Stanford Social Innovation Review

SSIR’s new Fall ’24 Issue is online now! 👉 https://lnkd.in/egu6cSPz 🎓Bob Balfanz & John Bridgeland examine how a bipartisan 20-year campaign boosted US high school graduation rates 🇺🇲Kent McGuire & Matt Wilka write about how US public education can serve democracy by preparing students to become better citizens 🌿Matteo Gasparini, Knut Haanaes, Emily Tedards & Peter Tufano show how climate alliances can help business leaders push their industries to adopt more ambitious sustainability goals And don’t miss a case study on the world’s first privately led pay-for-success experiment in South Korea’s social sector; viewpoints on apprenticeship programs as an alternative pathway to college and an argument for deliberation, not debate, as a model of free speech in higher education. The magazine doesn’t usually have a theme, but this issue, one emerged: Education. SSIR’s Deputy Editor David Johnson explains: https://lnkd.in/e-qYnBWj This issue also includes two special supplements from PolicyLink (A Revolution of the Soul) and the Institute of Philanthropy (The Best of SSIR: Impactful Philanthropy in the Real World), and much, much more! Read the full issue online now: https://lnkd.in/egu6cSPz

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To renew ourselves and the nation, we must envision and build a shared future so expansive and uncompromising that it becomes irresistible. Dr. Michael McAfee and Ashleigh Gardere of PolicyLink call on leaders to think and move differently in pursuit of a more equitable future for all: “To renew ourselves and the nation, we must occupy the highest ground, spiritually and politically, and fortify ourselves to be ready to advance change. We have to envision and build a shared future so expansive and uncompromising that it becomes irresistible. We must operate with indomitable love, attending to both the soul work and practical revolutionary thinking that the future demands.” A new SSIR supplement, sponsored by PolicyLink, details how we can start this soul work and be the founders of a new nation that can hold, honor, and nourish all. Read Michael and Ashleigh’s message to leaders: https://lnkd.in/gcMjTEJB Link to the full supplement in the comments

“We need to reclaim AI, and technological culture more broadly, for a sustainable moral vision. We need … a shared heroic project—a movement of collective autofabrication, inspired by creative practical wisdom to jointly explore the renewal and expansion of new and better techno-moral possibilities.” In her new book, philosopher Shannon Vallor argues that AI doesn’t herald the end of humanity—or it doesn’t have to—if we decide to change its use and design. Read Jasmine McNealy’s review in the new issue of SSIR >> https://lnkd.in/e4peu6KM

Government adoption is the holy grail of scale for nonprofits, so how can nonprofit, philanthropic, and government leaders—who often operate in silos—harness the strengths of all sectors to achieve exponential impact? On September 26, join #SSIRLive! and Kathleen Kelly Janus for a 90-minute LIVE session: A Guide to Government Partnership: Learn to Master Scaling. Learn how to build a network of collaborators to ensure maximum impact and bring those partnerships to fruition through live exercises, worksheets, and illustrative case studies. Register now: https://lnkd.in/gF4g83Gq 

Government adoption is the holy grail of scale for nonprofits, so how can nonprofit, philanthropic, and government leaders—who often operate in silos—harness the strengths of all sectors to achieve exponential impact? On September 26, join #SSIRLive! and Kathleen Kelly Janus for a 90-minute LIVE session: A Guide to Government Partnership: Learn to Master Scaling. Learn how to build a network of collaborators to ensure maximum impact and bring those partnerships to fruition through live exercises, worksheets, and illustrative case studies. Register now: https://lnkd.in/gF4g83Gq 

❤️🔥 Hearing directly about this ‘Revolution of the Soul’ at last week’s PolicyLink conference was inspiring. ICYMI, this article in the Stanford Social Innovation Review by Dr. Michael McAfee & Ashleigh Gardere is a transparent and thoughtful description of the organizational journey they went through to get to this strategy. Definitely worth your time to read in full: “To take seriously [the] warning against the atrophy of our institutions and leadership, we must pause and reflect on our own actions with humility and loving accountability. Which of our habits have outlived their usefulness? What practices are stuck in outdated paradigms? Where have we idealized solutions and romanticized ideas that would be better served by concrete action? Where has the power of our movement been siphoned away into symbolic battles, semantic debates, and cosmetic adjustments in the face of oppressive systems? …. “To renew ourselves and the nation, we must occupy the highest ground, spiritually and politically, and fortify ourselves to be ready to advance change. We have to envision and build a shared future so expansive and uncompromising that it becomes irresistible. We must operate with indomitable love, attending to both the soul work and practical revolutionary thinking that the future demands.” 🔗 in comments

Sometimes you just need a good analogy to get an idea across. High growth social ventures are like: 🚗 —> electric cars with a boost of philanthropic energy, 🔋 —> trying to reach and sustain their impact ambitions, 🪫 —> on a chargerless frontier. Maharshi Vaishnav and I argue the best bets are long bets. To deliver durable impact at scale, we need a network of committed partners and a new mix of strategic capital to keep going. Read our big idea in Stanford Social Innovation Review.

Thanks for putting this together Stanford Social Innovation Review! Was great to read the other essays too. Evaluations is such an important topic because of the expansive versus restrictive impact it can have on programmatic work and funding. Who is evaluating? Who is being evaluted? What is being evaluated and what cannot be counted, but counts for a lot? Speaking more about this at the #philanthropy for better cities forum hosted next week if you’re atttending! The Hong Kong Jockey Club Institute of Philanthropy

Neoliberalism has set the agenda for US public education for decades, championing values of individual choice, standards, and competition—with disappointing results. Amid rising civic discord, is there a different vision for public education that would better prepare young people to become citizens and improve our democratic health? Kent McGuire and Matt Wilka of the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation suggest one possible–and positive–reorientation for education would include a renewed civic purpose: “In the earliest days of our country’s founding, a chief purpose of education was to prepare citizens and ease the dangers of faction within a divided democracy. This idea of a civic purpose for public schools has ebbed and flowed throughout history and is in urgent need of renewal in this time of rising polarization. Public schools that foster an appreciation for history and the skills and dispositions for citizenship must be part of the long-term solution to the democratic challenges that we face today.” Read the full story ➡ https://lnkd.in/e8Qd_gWw