Established by the Edward M. Kennedy Serve America Act, SIF will support some of the nation’s most innovative and groundbreaking foundations and nonprofits.  As Commongood Careers and Talent Initiative are dedicated to supporting the growth and development of such organizations, we have watched with eager anticipation over the past year as this historic legislation was brought to life by the team administering the funds at the Corporation for National and Community Service.

Perhaps most exciting of all, however, is the paradigm shift that SIF represents in how the government thinks about investing in social change.  During the press conference to announce the SIF’s grantees, the Corporation’s CEO, Patrick Corvington, stated that, “Feeling good is not enough. Impact is what matters. Results are what matter.”

The SIF grantees are incredibly diverse in terms of their location, structure, and even mission focus.  Corvington explained the connection between these disparate groups in a press release by saying that, “They are all driven by the search for bold solutions and recognize that we must use evidence to target limited resources where they will have the greatest impact.” 

In our experience, SIF grantees can have the greatest impact by targeting their limited resources on “human capital.”  And by human capital, we mean that to fully leverage growth capital, nonprofits must be able to recruit sufficient numbers of talented staff and volunteers, utilize proven management systems, and shape their cultures in order to position talent for success, development, and retention.

Having worked for years with several of the SIF grantees, as well as the organizations that they support, we have witnessed first-hand the results that these foundations achieve when they bring financial capital together with human capital.

Although many traditional foundations have either overlooked human capital issues or focused only occasionally on piecemeal support, pioneering groups like New Profit Inc., Venture Philanthropy Partners, and the Edna McConnell Clark Foundation have excelled in supporting a more complete range of human capital needs across their grantees. 

Most of these foundations have senior staff dedicated specifically to advancing the human capital practices of their grantees.  They share information and resources with their portfolio, implement operationally-focused evaluation tools, and help ensure that the right leaders are in the right roles. 

The investment strategies of these funders have proven that optimizing human capital allows their grantees to increase revenue flows, decrease program costs, improve program outcomes, accelerate growth trajectories, create sustainable organizations, and achieve mission impact.

We strongly encourage all SIF grantees to consider the impact that human capital will have on their efforts, as well as the many ways that they can help to control those outcomes.  For example, when sub-granting funds to nonprofits, they can: ask about plans to expand leadership teams and management infrastructures; designate funding to support those investments; encourage diverse teams that include talent from constituent communities; provide resources for professional development; and collect and disseminate best-practices and knowledge.

As a fundamental determinant of social return on investment, human capital can either be an unanticipated barrier to success or an effective catalyst for achieving it.  The difference comes down to intent and strategy.

This was your first time at a Skoll World Forum; why did you decide to attend this year?

As Commongood Careers has grown to a point of national scale and with the launch of our new venture, Talent Initiative, I have been focusing a greater amount of my time on advancing the sector as a whole, on both a national and global level.  This is coming at the same time as I believe that we are approaching one of the most pivotal inflection points in the history of the social sector.  As we emerge from the global economic downturn, many world leaders—including President Obama in the US—are re-envisioning the role that entrepreneurial, outcome-based and high-impact nonprofits/NGOs have in moving our society forward.  The Skoll Forum is one of the most significant annual conversations among social entrepreneurs about the future of our work and our world.  Given my new focus areas and the strategic imperative of this time, I was excited about the opportunity to join the dialogue this year.

How was this conference different than other conferences that focus on social entrepreneurship?

There are not too many conferences focused on social entrepreneurship, and I wish that there were more. The Skoll World Forum is the most globally diverse conference that I have ever attended.  At any given event, I was as likely to be sitting next to someone from Ghana or Palestine as I was to be comparing and contrasting the hiring needs of nonprofits in Korea or Darfur.  It was an amazing experience to see how many similarities exist across the world, and to imagine how different our work would be in different cultures and contexts.

You led two workshops about talent while you were there. What were the themes, concerns and ideas that were discussed during that session?

We had two great sessions on “Human Capital and Social Entrepreneurs” in Oxford.  At the start of each session, we went around the room and asked participants to share their greatest areas of concern or challenge related to human capital and management.  Then, for 90 minutes, my colleague Pari Jhaveri of Third Sector Partners in India would answer as many of their questions as possible.  Many of the participants were focused on specific hiring needs, most commonly based around hiring (in many cases their first) Chief Operating Officer and/or Chief Development Officer.  These hires both represent a vital developmental turning point for many organizations and exploring how to structure these roles and integrate them into existing management structures was a fascinating conversation.  Many social entrepreneurs were also focusing on maintaining a competitive compensation structure within this economic environment, preserving their organizational cultures throughout a rapid growth process, and building “bench strength” and succession plans for senior managers.

What are your overall impressions of the Skoll World Forum 2010?

It is an amazing opportunity to convene leaders from incredibly diverse backgrounds that all share a common entrepreneurial approach to their myriad visions for social change.  I feel incredibly fortunate to have been able to attend and I hope to do so again next year.

How did you get home when everyone else seems to be stranded in Europe as a result of the Icelandic volcano?

Eric Schwarz from Citizen Schools and I had to get back to Boston early for an event and I think that we were on the very last plane out of Heathrow before they closed down all of British air space.  We really lucked out on that one!  Now just about a week later, I understand that most of the conference attendees are still unable to return home, with many of them making their way in cabs and busses down to Madrid where it is rumored that you can get a flight out.  This phenomenon has just absolutely amazed me and it seems to have bottled up the world’s greatest social entrepreneurs in one place for an extended period!  We have a lot of work to do and I hope that everyone can get home soon.

Dear Friends of America Forward,

On December 8, Congress made a formal decision to fully fund for the Social Innovation Fund in its first year at $50 million. The Social Innovation Fund will serve as a robust mechanism for partnering across sectors to identify and invest in proven innovations, and will provide the critical catalytic capital necessary to bring these solutions to bear on problems faced by communities across the country.

This $50 million dollar investment in 2010 has the potential to grow to as much as $200 million in its first year, by leveraging private and philanthropic support for both intermediaries and grantees. While we recognize that this may seem small, relative to the billions being invested in restoring our nation’s economy, this pilot fund has the potential to serve as a potent example of the power of social innovation to solve truly complex social problems. Achieving full funding in its first year is a remarkable starting point for what we believe will become a new way to solve problems across government.

We sincerely thank you all for your hard work in securing full funding for the Social Innovation Fund. As you know, this was a long and challenging process, and our success lies in your ability to mobilize with passion around this Fund. Your countless calls, emails, and letters to appropriators helped make the case that there is widespread and deep demand for a new way of solving problems, and that organizations stand ready to scale their programs to the communities where they are most needed.

We also deeply appreciate the forward-thinking champions of social innovation on Capitol Hill, who rallied their colleagues to call for a new way of investing in solving problems. We are inspired by their leadership and vision for a future where all children and families have access to the powerful solutions of social entrepreneurs.

While this is surely a moment for celebration, lots of work remains to be done to achieve success for the Social Innovation Fund. We must now come together to support the implientation of the Fund, to prove that this is a more effective way to invest government dollars, and that by focusing on growing high-impact organizations we can overcome many of the great social challenges faced by our nation.

Thank you for your dedication to this effort. We are eager to continue advancing the social innovation agenda and the Fund.

Best regards,

The America Forward Team

Earl should know. He’s been a champion for urban education since 1992. He recently became the Chief Executive Officer of Reach Out and Read, a national early literacy program. Previously, he was the CEO of Building Educated Leaders for Life (BELL), an out-of-school time education program, as well as the Founder and Chair of Summer Advantage USA, which combats summer learning loss. 

A longtime friend and client of Commongood Careers, Earl caught us up on Reach Out and Read’s current impact and aggressive growth plans, including the inside scoop on the organization’s hiring needs in the near future.

Congratulations on your new role, Earl. Tell us about Reach Out and Read, particularly its approach to addressing early literacy. 

Thanks. I’m thrilled to be at the helm of such an innovative, evidence-based organization that is addressing such an important social issue. 

Reach Out and Read looks to answer one critical question: how do we ensure that kids are prepared to enter kindergarten? Currently, nearly 35% of all children in this country go to kindergarten with literacy skills that are below grade level. This could mean some do not even know how to hold a book correctly; others may not be able to recognize letters of the alphabet. 

To address this skill deficit, our method is to get to children early. We focus on kids aged 0-5 who live in urban and rural environments. Our program is unusual in the sense that it’s not offered in a traditional educational environment, but rather in pediatrician offices. In these settings, our programs make early literacy a standard part of pediatric primary care, from interacting with a trained literacy specialist volunteer in the waiting room to receiving advice regarding the importance of reading and a book to take home from their doctor or nurse. 

Our approach is all about leverage. We seek to leverage the fact that most parents trust what doctors say. So if a pediatrician communicates that reading is an essential piece of childhood brain development, and that a nurse shows a child the correct way to hold a book and stimulate a child’s natural curiosity, both parents and children will listen. The results have been astounding. To date, we’ve reached nearly 4 million children at 4,500 hospitals and healthcare centers nationwide. In 11 peer-review and longitudinal studies, we’ve found that parents are significantly more engaged and children are better prepared when they enter kindergarten. 

How did your personal career path lead to Reach Out and Read? 

While at BELL, I was part of a team that grew to serving over 15,000 children nationwide. Our team worked incredibly hard. The hallmark of our programs was our summer learning session, which gave me the idea to start a program devoted completely to summer learning. With $1M from a Mind Trust fellowship and the Indiana Department of Education, I founded Summer Advantage USA, a program that provides rigorous academic programming during the summer months. 

From there, I found myself asking the question: how can nonprofit leaders continue to make real impact, but without creating 150 new nonprofits every day? There has to be ways to create back-office efficiencies, as well as a pipeline that serves the needs of children from postnatal to postgraduate. It was this thinking that led me to Reach Out and Read. The opportunity to lead an organization that has such a huge presence fit with my personal vision for what it takes to impact children early on. With the opportunity to serve the 14 million children living in poverty in this nation, and to ensure that they all enter kindergarten ready to excel and with engaged parents, was an opportunity I couldn’t pass up.

How is Reach Out and Reach poised to grow in the near future?

The first step of scaling is securing the additional government funding that is key to our growth. This is one of the largest tasks on our plate right now.

From there, we plan to raise the growth capital that will build up the infrastructure of the organization quite a bit. This includes expanding the staff of our national headquarters in Boston, as well as being better able to support our 35 state coalitions that oversee 4,500 program sites. We want to build up the infrastructure nationally, within each of our state coalitions, so the entire organization can better deliver on our responsibilities and service to children and families.

In addition to strengthening our existing program sites, we plan to open over 150 new sites in this fiscal year. At any given time, we hope to have between 300-400 applications for new sites in the works. Being able to sustain this rapid growth is a huge piece to our ability to succeed. Since we’ve found such high demand for our program, our daily challenge is how do we build the organization in a way that we’re able to support every one of our sites with the same level of excellence that we see today. 

What does this mean for the hiring needs of the organization? Do you anticipate bringing on more talent for both your headquarters and coalition sites?

Currently, some of our coalition sites have just one part-time leader, others have up to 7 full-time staff. Our goal is to make sure that every coalition has the maximum strength in a few core areas, namely customer service, fundraising, training and technical assistance. To do this will require adding staff in some areas, both in local markets and at the national level. Building organizational strength is what’s at the heart of these efforts.

At the national level, adding to our fundraising capabilities will be key to our success. Currently, we have staff who work against a range of fundraising strategies, but our team is lean. In the near future, we hope to expand this team so that we can deepen each of our fundraising avenues, such as major corporate sponsorships. There is such opportunity for major corporate funders to get involved, particularly those seeking exposure to millions of parents of young children.

As you think about the aggressive growth on your plate, what organizations do you look to as models of scalability and sustainability?

There are many social entrepreneurs who have leveraged functional area best practices in order to scale and sustain their organizations. The first that comes to mind is Teach For America. They are excellent across a number of areas, particularly branding, fundraising, and the ability to attract top talent.

BELL demonstrates a model of an evidence-based organization that has successfully found a niche that has a positive effect on both children and parents. This is a phenomenon that Reach Out and Read shares as well, and one we hope to continue to capitalize upon.

Year Up is a great model of organizational sustainability. The ability to have a revenue source that is consistently renewable is something that we plan on emulating as well.

From a talent perspective, what does it take to be successful at Reach Out and Read? When ramping up your national team, what will you look for in new hires?

All of our staff must be hard-working, entrepreneurial, smart, and have phenomenal communication skills. They must also have very high standards and self-confident. This goes across all roles, from the coalition sites to the national headquarters.

The people who will thrive at our organization will have the dual ability to work independently and also be part of a cross-functional team.

Like most entrepreneurial organizations, it’s important to leave your ego at the door. Our staff need to be comfortable sharing ideas, and know that some will move forward and others won’t. It all comes down to humility and work ethic. 

Perhaps more than anything, we look for talent who believe in what we’re doing. I hope that anyone interested in a position at Reach Out and Reach will share the belief that we are doing something incredibly important and that our work is making and will continue to make a huge impact on early literacy, school readiness, and most importantly, the future of our children and this country. 

For more information about Reach Out and Read, please visit www.reachoutandread.org.

*****

Tell the Commongood Careers community about your uncommon talent! to nominate a colleague, or to share the story of your own nonprofit career.

“Today was a transformational day for the social innovation community, and a huge milestone for the America Forward coalition.  At a White House event earlier today, President Obama introduced his Community Solutions Agenda—highlighting promising innovations of social entrepreneurs around the country, and providing a vision for how government can come together with nonprofits, philanthropy, the private sector, and citizens to find innovative ideas, invest in what works, and scale proven solutions to our most urgent social challenges.  President Obama brought together leaders from all sectors and announced several initiatives to execute this agenda, including a nationwide tour by Melody Barnes, the Director of the Domestic Policy Council, and an Innovation Fund to invest in and scale proven solutions. 

This community, and many others, have been working with policymakers at the federal level to make a federal investment in social innovation.  The president’s speech is a critical milestone in our effort to change the way social problems are solved and truly move the needle on the issues facing our communities.  As the President said today, ‘If we work together—if we all go all-in here—think about the difference we can make.’ We couldn’t agree more.”

Engaging with innovative nonprofits like Year Up is central to the Obama administration’s efforts to tackle persistent social problems and highlight what works in our communities. 

Read more about Obama’s visit to Year Up in The New York Times.

If your organization is interested in getting involved with the Summer of Service initiative, please email ServiceInitiative@cns.gov for more information.

Earlier today, Obama made the following statement on the Edward M. Kennedy Serve America Act:

“I congratulate the House on passing the bipartisan Edward M. Kennedy Serve America Act.  This is legislation that will usher in a new era of service in America, and I look forward to signing it into law when I return to Washington.” 

“Because of this legislation, millions of Americans at all stages of their lives will have new opportunities to serve their country.  From improving service learning in schools to creating an army of 250,000 Corps members a year dedicated to addressing our nation’s toughest problems. From connecting working Americans to a variety of part-time service opportunities to better utilizing the skills and experience of our retirees and baby boomers. This legislation will help tap the genius of our faith based and community organizations, and it will find the most innovative ideas for addressing our common challenges and helping those ideas grow.  But while our government can provide every opportunity imaginable for us to serve our communities, now it is up to each of us to seize those opportunities.  I call on all Americans to stand up and do what they can to serve their communities, shape our history and enrich both their own lives and the lives of others across this country.”

The passing of this legislation is largely due to the mobilization of a huge citizen movement, organized largely by the leaders and members America Forward and Service Nation. We are proud to be a part of both of these coalitions.

It truly is an historic time for social innovation and service in this country!

Here a few amazing highlights resulting from the national mobilization around this legislation:

• The New York Times published an editorial in favor of the Serve America Act, as did the Appleton Post-Crescent in Wisconsin.
• Shirley Sagawa published a great piece on the Center for American Progress Blog called “A Chance to Make America Better”
• ServiceNation funder Laurie M. Tisch wrote an op-ed for the Philanthropy News Digest
• ServiceNation Youth Chair, Usher, sent out a text message to all of his followers asking them to call their Senators in support of Serve America.
• A number of organizations today sent out email updates and/or calls to action to their entire email list including Youth Service America, Rock the Vote, I have a Dream Foundation, YouthBuild and Democrats Work. Do Something highlighted the call to action on their homepage.
• Habitat for Humanity made phone calls in 7 states; David Battey of YVCA rallied his network in Kansas to make phone calls; and AmeriCorps Alums mobilized in Georgia, Texas, and Tennessee.
• The National Council on Aging released a statement of support of the Serve America Act.
• The AARP has decided to make the Serve America Act an accountability vote this means they will publicly post how each member votes on their government watch site and let their members know where their Senator sided. They will be faxing every Senate office letting them know that they will be publishing the results on their website. Senator Mikulski has also agreed to guest-blog about the Serve America Act on the AARP blog

Last Friday, members of Service Nation were asked to mobilize our networks in preparation for this week’s Senate vote on the Serve America Act. In just a few days, our coalition, working with Voices for National Service and America Forward, rallied and we are off to an extremely positive start.

Floor debate in the Senate began today at around 4:00PM with excellent speeches by Senators Mikulski, Hatch, McCain, Kerry and others. Senator Kennedy was also present on the Senate floor. It was followed by a cloture vote to allow the bill to proceed. The final vote on the cloture was 74-14 in favor of proceeding. This was an extremely strong bi-partisan vote, with 22 Republicans joining 50 Democrats and 2 Independents voting in favor.  The full vote tally is pasted below.

As we move forward throughout the week, it must be our goal to first thank all of the Senators who voted in favor of cloture and continue to flood their offices with phone calls in support of Serve America so that we hold onto their vote throughout the week. This will be critical.

Debate continues on the Senate floor tomorrow.

In the meantime, thank you to all of you who have mobilized your networks and stepped up your efforts in support of the bill. Some achievements of the day include: Over 110 people have stepped forward to serve on the various committees.  ThinkMTV has featured our call to action on their homepage; Mark Lazarra and Josh Randle helped secure an editorial in the Buffalo News and the Boston Globe published one as well (read them at http://www.bethechangeinc.org/servicenation/media/latest_news); Teach for America and City Year sent out an email to their entire alumni list; members of our coalition stepped up to be point people for 25 out of the 28 states we are focusing on (we are still looking for point people in Indiana, Wyoming and South Dakota); the National Council on Aging sent out a call to action to their listserve; Ashton Kutsher sent out a twitter message asking his thousands of followers to call their Senators; AARP has begun circulating editorials in their key states and is preparing an ad to run in the Roll Call and Hill Newspapers and Craig Newmark of Craigslist has been blogging about Serve America throughout the day. We have had reports of hundreds of phone calls being made.  This is only a sampling of what we accomplished through our collective networks and what we must continue to do.

Over the next day, we must continue to focus on 1) Calling Senators and asking them to support Serve America, focusing especially on those Senators who voted in favor cloture and 2) securing favorable editorials in newspapers around the country and reaching out to other media sources.

This can be a historic week- but we have a few more days of extremely hard work ahead of us.

All Best,

Alan, Bridge, AnnMaura, Michael and Michelle

Eric Dawson, President and Co-Founder of Peace Games followed with an inspiring story about what led to the creation of Peace games, his challenges and achievements. One interesting concept that often social entrepreneurs struggle with is measurement and how you know whether or not your program is effective. Brilliantly, Dawson raised the point that impact is more than about traditional forms of evaluation and measurement, distinguishing W and w - BIG work and LITTLE work. BIG work is about never losing sight of the overall mission, the bigger picture and not getting discouraged when trying to see impact because social change is hard to measure and often isn’t apparent right away. LITTLE work is the quantitative measurement, which most organizations need for funding. He also said that social entrepreneurship is more than just building programs – building programs isn’t enough; it’s about building movements, cultivating relationships and connecting people. Dawson was very thoughtful and sincere in his reflections about Peace Games and Social Entrepreneurship – we were all very grateful for his openness.

It was an inspiring day to say the least, and it was great to be surrounded by such progressive individuals looking to take what they learned back to their communities. Thank you BCCJ, ASHOKA and Brandeis Heller School of Social Policy and Management for a powerful event.

Open to the public, the session was hosted at Northeastern University,
drew an audience of over 60 people, and was moderated by the Founder and
CEO of Commongood Careers, James Weinberg.  Other panelists included:
James Cleveland, President of Jumpstart for Young Children; Priscilla
Cohen, Director of Strategic Initiatives at Citizen Schools; Jennifer
Macauley, Director of Communications at New Profit Inc.; and Christine
Morin, Director of New Site Development at City Year Inc.

The panel opened with James Weinberg providing framing remarks about the
powerful nature of social entrepreneurship as a force for innovative
change throughout the world.  Each panelist then took several minutes to
introduce themselves and answer the question: “Who is the most
inspirational social entrepreneur that you have ever known, and what do
you think made them a ‘social entrepreneur’ as you think about and
define the term.”  The audience then engaged in an hour of lively
interactive discussion with the panel, followed by time for individual
discussions and networking.

It was a powerful event and we would like to thank each of our
panelists, Northeastern University for so generously hosting us, and the
Coro National Alumni Association for sponsoring the event and making
this important discussion open to the public.

Obama has pledged to create a Social Entrepreneurship Agency within the Corporation for National and Community Service, to generate more venture capital for socially conscious startups. The new agency would make it easier for small nonprofits to get federal grants, plus come up with a results-driven accountability system so government officials could make better decisions about which charities to fund.

Obama also wants to create a Social Investment Fund Network, which would steer private and government money to cities that identify innovative solutions to their most pressing social issues.

He estimates his ideas will cost $3.5 billion a year. He plans to pay for them through savings found by ending the war in Iraq and eliminating some corporate tax deductions.

Friday, November 7, 2008
1:00 - 3:00pm

Northeastern University
Egan Research Center, Raytheon Amphitheatre
120 Forsyth Street, Boston, MA 02115

Moderator:
James Weinberg, Founder & CEO, Commongood Careers

Panelists:
Priscilla Cohen, Director of Strategic Initiatives, Citizen Schools
James Cleveland, President, Jumpstart for Young Children
Jennifer Macauley, Director of Communications, New Profit Inc.
Christine Morin, Director of New Site Development, City Year

This panel is open to the public with an RSVP and is being organized as part of the 2008 Coro National Alumni Gathering.

Session Overview: Social entrepreneurship is increasingly recognized as one of the world’s most powerful forces for bringing about positive social change.  Leaders in this hybrid field, which exists somewhere in-between the private, public and nonprofit sectors, are often at the helm of rapidly scaling ventures that offer “game-changing” solutions.  But from where does all this power originate and where is it all headed?  This panel will discuss the essential nature of social entrepreneurs and the factors that make them such a unique lever within our society.  We will also explore what the future of the movement might be, especially in these uncertain economic times.

RSVP ASAP to Maureen Sarna, , 617-542-1404 x 29

Event Sponsors:
Coro trains ethical, diverse civic leaders nationwide.  Coro leaders develop skills and master tools needed to engage and empower communities. The Coro National Alumni Association (CNAA) is the official alumni association of the Coro Foundation and its regional centers and programs.  CNAA strives to foster communication and a spirit of friendship, assistance, and cooperation within the Coro community.  To learn more about Coro and apply for its leadership programs, please visit http://www.coro.org or email recruitny@coro.org.

Commongood Careers is an innovative not-for-profit search firm that supports social entrepreneurs with their recruitment and hiring needs at every organizational level.  Commongood Careers offers personalized, engaged services to jobseekers and nonprofits throughout the hiring process, as well as access to a wealth of knowledge about nonprofit careers. Ultimately, Commongood accelerates social change by placing the best talent in the right roles at the nation’s most effective mission-driven organizations.
To learn more, please visit: http://www.cgcareers.org.

SOCIAL ENTREPRENEURSHIP PANEL DIRECTIONS

Northeastern University
Egan Research Center, Raytheon Amphitheatre
120 Forsyth Street, Boston, MA 02115

Parking is available at the Renaissance Parking Garage, 835 Columbus Avenue, Boston.  The Egan Research Center is located behind the parking garage, on the other side of the Ruggles T Station.

Traveling by Public Transportation:

GREEN LINE: From downtown Boston, take an “E” train outbound to the Northeastern stop, the first stop above ground.  From the Northeastern stop, walk down Huntington and turn into the campus by walking down Forsyth Street.  The Egan Research Center is toward the end of the street.

ORANGE LINE: Take the Orange Line going outbound to Forest Hills and get off at Ruggles Station. The Egan Research Center is toward the end of the street.

Positioning social enterprise as a business that creates social value, the article discusses the need for venture philanthropists to better define measures of social return, as well as offers a warning to nonprofits to avoid launching ventures that could potentially distract an organization from its mission-critical work.

In the news story, Investors Focusing on Social Enterprises, San Francisco Bay Area television station KGO reports that venture capitalists are investing their dollars in socially responsible businesses. “Social capital markets” are gaining more attention in investment communities, and both new and existing organizations are reaping the benefits.

Similarly, Venture Beat speculates if “social capital” is the next big market to emerge. With a lens on microfinance, fair trade, environmental, and social change organizations, this article looks at how investors are putting their faith—and dollars—into triple-bottom line ventures.

So what made September so special? In truly historic terms, ServiceNation launched a national and groundbreaking campaign, elevating the conversation about citizen service to a new level. For those who are unfamiliar, ServiceNation is a coalition of organizations dedicated to strengthening our democracy and solving problems through civic engagement and service, of which Commongood Careers is a proud member.

Kicking off the campaign on September 11th in New York City, Senators Obama and McCain set aside partisanship to speak together at a Presidential Forum about the importance of service and their views on how to expand its impact.  The following day, the ServiceNation Summit brought together hundreds of leaders – nonprofit and for-profit CEO’s, elected and appointed government officials, army generals and celebrities – to discuss and embrace the future of citizen service.  But the rubber really hit the road on September 27th’s “Day of Action,” during which more than 2,700 service events were organized across all 50 states to showcase the power and potential of service.

The month also brought some of the most powerful legislation in decades to expand and improve service opportunities when, on September 12th, Senators Kennedy and Hatch introduced “The Serve America Act” with co-sponsorship from Senators Clinton, Obama and McCain.  When many policy efforts grind to a halt during an election cycle, waiting to see what the election will bring, it is tremendously encouraging to know that the next President of the United States has already endorsed this sweeping and important reform.

These developments are likely to have a profound impact on the workforce of the nonprofit sector, as more and more people are introduced to service and earn marketable experiences working to those ends.  Particularly in response to conversations about the sector’s impending leadership crisis, there may be few more effective strategies for increasing the talent supply than to expand national service programs like City Year, Public Allies, Civic Ventures and Teach For America.

Finally, it is also worth noting that this work represents some of the absolute best tenants of social entrepreneurship – innovating new approaches to addressing social problems, pursuing audacious goals, measuring impacts, and building powerful cross-sector coalitions.  As is often the case with successful examples of social entrepreneurship, and as was certainly the case during ServiceNation events, I found myself thinking daily about Margaret Mead’s often quoted observation: “Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.” 

As a citizen of the world and on behalf of all of us…. thank you ServiceNation!

On October 8th, the Stanford Social Innovation Review will host a conference called Online Giving Marketplaces: Changing the Face of Philanthropy. I’m thrilled to see these platforms finally getting the attention they deserve. I’m also delighted to be moderating one of the panel discussions. Over the years I’ve paid a lot of attention to online giving sites—GlobalGiving, Kiva, NetworkForGood, GiveIndia, HelpArgentina, DonorsChoose, GiveMeaning, and GreaterGood South Africa, among many others (check out socialactions for a mashup of more than 30 platforms).

Why do these sites matter? Because they represent giving that’s faster, more global, and boasts multi-media interactivity? Or is there something else, something more transformative, going on here? Why are these sites proliferating, and what differentiates them from each other?

These platforms are important beyond just their speed and glitz factors in several ways.  They enable small gifts to be aggregated—by the donors—and they let donors manage portfolios of their giving. This is a baseline for ultimately getting to more strategic giving. Second, online giving platforms provide a potential source of data about giving trends and patterns, in something approximating real time. Third, they could provide a common backbone for donation transactions. Fourth, they are positioned to gather real feedback and input from people within funded institutions, as well as the people who benefit from them (see GreatNonprofits for more on this possibility). Fifth, they might serve as early warning signals about issues or giving patterns. Sixth, there are already emerging connections between “online giving platforms,” “social investors,” and “social stock exchanges”—so it only makes sense that new metrics systems, reporting tools, and portfolio assessment tools will come next. Seventh, these sites are specifically set up as marketplaces with buyers and sellers connected by interests; this framework is distinct from the way nonprofits and donors usually talk about themselves, and one that has both advantages and disadvantages. Finally, we have not yet seen real interconnectivity between online giving platforms and “offline” donor services. Is this next, and what might the results of such partnerships look like?

The speakers at the Online Giving Marketplaces conference, who include the founding executives and board members of several of the sites named above, will surely add their ideas to this list.

Updates: The conference has been moved to a larger venue; the original site sold out. (You can find information on logistics here.) If you can’t attend, but have key questions you’d like to ask, send them to me, at and I’ll do my best to get them asked. I’ll report answers via a blog post.

Levin emphasized the importance of bringing education to America’s students now, noting that KIPP does everything it can to make learning and teaching both fun and productive. “One of the things we want to do is make sure that every kid has a chance to work toward their own future,” he said. 

“We can think of education like steroids for our kids’ futures,” he said.  And while the analogy garnered some laughs, KIPP’s record shows that it really is improving kids’ futures astronomically.  It isn’t steroids, but commitment, dedication and hard work on the part of students, teachers, and families that give KIPP’s kids the boost they need. 

Only one question remains: When will the “Colbert Bump” kick in for KIPP?

This year, over 1,000 projects were submitted, which has since been narrowed down to five projects. We are thrilled to see that two Commongood Careers clients—DonorsChoose.org and Kiva—are amongst the top five nominees!

If you are an AMEX cardholder, you can cast your vote at: http://www.membersproject.com/

If you are not a cardholder, AMEX invites you to show your support by sounding off about your favorite nominated projects at: http://community.membersproject.com/category/Discussion-Board/3

The PSAs feature City Year corps members in meaningful moments that convey the impact they have as young people engaged in citizen service: tutoring in schools, mentoring students, cleaning up neighborhoods, and ultimately working together for a common purpose.

“The more you learn about City Year, the more you are inspired by the energy, passion and optimism that shine through everything they do,” said Brian Hayes, creative director, Arnold.  “We hope that these new ads convey this feeling and motivate more young people to get involved in the program.”

The PSAs will be shown almost 2,500 times as part of Comcast’s three-year commitment of $27 million to City Year. 

The award recognizes organizations with a wide range of missions and visions, but all of those awarded are making significant change in their communities.  Winners this year include ACCESS, “for its commitment to provide economic and social services to Arab immigrants, Arab Americans, and non-Arabs alike, while breaking down the barriers of linguistic and cultural differences;”  Native Americans in Philanthropy, “for its work to promote, facilitate, and celebrate philanthropic giving to Native communities, while providing professional development opportunities and support for Native Americans working in the field of philanthropy;” and The Twenty-First Century Foundation “for its efforts to facilitate strategic giving for black community change, working with donors to invest in institutions and leaders that address challenges within black communities across the country.”

The National Leadership in Action Award Program promotes high-level performance of philanthropic institutions and nonprofit organizations and the award honors innovative approaches to connecting resources of time, money and expertise to the philanthropic work of communities of color.

For a full list of recipients or to learn more about the award, click here. 

Among the calls to action for our next administration are:

1. Expand innovation incentives and free them from the earmarks and conditions that have blunted past initiatives. Adequate incentives, coupled with rigorous accountability, would remedy this.

2. Use influence over state and local policy to sweep away regulations that hamper innovative thinking, such as caps on the number of public charter schools allowed and excessive restrictions on how teachers are trained and credentialed.

3. Continue the strong push of two efforts already underway. One is the move toward a common set of standards for what students should be expected to know and be able to do. Then, to make shared standards work, a national data infrastructure must be built to assess educational progress.

This op-ed also featured the outstanding work of other Commongood Careers partners such as KIPP, Teach for America, and New Leaders for New Schools.

Read the full article.

Last week, Team Commongood Careers enjoyed the good fortune of being able to hold our annual retreat in beautiful new boardrooms and training spaces within the offices of City Year and Citizen Schools.

They say everything happens for a reason.  In this case, not only were City Year and Citizen Schools able to provide some great space to meet our logistical needs, but it was also a tremendous inspiration to be discussing sector-wide impact in the national headquarters of these two outstandingly successful and entrepreneurial organizations.

And if you don’t already know all about these two leaders in their fields, please check them out and help us return the favor by doing all you can to support their efforts.

City Year unites young people of all backgrounds for a year of full-time service, giving them the skills and opportunities to change the world. As tutors, mentors, and role models, these young leaders make a difference in the lives of children and transform schools and neighborhoods across the United States and in South Africa. More than 1,500 corps members serve in 19 City Year sites across the United States and one site in Johannesburg, South Africa.

Citizen Schools has built a creative and effective learning model that addresses community needs while building student skills through hands-on experiential learning activities. Citizen Schools operates a National Network of apprenticeship programs for youth that connects middle school students with adult volunteers in hands-on learning. At Citizen Schools, students develop the academic and leadership skills they need to excel in school, build self confidence, get into college, and become leaders in their communities. Citizen Schools currently enroll 2,000 middle-school students and engage 1,500 volunteers at 30 school campus sites nationwide.

Tenacity will be honored by the USTA during Arthur Ashe Kids’ Day at the US Open this year as the featured National Junior Tennis League organization. Attracting over 30,000 adult and youth spectators, Arthur Ashe Kids Day honors tennis legend Arthur Ashe and continues his mission of using tennis as a means to instill in kids the values of humanitarianism, leadership and academic excellence. To see the coverage, tune in to CBS Sports TV on Sunday, August 24th, from 12 - 1:30 PM (EST) for the Arthur Ashe Kids’ Day national broadcast featuring a short video on Tenacity.

We congratulation our partner Tenacity for being recognized on this special day that celebrates the importance of shaping and encouraging youth in the classroom, on the court, and in the community.

The article also highlights the work of Teach For America, teachNOLA, and New Leaders for New Schools and shows incredible images of students of Langston Hughes Charter School.

We applaud the tremendous effort of New Schools for New Orleans and its supporters to further the transformation public schools in New Orleans.

Plus, Foote cites some impressive stats, for example that about 10 percent of Yale, Georgetown and Harvard seniors apply to be a part of Teach For America’s corps of world-changing teachers.  She also writes about the realities of the challenges facing America’s education system and how Teach For America is offering solutions. 

Encouragingly, the article notes that many of Teach For America’s alumni are inspired by their experience to do more.  Foote points out that KIPP, whose impressive education successes we recently blogged about, was started by Teach For America alums. 

Due to lack of state funding, the school’s future was uncertain just a few weeks before it was to open.  Fortunately for Hartford and its students, local figures like Connecticut Governor Jodi Rell, Hartford Mayor Eddie Perez, and the Hartford Foundation for Public Giving came forward to champion Achievement First’s cause and energize donors to help get the schools ready for the fall.

With Achievement First’s success in education, it’s no wonder so many in Hartford were ready to step forward to support the organization.  A recent report shows that students at a similar school in New Haven, Conn. performed an average of 56 percent higher on all sections of the state test than their peers in non-Achievement First schools in that city.  Now that’s putting achievement first!

That’s where the article recognizes organizations like Kiva and DonorsChoose.org.  The article advises: “if you want to exercise the kind of control that deep-pocketed philanthropists enjoy, consider donating to one of a new breed of charities that allow donors to browse descriptions of specific projects online and fund them, in whole or in part. “

Both Kiva and DonorsChoose.org use the Internet to connect individual donors directly with recipients of the donation, whether through Kiva’s microloans or DonorsChoose’s donations to classrooms.  They champion diverse causes, but they’re both doing what’s great: helping people exercise their philanthropic spirit, no matter the size of their bank account. 

Washington Post education columnist Jay Mathews recently wrote an article about KIPP’s focus on finding the cause for any drop-outs from its schools and its continuing research on learning how its graduates are doing once they reach college.  He highlights the importance of KIPP’s dedication to looking at the data to achieve results. 

And achieve they do.  The article also notes that in addition to being much more likely to graduate high school and go to college than their non-KIPP school peers, middle school students who completed four years at KIPP increased their average math achievement level from the 40th to the 82nd percentile and their reading level from the 32nd to the 60th percentile.  Dare we say “KIPP up the good work”?

Pride partners throughout Latin America use social marketing tools to change attitudes and behaviors critical to conservation.  Rare provides the tools, along with in-depth training and technical support as its local partners launch two-year Pride campaigns that have resulted in truly impressive results.

One Pride program alum, Martin Castillo Paniagua of Mexico’s National Park Service, helped lead a campaign that grew knowledge of one area as protected in the target community from 35 to 98 percent.  You can read all about his and other Rare Conservation success stories here.

The grant will allow for at least 500 students in 2008, 750 in 2009, and 1,000 in 2010 to participate in the BELL’s highly effective Summer program in New York City.  The program, which helps to strengthen reading, writing and math skills, has been so successful that over 95 percent of children enter their program at the “failing” level advance to a higher academic performance category and at least 75 percent of them go on to achieve “proficient” or “advanced” levels in core skills.

Plus, Earl Martin Phalen, Co-founder and CEO of BELL, notes that the students on average gain four to six months worth of education during BELL’s six-week program.  What student wouldn’t want the equivalent of six month summer vacation?  With growing support, learning programs like BELL make summer a great time to achieve. 

Last week, the Akron City Council gave the go ahead for an agreement between OneCommunity Akron Mayor Donald L. Plusquellic to create a network that will provide wireless Internet connectivity in an 11-square-mile area of the city.  The agreement puts into action the first $250,000 in matching funds from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation’s $500,000 challenge grant.

Akron will also be the new home of the OneCommunity Knight Center for Digital Excellence, which provides resources to spread broadband access programs so that communities can fully participate in today’s digital world. 

A little while back, Alice Lunsford, Teach For America’s Director of External Talent Recruitment, told us about some opportunities for entry-level jobseekers at her organization.  She said that “[Teach For America] is filled with people who are passionate about their work and working in a smart manner toward measurable goals.  It’s the culture that I think makes it a great place to work, especially coming out of college.” (Read the whole article here.)

That sounds to us like CollegeGrad.com had it right when they chose Teach For America for the top of their list!

Service Nation , an effort headed by Be The Change Inc. , is building strong foundations. 

Habitat for Humanity just joined the movement, whose goal is to engage 1 million Americans in a year of full time national service by 2020 and inspire a culture of civic service nation-wide.  Habitat’s added support makes the list of organizations backing Service Nation 100 strong.  Support for the movement is impressive and expansive.  The organizing committee includes entrepreneurial organizations like College Summit, Teach For America, Year Up and many more.

Service Nation aims to engage the country in a dialog about national service.  Keep an eye on them as they set forth bold goals for national service in America at their Service Nation Summit Sept 11-12 this year.

The national Read for the Record effort is designed to build awareness for America’s crisis in early childhood education and Jumpstart’s role in solving the crisis by breaking the world record for the greatest number of children reading the same book on the same day.

While the campaign’s spokesperson LL Cool J wasn’t there (see him voice his support in this YouTube video) the party did boast a few celebs, including Boston Bruins player Bob Sweeney.

This year’s Fellows will tackle issues as wide ranging as community improvement, economic development, education, the environment, health, human rights, and legal advocacy.
Since 1987, Echoing Green has invested $27 million in more than 450 leaders to make a difference in lives all over the world.  This year’s promising Fellows will be an excellent addition to Echoing Green’s impact.  Congratulations and best of luck to the 2008 Fellows!

Neil Armstrong Elientary’s 4th and 5th grade students grew over 5,000 marigolds from seeds that they planted at school. By growing and selling the marigolds in the past year, the Neil Armstrong Elientary students funded over 20 teacher proposals on DonorsChoose.org, resulting in over 2,500 hours of instruction to over 600 students.

This coming year, they are hoping that their efforts will have an even greater impact.  So far, they’ve met over half of their $10,000 goal.  Visit their challenge page to see their progress, an adorable photo of the class, and how you can help them out!

Venture philanthropy is getting quite the buzz, from MBA campuses to nonprofit conferences. This model of taking a business-minded investment approach to funding new organizations offers a viable alternative to traditional grantmaking, and allows emerging nonprofits to obtain the capital they need to get off the ground and scale their programs.

An innovator in venture philanthropy, New Profit Inc. has helped some of the nation’s most entrepreneurial and effective nonprofits get off the ground and grow to achieve huge social impact. New Profit provides multi-year financial and strategic support to a portfolio of social entrepreneurs working in education, youth development, workforce development, and other areas.

New Profit is also the main driver of America Forward, a coalition of more than 60 social entrepreneurs and high-impact organizations that have come together to present presidential candidates and policymakers with a new and transformative way to solve the difficult social problems facing our nation.

Are you looking for way to get in on the ground floor of this amazing organization? New Profit Inc. is currently seeking a Portfolio Analyst to join its team. The Portfolio Analyst is an essential role that encompasses a broad set of responsibilities requiring analytical skills, project management capabilities, and general research abilities.  This person will work closely with the New Profit Portfolio Management Team, representatives from New Profit portfolio organizations and other relevant external stakeholders. Read the full job description.

Interested in learning more about social enterprise? Does your organization use market-based strategies to advance social change? Then join Commongood Careers at the 9th Social Enterprise Summit, hosted by the Social Enterprise Alliance.

9th Social Enterprise Summit
Building Networks - Forming Partnerships - Accessing Capital
March 9-11, 2008
Boston Park Plaza

Through this conference, get connected to this exciting movement for social innovation through:

• Meeting successful social enterprise practitioners.
• Enjoying tours of local social enterprises in Boston.
• Discovering double-bottom line organizations in your community.
 
• Attending any of 50 informative sessions on social enterprise strategies.

Social enterprises can do more together than alone, and the Summit will be an opportunity to discuss ideas for advancing the field and creating a more conducive climate for social enterprise. Be there, and tell your friends and colleagues.

Learn more and register.

There is an ongoing debate in the nonprofit sector on what makes an organization a social entrepreneur. Forces for Good, a recent voice on the subject, provides a fresh approach to this topic.

To make the distinction between social entrepreneurs and traditional nonprofits, authors Crutchfield and McLeod-Grant spent four years researching the management techniques of hundreds of nonprofits.  Their findings target the management techniques of twelve nonprofits that they conclude are examples of high-impact, socially entrepreneurial change agents.  In their analysis of these organizations, Crutchfield and McLeod-Grant posit that these groups do not measure success through revenue increases, brand recognition or organizational chart sophistication.  Instead these twelve social trailblazers measure success by the change they are affecting in the piece of the world that they are attempting to improve. 

While old-school nonprofit management looks to governance, organizational structure, fundraising and other internally facing strategies to build a strong organization, social entrepreneurs focus their energy externally through six creative techniques.  These techniques (such as one that advises nonprofit groups to cross sectors and include for-profit partners into the execution of the mission) challenge traditional nonprofits to rethink goals and strategies in the execution of their mission. By exposing limitations and even flaws in traditional thinking, Forces for Good identifies commonly held myths about nonprofit management that are indicative of an outdated system of thought.

The authors conclude that the twelve nonprofits in study focus on the end-goals of creating impact and improving society rather than focusing on building a secure, fiscally sound organization, as their traditional counterparts so often obsess.  The authors offer well researched and thought out examples of innovative approaches to management employed by these groups. The case for innovation and out-of-the-box thinking is also supported by the authors’ warning against reckless management based on wild idealism.  The success of the organizations featured in Forces for Good is instead a product of an unwavering management philosophy that postures mission above tradition.

BELL (Building Educated Leaders for Life)
Citizen Schools
Civic Builders
College Summit
DonorsChoose.org
New Leaders for New Schools
Points of Light Foundation & HandsOn Network
Reach Out and Read
Room to Read
Year Up

We are honored to help each of these organizations build stronger teams, scale operations, and ultimately create deeper impacts in the communities they serve.

Read the full list of winners.

“A ‘Social Entrepreneur’ is one who pursues opportunities to create pattern-breaking social change without regard for the resources that she/he can currently control.”

She explained that where as traditional nonprofits had sought to meet community needs by institutionalizing support systems for those in need, social entrepreneurs generally endeavor to change the way the world itself works in an attempt to root out the primary causes of social ills. They will not rest until they have done this, and they will rarely stop to consider if they have the necessary funding, capacity, workforce or support to get something done. They just dive in and get to it.

Are you one of those people? Contact us and we may be able to help connect you with some local opportunities.

Also, we are curious, what are the factors that would pull you toward New Orleans right now and what are the concerns that would make you hesitate? What type of assurances and/or support would you need to consider relocating to New Orleans if the right opportunity was available? What other aspects of life in New Orleans could benefit from an entrepreneurial approach? What innovative models from other organizations or cities could help? Leave a comment and let us know.

BELL (Building Educated Leaders for Life)
Citizen Schools
Hands On Network
Jumpstart
Nonprofit Finance Fund
Teach for America
Year Up

A very special congratulations to these organizations! We at Commongood Careers are honored to be helping to hire talent and build the teams of these organizations.

We know first-hand the value of employee referrals. Out of all of the searches we’ve completed in the past year, nearly 50% of placements have come either from the Commongood Careers network or the network of the hiring organization. When we begin any search, we reach out to our professional and personal contacts to explore their interest in a given position or to find out if they know anyone who might be interested. Besides drumming up buzz about a specific position, this strategy also helps us stay in touch with our networks and develop a talent pipeline.

Hiring interns is another effective way for entrepreneurial organizations to build relationships with developing talent. When hiring interns, it’s critical to make sure there is a valuable role an intern can play in your organization. Remember, interns are typically looking for meaningful work experience and exposure to the mission-critical aspects of your organizations. A summer of taking lunch orders or shredding paper is not a meaningful internship. Interns are typically bright and ambitious; employ these talented resources wisely and you may be surprised at what they can accomplish.