conference, which was themed around "Telling Great Stories With Data," Andrew Means looks at the importance of using storytelling to raise funds and motivate teams—but also the risks of telling the wrong stories. He argues that in a world increasingly reliant on data, we need to be able to accurately quantify organizations' impact, and be careful about when and how we turn to dramatic, unrepresentative stories.

Andrew Means is the cofounder of The Impact Lab, a data science shop that works with nonprofits, foundations, and government agencies solving social problems. He has previously held leadership positions at the University of Chicago's Center for Data Science and Public Policy, Groupon, and the YMCA of Metropolitan Chicago.

If desired, you can follow along with the slideshow for Means' presentation here.

https://ssir.org/podcasts/entry/podcast_whose_story_are_we_telling