Andrew Wolk

What the social innovator needs

Posted on 11. Apr, 2012 by Andrew.

Earlier this year, I asked everyone working within the social innovation field why we were not spreading proven approaches faster. I also said that the answer lay in linking resources to performance. When we efficiently connect resources to the highest performing organizations, we can truly start to spread approaches that work. Today, I ask: How? [...]

Continue Reading

The role of the funders in building social impact markets

Posted on 05. Mar, 2012 by Andrew.

When it comes to accelerating progress on difficult social issues, I believe that we must focus singularly on directing resources towards programs based on performance. I also believe that the funder is the central driver of this process. With limited resources trying to make progress on unlimited needs, “doing more with less” must focus on [...]

Continue Reading

A New Role for Government … and Foundations

Posted on 28. May, 2010 by Andrew.

Yesterday, I was at the White House to attend First Lady Michelle Obama’s announcement of the first round of philanthropic commitments Social Innovation Fund.  By now, especially for those of us working to bring the sectors together to invest in what works, the Social Innovation Fund is not news.  But it was hard not to [...]

Continue Reading

Deval Patrick’s commitment to advancing social innovation in Massachusetts

Posted on 16. Apr, 2010 by Andrew.

Today was a landmark day for anyone interested in improving the way we address social problems in Massachusetts. In a ceremony at Year Up this morning, I joined Governor Deval Patrick along with Vanessa Kirsch and Kim Syman from New Profit, Inc. and a group of over 40 nonprofit leaders including Jumpstart, Playworks, Year Up, [...]

Continue Reading

New Orleans in the Spotlight

Posted on 08. Feb, 2010 by Andrew.

This past weekend was a big one for New Orleans – not just because of the Saints’ Super Bowl victory over the Colts but also the landslide victory for Mitch Landrieu in the election for mayor that took place on Saturday.
Landrieu’s job will not be an easy one, to say the least. As we approach [...]

Continue Reading

What’s hot in New Orleans?

Posted on 04. Feb, 2010 by Andrew.

No, it’s not just that the Saints are going to the Super Bowl − it’s Lieutenant Governor Mitch Landrieu’s candidacy for the mayor of New Orleans.
This Saturday’s election in New Orleans features the latest in a string of campaigns in which a candidate’s core messages include social innovation or civic engagement. Lt. Gov. Landrieu, for [...]

Continue Reading

Social Innovation Fund Draft NOFA is out…Public Comments Due By Jan 15th

Posted on 20. Dec, 2009 by Andrew.

The moment that we have been waiting for is here. This week, the Corporation for National and Community Service released a draft Notice of Funding Availability (NOFA) for the Social Innovation Fund (SIF) for public comment. As I have mentioned before, this should be seen as a good step toward building a broader social innovation [...]

Continue Reading

Exploring the Role of Government in Social Innovation

Posted on 10. Dec, 2009 by Andrew.

As I mentioned in a recent post, Root Cause’s Public Innovators initiative recently hosted an event at the Capitol called Advancing Social Innovation in Government: Investing in Community Solutions.
We hosted the event because we wanted to broaden the conversation and educate people in the federal government about the importance of social innovation. We were fortunate [...]

Continue Reading

Watch the live stream from Dallas

Posted on 09. Dec, 2009 by Andrew.

Continue Reading

Social Innovation at an Inflection Point

Posted on 02. Dec, 2009 by Andrew.

I kicked off this blog by stating that the world is at an inflection point. As we head into the holiday season, I can’t help but feel that the work of advancing social innovation – developing, testing, and honing promising approaches, rewarding exceptional performance, spreading and scaling success, and catalyzing public-private partnerships across the nation [...]

Continue Reading