The Power of Social Innovation: How Civic Entrepreneurs Ignite Community Networks for Good

by Stephen Goldsmith, Gigi Georges (Editor), Tim Glynn Burke (Editor), Michael R. Bloomberg (Foreword by)

Overview

THE POWER of SOCIAL INNOVATION

Civic leaders across the U.S. and throughout the world are discovering creative ways to overcome the obstacles that seal the doors of opportunity for too many.

These inspiring individuals believe that within our communities lie the entrepreneurial spirit, compassion, and resources to make progress in such critical areas as education, housing, and economic self-reliance. Real progress requires that we take bold action and leverage our strengths for the greater good.

The Power of Social Innovation offers public officials, social entrepreneurs, philanthropists, and individual citizens the insights and skills to create healthier communities and promote innovative solutions to public and social problems. This seminal work is based on Stephen Goldsmith's decades of experience, extensive ongoing research, and interviews with 100+ top leaders from a wide variety of sectors.

Goldsmith shows that everyday citizens can themselves produce extraordinary social change. The book explores the levers and guiding principles used by champions of civic progress who drive new organizations, new interventions, or new policies to enhance social conditions.

The Power of Social Innovation features illustrative case studies of change-oriented philanthropists, public officials, and civic leaders. While all collaborate across sectors, they run both start-ups and established organizations such as the New York City public schools, United Way of America, the United Negro College Fund, and Teach For America. The book shows the catalyzing role each plays in transforming a community's social service delivery systems.

To complement the book's myriad tools and case studies,The Power of Social Innovation web site (www.powerofsocialinnovation.com) provides links to relevant Harvard research as well as additional helpful resources.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780470604076
Publisher:	Wiley
Publication date:	01/21/2010
Sold by:	JOHN WILEY & SONS
Format:	eBook
Pages:	304
File size:	554 KB

About the Author

STEPHEN GOLDSMITH is the Daniel Paul Professor of Government and the Director of the Innovations in American Government Program at Harvard Kennedy School. Goldsmith, himself an entrepreneur, occupies the unique position of having approached these issues as a national leader across sectors. He served two terms as Mayor of Indianapolis, where his transformative efforts to revitalize urban neighborhoods and to transfer real authority to community groups received national acclaim. Goldsmith then led reform as special advisor to President Bush on faith-based and nonprofit initiatives, and has served under both Presidents Bush and Obama as chair of the Corporation for National and Community Service. Goldsmith has written many articles and several books, including Governing by Network, winner of the National Academy of Public Administration's Louis Brownlow Book Award.

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Table of Contents

Acknowledgments ix

The Author xi

Foreword xiii

Preface xvii

Part I: Catalyzing Social Change 1

Chapter 1 Igniting Civic Progress 3

Entrepreneurship, Innovation, and Change 4

So Many Ideas, So Little Progress 6

Civic Entrepreneurship as the Solution 12

Igniting Civic Progress 17

The Mandate and Caution of Engaging Government 20

Conclusions 24

Chapter 2 Innovation as Catalytic Ingredient 27

Discovering the Missing Ingredient 30

Choosing the Right Catalyst 36

Bringing It All Together: The Nehemiah Foundation 58

Conclusions 61

Part II: Market Maker as Civic Entrepreneur 65

Chapter 3 Open Sourcing Social Innovation 67

Breaking Down Protectionist Barriers 69

Opening Space for Innovation 73

Leveling the Playing Field 79

Inviting the Exceptional 82

Forcing Cultural Change 85

Bringing It All Together: The Enlightened Monopolist 90

Conclusions 97

Chapter 4 Trading Good Deeds for Measurable Results 101

Current Funding Limitations 103

What Public Value are We Purchasing? 106

Are the Funded Activities Still the Most Relevant? 111

What Change Does the Community Want and What Assets Can It Mobilize? 114

Are We Funding a Project or Sustainable System Change? 116

What Will We Measure? 120

Bringing It All Together: Linda Gibbs 125

Conclusions 126

Part III: Service Provider as Civic Entrepreneur 131

Chapter 5 Animating and Trusting the Citizen 133

Balancing the Professional with the Public 135

Building a Public 139

Leveraging Social Media for Change 149

“Client” Choice 153

Curing the Expectation Gap 157

Bringing It All Together: Family Independence Initiative 160

Conclusions 165

Chapter 6 Turning Risk into Reward 169

Seeing Opportunity Where Others See Liability 171

Taking First Risk 172

Fully Calculating Cascading Return on Investment 182

Political Risk and Reward 184

Bringing It All Together: Wraparound Milwaukee 192

Conclusions 195

Chapter 7 The Fertile Community 197

The Fertile City (and the Entrepreneurial Mayor) 199

Civic Entrepreneurs and School Reform 202

Entrepreneurial Community Solutions 214

Staying Entrepreneurial: Saving Yourself from Success 221

The Future 222

Notes 225

References 255

Index 265

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

"When it comes to doing good, Stephen Goldsmith is as disruptive an innovator as we've seen. Read and study The Power of Social Innovation if you don't just want to do good, but want to make the greatest impact possible."
—Clayton M. Christensen, professor, Harvard Business School and author, Disrupting Class

Editorial Reviews

"This book is a sort of bible of social innovation, full of examples of social entrepreneurs' successes. It sets out both the potential of the partnership approach and the huge difficulties it will have to overcome." (The Economist, August 2010)

"Lots of people talk about 'reinventing government.' Steve Goldsmith has actually done it" (Wall Street Journal, July 31, 2010)

From the Publisher