Monthly Archive for April, 2009

What are YOUR ideas? Let Andrew Wolk take them to D.C.

Published
by
Andrew
on April 29, 2009
in role of government, social capital markets, social entrepreneurship and social innovation
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Next Monday I will be back in D.C. to facilitate a discussion with the Corporation for National and Community Service at the Accelerating Social Entrepreneurship Conference. The session will focus on how the social innovation fund that was called for in the Serve America Act should be structured. While the funds have not yet been appropriated, it is great to see the Corporation actively seeking feedback and input. I have heard they will also be doing a listening tour around the country over the coming months to help them shape their plans for the Serve America Act, including this fund.

In the paper I wrote with the Aspen Institute, I proposed one possible approach: to draw from among the best practices of two existing models. The first is one that the federal Small Business Administration has used. It’s the Small Business Investment Company, which matches privately raised funds two to one with public funds to spur private-sector innovation. The other is venture philanthropy and social venture capital, which use the principles of venture capital to invest in and support nonprofit and for-profit social-entrepreneurial organizations, respectively.

What are your ideas? If you comment here by Monday I will bring them to the discussion…

Charter Schools: Why all the hubbub?

Published
by
Andrew
on April 24, 2009
in role of government and social innovation
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I am back in D.C. today to work with one of our clients, the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools. A team from Root Cause is supporting the development of their strategic business plan. Charter schools are getting quite a bit of attention these days, with support from both President Obama and Arne Duncan, the new Secretary of Education.

Why all the hubbub? Charter schools are probably one of the best examples of a recent social innovation being taken to scale. By simply allowing a small percentage of public school funding to be used to try new and innovative methods of delivering education to our children, we now have shining examples of how social innovation can drive important change. One can see it in the ways that both New York City Schools Chancellor Joel Klein and Michele Rhee, Chancellor of D.C. Public Schools, are driving their own change agendas in their respective school systems.

As Robert Tomsho pointed out in an article in the Wall Street Journal, “With 1.4 million students in 4,600 [charter] schools, charters are by far the most significant achievement of the ‘choice’ movement that strives to promote educational gains through school competition. Enrollment in charter schools has more than doubled in the last six years.”

The National Alliance for Public Charter Schools has been leading the way, driving important policy work at both the state and federal levels to ensure that a charter sector is built to support this demand and provide excellent, innovative approaches to education.

Hmm…I wonder what might happen if we took a page from the charter movement and devoted a small percentage of public funding to try new and innovative ways to provide better housing, health care, and workforce development…

The Serve America Act is Law

Published
by
Andrew
on April 22, 2009
in public innovation, role of government and social innovation
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Yesterday President Obama signed the Serve America Act into law. It is truly a historic day.

Alan Khazei, co- founder of City Year, who now leads Be The Change, Inc. and is a driving force of the service movement, wrote an incredible piece about this historic moment in the Huffington Post.

For more on City Year’s innovations, check out my case study on the ways in which the organization has interfaced with government to benefit so many.

More from the Social Enterprise Summit

Published
by
Andrew
on April 17, 2009
in public innovation, role of government, social entrepreneurship and social innovation
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Yesterday morning was an amazing day for advancing social innovation. Never before have I seen the worlds of social innovation and government so fused together. In my opening remarks when introducing LA Lt. Governor Mitch Landrieu at our armchair keynote at the Social Enterprise Summit, I spoke about how confident I was that fusing these two worlds together is the better mousetrap. Why?

Because our work is only really scratching the surface of the change I believe we all want to see. A successful program at scale only touches a small portion of the problem. Government has access to all the systems, makes the laws, and provides most of the money − $1 trillion a year by some estimates − compared to foundations and individuals who give a combined $175 billion.

The Lt. Governor led us through not only his journey of starting the Louisiana Office of Social Entrepreneurship, but also provided us with amazing insight for how we can more strategically work with government − all by starting with telling our stories in ways that showcase we have models that work. Look for the video and podcast of the session soon…

“Live-blogging” the Social Enterprise Summit

Published
by
Andrew
on April 16, 2009
in public innovation, role of government, social entrepreneurship and social innovation
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I am here at the Social Enterprise Alliance (SEA) Summit, getting ready to give an armchair keynote with the Lt. Governor of Louisiana, Mitch Landrieu. The Lt. Governor started the first ever Office of Social Entrepreneurship in the country.

I used to be a Social Enterprise Alliance board member, and we at Root Cause have partnered with SEA to develop a Policy Track for this year’s Summit. As I have been walking the halls and chatting with people, I am reminded about the incredible niche the Social Enterprise Alliance has carved out over the past 10 years to support organizations who use earned-income strategies to drive social impact. This model, which is an incredibly powerful tool to sustain change in tough social issues such as workforce development, is one that the government may welcome. Why? Because it might be one of the easier ways to show government that investment in enterprises like these can save taxpayers money while simultaneously dealing effectively with social issues. For more, see the case study in my SBA chapter on ITNAmerica.

More to come…stay tuned!

The Lumina Foundation and Higher Education

Published
by
Andrew
on April 6, 2009
in social innovation
. Comments

I recently had the pleasure of meeting and getting to know Jamie Merisotis, president of the Lumina Foundation for Education.

Jamie is a shining example of keeping the ‘why’ front and center.  The Lumina Foundation, while large in assets (they give away approximately $54 million a year) is narrow in focus, working  exclusively on helping students to enroll in post-secondary education − and to succeed once they get there.

He recently came to Boston to speak at Root Cause’s Social Innovation Forum social issue speaker series. His speech, while dynamic in many ways, had two exceptionally compelling, simple statements:

Right now, and for the past four decades, U.S. postsecondary degree attainment has hovered around 39 percent.

By the year 2025, we want 60 percent of the American population to hold high-quality, two- or four-year college degrees.

Why Advance Social Innovation?

Published
by
Andrew
on April 1, 2009
in public innovation, social entrepreneurship and social innovation
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While visiting D.C., I had dinner last Thursday evening with Brooke Smith, who heads up the Office of Social Entrepreneurship in Louisiana, David Marin and Paul Braithwaite from the government relations firm The Podesta Group, and Flozell Daniels, the Executive Director of the Louisiana Disaster Recovery Foundation.

During dinner, Flozell stated:

“Over 90% of African Americans in New Orleans do not go on to college.’

At that moment, it occurred to me I have written on this blog about the importance of advancing social innovation − but why is it important? Here are just a few more alarming statistics…

  • The U.S. healthcare systems is ranked 37th in the world, the lowest of any developed nation (despite highest per-capita spending worldwide)
  • One in 100 American adults is in jail
  • 21% of American children live below the poverty line

Statistics like these and many more are commonplace all across America from New York to Illinois to California, yet the statistics are not matched by a sense of urgency or voices of outrage.

I do not think this a Republican or Democratic issue; rather, it is imperative that we search for the messages, strategies, and institutions that place a greater focus on making progress on the critical issues of our society. Such statistics in a country that spends as much as we do on solving social problems through taxes and philanthropy should be unacceptable, like littering or not buckling your seatbelt.

When the hurricanes hit New Orleans, they showed us this part of America up close, but the shock quickly retreated with the flood waters.  Across America we are not facing this simple fact: we have drastic, systemic problems. Because of this, for many Americans, the American dream no longer holds true. This is why advancing social innovation – investing in what works – is so critical.

As this journey continues I will do my best to keep the “why” front and center.