Stanford Social Innovation Review

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Have you listened to the latest episode of the Giving With Impact podcast? We spoke w/ Jacqueline Watts of the Patrick J. McGovern Foundation about AI—how funders can support nonprofits in transition, and how to build responsible AI infrastructure across the social sector. ssir.org/podcasts/ent...

A vague “made with AI” label cut engagement even when quality matched. A specific one, saying what the creator actually did, hurt far less. Disclosure is communication too. USC Marshall research via @ssir.org #SocialMedia ssir.org/articles/ent...

When the data-driven collective impact nonprofit, Baltimore’s Promise, set out to map the city’s youth programming, the numbers seemed to tell a clear story. But before acting, they took the finding to the people, and they found a much different diagnosis of the problem.

Donors have the motivation and the means to give, so what’s slowing them down? A new episode of "Giving With Impact" features two donor advisors unpacking the friction that gets in the way of moving money fast, w/ insights on nonprofits, DAFs, collaboratives, and more. ssir.org/podcasts/ent...

Why now is the moment for nonprofits to build and customize their own mission-critical technology, and three steps to getting started. - @ssir.org buff.ly/w4Y2QPM #nptech

AI adoption isn't a race. It's a learning process. AIR's Samia Amin and Per Scholas' Tamara Johnson share lessons from 5 years of partnership exploring how workforce orgs can adopt AI responsibly and effectively. https://ssir.org/articles/entry/ai-adoption-intentional-design-not-just-speed

On SSIR's "Giving With Impact" podcast, host Barbara Wheeler-Bride asks Megan Kashner of Northwestern University's Kellogg School of Management what makes a good impact investment. 🎧 https://ssir.org/podcasts/entry/what-makes-a-good-impact-investment

Why Charlie Kirk Didn’t Build a ‘MoveOn of the Left’. @davekarpf.bsky.social and I discuss the major differences in organizing structures & strategies ssir.org/articles/ent... @hanspeterschmitz.bsky.social @ninareiners.bsky.social @payoub.bsky.social @michaelvaughan1.bsky.social

Many of Charlie Kirk's obituaries mentioned the same fact: At 18, he set out to build a conservative equal to MoveOn. Does that comparison hold up? What lessons about activism, organizing, and persuasion are found in comparing these orgs? New from @ninahall.bsky.social & @davekarpf.bsky.social

New, in @ssir.org: @ninahall.bsky.social and I think through the structural asymmetries between digital activist organizations on the left and the right. (…I know that isn’t a very click-friendly description, but trust me it’s a very interesting piece.) ssir.org/articles/ent...

In 2022, Causa—a leading immigrant-rights org in Oregon—announced its closure, citing fundraising difficulties, staff and leadership turnover, and an unresolved labor dispute. To many, the news was surprising, but the deeper story was familiar: The mission did not fail; internal relationships had.

Starting soon! It's not too late to join us for this conversation about the "renter wealth gap" and innovative financial models that are helping working people stay in their homes.

Live tomorrow @ 9am PT/12pm ET: SSIR talks w/ Katie Deal about new financial models enabling renters to enjoy some of the wealth-building benefits of property ownership. Register here to join: stanford.zoom.us/webinar/regi...

Lafayette Square Institute's @ssir.org article “Closing the Rental Wealth Gap” outlines the major gap between wealth of homeowners & renters. Innovative new renter wealth models are enabling renters to access wealth-building tools typically only embedded in homeownership: ssir.org/articles/ent...

"Compounded over decades, these two policy tracks—homeownership and renting—created a growing divide between those who can access housing wealth and those made more financially insecure by their housing costs."

"SDA has identified TOD as being critical to the Southland’s revitalization. A 2019 study by the National Association of Realtors and APTA estimated that by being located within a half mile of transit, homes can benefit from a 4 to 24 percent increase in property values." ssir.org/articles/ent...

"Nearly 70% of nonprofit leaders in the U.S. reported a drop in funding in 2025. At the same time, 65% report demand for their services has increased. 30% have been forced to cut services—among them, programs that are vital to the health, safety, and survival of individuals and families."

The Baby Boomers' wealth transfer is one of the greatest opportunities in the history of the philanthropy and nonprofit sector. There is still work to do. ~ @ssir.org Philanthropy’s Missing Trillions, Revisited ssir.org/articles/ent...

"In 2017, we wrote that an estimated $30trillion would change hands over the following decades, and that almost no one in the nonprofit sector was ready. Now, the wave is here, and it looks different from what we predicted—in many ways, better—but the sector needs to do more to seize the moment."

From 1989 to 2022, the median wealth gap between homeowners and renters—the “renter wealth gap”— increased by 70 percent. Homeowners now hold more than 40 times the median net worth of renters.

The TEV is one of a handful of models today reimagining how rental housing can build wealth for working-class families across the country. The financing infrastructure that the United States built for homeowners can—and should—be built for renters, too.

When nonprofit organizations consider merging, the first question is always about purpose: 'do we share the same mission?' But the more urgent question, the one that determines whether a merger actually happens, is 'why now?'

Impact investing should focus on meaningful outcomes for people and planet rather than chasing billion-dollar valuations, argues Acumen Founder & CEO Jacqueline Novogratz writing in the Stanford Social Innovation Review. https://ssir.org/articles/entry/impact-investing-beyond-unicorns

Teatro Edicola is not primarily a statement about smallness for its own sake, but a hypothesis about proximity, intimacy, and access as drivers of cultural participation ssir.org/articles/ent...

I've published a review essay for @ssir.org of Mariana Mazzucato's recent book, The Common Good Economy. I'm broadly sympathetic to her approach, but discuss some issues about power, and the challenges posed by those who are committed to acting *against* the common good. ssir.org/books/review...

"Successful reforms are usually those that create an ongoing process of continuous improvement within the organization."—Martin J. Williams, Stanford Social Innovation Review #BookExcerpt buff.ly/yKQ1dHk @ssir.org

"If government is one very important pathway to scale, however, the private sector—for-profit and not-for-profit alike—is another. And because there is more than one road to scale, it would be unwise to over-index on a single solution."

Online today: Our new cover story is about the past, present, and future of education, learning, and skills development in the United States. The "credential society" that developed in the last half of the 20th century is coming apart. So what comes next?

"We can choose to reject the socialization of scarcity, to reject the premise that some people’s lives are worth less than others because of where they are born or how much money they have" ssir.org/articles/ent...

Op-ed co-authored by Julian Thompson of UNCF ICB and former ICB leader Ed Smith-Lewis. ssir.org/articles/ent...

.@Volcoucou sez #GenerationExchange of #GenX “might be the most underappreciated #innovation of our time: the power of human relationships to ignite #HumanPotential.” This is a fascinating piece by Isabelle Hau, director of the #LearningAccelerator at Stanford University. ssir.org/articles/ent...

Our educational system should support learning for all people at any stage of their lives. Isabelle Hau speaks with SSIR’s Mitchell Stevens and João Souto-Maior about their new SSIR cover story, “Building a Learning Society.” Wednesday, Sept. 16. Register here: stanford.zoom.us/webinar/regi...

Our educational system should support learning for all people at any stage of their lives. Isabelle Hau speaks with SSIR’s Mitchell Stevens and João Souto-Maior about their new SSIR cover story, “Building a Learning Society.” Wednesday, Sept. 16. Register here: stanford.zoom.us/webinar/regi...

"Imported platforms don’t fail in emerging markets because of bad translation. They fail because they were never designed for these places to begin with. The ones that work are built from the ground up by founders who confront the same constraints they’re designing for."

AI companies are offering #nonprofits free services and staff. Is the deal too good to be true? @ssir.org explains: buff.ly/7tWCE9v

"[Programs like Claude Corps] raise difficult questions about the risks of long-term organizational dependency on free (at least for now) tools, data stewardship, market influence, and the extent to which a small number of technology providers may shape how the sector adopts and integrates AI."

Who Will Raise the Money When the Money Raisers Are Gone? To solve the talent crisis, we must move from transactionalism to transformation. ~ @ssir.org ssir.org/articles/ent...

"I won’t pretend the path ever felt certain: My doubts were strong. I suspect that those same doubts hold back many who are drawn to this approach."

I'm moved and honored by this astute review of How to Close a Camp. @haymarketbooks.org

"It is here, in the nuts and bolts of staffing, contracts, permits, and licenses, where organizers have identified the camps’ pressure points. 'A camp doesn’t just exist,' writes Washington. 'It’s constructed and maintained by hundreds of signatures, inspections, and backroom approvals.'"

The Seven Labors of the Modern NGO ssir.org/articles/ent... - Ronald M. Miller & Maureen Andrade, @ssir.org ) | "Research increasingly suggests that mission-driven organizations do better when they are designed to learn, collaborate, and adapt, not just fundraise, report, and grow."