Stanford Social Innovation Review Podcast show

Stanford Social Innovation Review Podcast

Summary: Audio talks and lectures by leaders of social change, co-hosted by Stanford Social Innovation Review's Managing Editor Eric Nee. http://ssir.org/podcasts

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Podcasts:

 Delivering Clean Water Using Solar-Powered Pipelines | File Type: audio/mpeg | Duration: 32:00

TOHL was recently recognized as the winner of Tech Awards 2013 in the Young Innovators category for its overwhelming social good in combating emergency situations and basic need inaccessibility. In this interview with Co-Founder and CEO Benjamin Cohen, we learn more about TOHL’s journey as a nonprofit venture. Through this podcast, Benjamin describes TOHL’s rise to be a global industry leader in water logistics and infrastructure, and how it has been changing lives in the process. He discusses his logistical methods for measuring impact, his goals for the scaling and achievement of the organization, and challenges TOHL has faced in accomplishing its mission. Benjamin also speaks about his personal experience as an entrepreneur, including lessons he has learned and advice he has for aspiring entrepreneurs. Under the leadership of Benjamin Cohen, TOHL has progressed from an idea to a company with scalable products and services contracted by large organizations worldwide. Ben has received various awards and fellowships for leadership, entrepreneurship, and innovation, named Young Innovator at the Tech Awards in Silicon Valley. His skills include finance, accounting, and capital allocation. He holds a BS in Civil Engineering from the Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta, Georgia.https://ssir.org/podcasts/entry/delivering_clean_water_using_solar_powered_pipelines

 What California Can Teach Washington | File Type: audio/mpeg | Duration: Unknown

The overuse of fossil fuels is leading to increased CO2 in the Earth’s atmosphere, trapping more and more heat and warming the Earth. As a result, we’re seeing more dramatic weather patterns across the globe and the need for climate regulation is being discussed around the globe. Climate policy wonks fall in two camps: the proponents of a complicated cap-and-trade system that sets a firm limit on emissions and the supporters of a carbon tax that sets a fixed price on carbon. California, the ninth largest economy in the world, recently launched a new carbon cap-and-trade system to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to 1990 levels by 2020. Mary Nichols, Chairman of the California Air Resources Board, is responsible for leading this program, which could ultimately provide a model to support other regional or national efforts to cut greenhouse gas emissions. At the Stanford Center for Social Innovation’s 2013 Conradin Von Gugelberg Memorial Lecture, Nichols discusses the new cap-and-trade system and the current thinking around regional and federal policies, and what these changes mean for our environment. Mary Nichols has devoted her career in public and nonprofit service to advocating for the environment and public health. In addition to her work at the California Air Resources Board, she has served as Assistant Administrator for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Office of Air and Radiation (OAR) under President Clinton, Secretary for California’s Natural Resources Agency from 1999 to 2003, and Director of the Institute of the Environment and Sustainability at the University of California, Los Angeles.https://ssir.org/podcasts/entry/what_california_can_teach_washington

 Shared Measurement and Big Data For Good | File Type: audio/mpeg | Duration: Unknown

Traditional tools for evaluation and measurement fail to take into account the complexity of an interconnected and digitized world. Emerging techniques, such as developmental evaluation, improve on traditional linear, cause-and-effect models, while shared measurement increases the capacity of cross-sector collaboration. In this panel discussion, experts offer a case study-rich overview of three emerging tools: developmental evaluation, shared measurement, and big data. Kathy Brennan describes how developmental evaluation adopts a systems-learning approach absent from formative and summative designs, making it more favorable to evaluating complex, non-linear, and dynamic social realities. Patricia Bowie discusses the importance of shared measurement as a catalyst for collective learning. Researcher Lucy Bernholz warns that data collection offers as much peril as potential, and implores the nonprofit sector to think critically about how digital data is driving actions and whose voices it excludes. Presented in partnership with FSG, this panel discussion was part of the Next Generation Evaluation conference.https://ssir.org/podcasts/entry/shared_measurement_and_big_data_for_good

 Optimized Social Responsibility Through Evaluation | File Type: audio/mpeg | Duration: Unknown

Three evolving approaches to evaluation in social enterprise could change its use in a significant way. In this audio lecture, Hallie Preskill, FSG managing director, opens the 2013 Next Generation Evaluation conference with examples of how leading social sector organizations are thinking about and implementing evaluation. Preskill discusses three new approaches to evaluation: developmental evaluation, shared measurement, and big data, providing context from multiple perspectives. She describes six characteristics that exemplify how social organizations are thinking about evaluation in relation to the new trends. In this podcast, Preskill explains how evaluation practice needs to evolve along with other developments in process and infrastructure to keep up with the needs of social enterprise.https://ssir.org/podcasts/entry/optimized_social_responsibility_through_evaluation

 Implications for the Social Sector | File Type: audio/mpeg | Duration: Unknown

Both funders and nonprofits are placing a premium on the promise of measurement and evaluation to accelerate social change. But tools like shared measurement, big data, and developmental evaluation are only powerful if they’re applied correctly. In this panel discussion, experts address how the social sector must ask the right questions when developing metrics. Alicia Grunow discusses the Carnegie Foundation’s use of improvement science to make strides in education. Hewlett Foundation representative Fay Twersky implores nonprofits to systematically solicit feedback from intended beneficiaries. Policy researcher Liesbeth Schorr underscores how the search for “certainty” stifles innovation. Presented in partnership with FSG, this panel discussion was part of the Next Generation Evaluation conference. FSG is a nonprofit consulting firm specializing in strategy, evaluation, and research.https://ssir.org/podcasts/entry/implications_for_the_social_sector

 Embracing Complexity in Social Enterprise Evaluation | File Type: audio/mpeg | Duration: Unknown

Embracing complexity is essential in social enterprise evaluation. In this audio lecture, Brenda Zimmerman, Associate Professor of Policy at York University’s Schulich School of Business, suggests approaches for addressing complexity in evaluation systems. In the closing keynote at the 2013 Next Generation Evaluation Conference, Zimmerman explores ways to embrace complexity in social sector evaluation practice. She describes how social innovation can be fostered by applying cognitive diversity to solve structural and causative complexity problems. To remain relevant, evaluation systems must reflect the complex systems they evaluate. Zimmerman discusses sophisticated nuanced comparisons, and the role of coherence versus consistency in social enterprise evaluation. She illustrates how being strategic in complex systems is significant to social enterprise.https://ssir.org/podcasts/entry/embracing_complexity_in_social_enterprise_evaluation

 The Paradoxical Break In Philanthropy | File Type: audio/mpeg | Duration: Unknown

By a simple twist of fate, Jacob Leif found himself in post-apartheid South Africa, staring at a big paradoxical break in philanthropy - success was measured in numbers instead of long-term impact. While working at a local school, he found time, money, and aid were plentiful, along with supplies of books, computers, and daily lunches for the school children. However, once the nonprofit organization supporting the school left after the funding cycle finished, the school returned right back to where it started. Lief decided to found Ubuntu Education Fund, an organization that supports children in Port Elizabeth, South Africa through an integrated system of medical, health, educational and social services. In this episode of The Social Disruptors, Ned Breslin and Jacob Lief discuss the struggles of funding for long-term sustainable impact within the current philanthropic system of 12-month grant cycles and the power of saying “no” when funding requirements do not meet the outcomes.https://ssir.org/podcasts/entry/the_paradoxical_break_in_philanthropy

 Responsible and Successful Collaboration | File Type: audio/mpeg | Duration: Unknown

“The number one rule: Don’t collaborate unless you have to.” Willa Seldon, a consultant at Bridgespan, got some laughs at the 2013 Nonprofit Management Institute, but gives some pointers on successful collaboration and how to productively evaluate common goals. To support her viewpoints, she engages Stephanie Couch and Carolyn Nelson, two experienced collaborators who provide insights on their own collaborative work with communities. Nelson and Couch explain how the personal connections that community members offer lead to great outcomes. The panel highlights how creating a shared culture can bypass disagreements and cultural differences to generate results. Willa Seldon has extensive experience in both the nonprofit and for-profit worlds. After seven years of being a director at AirTouch Communications, a multi-billion dollar wireless communications company, Seldon co-founded Milepost, a venture capital firm investing in women entrepreneurs. Seldon has since held top positions in the nonprofit sector as Executive Director of Tides Center and CEO of the Glide Foundation. She currently shares her multi-sector expertise as a consultant at The Bridgespan Group.https://ssir.org/podcasts/entry/responsible_and_successful_collaboration

 Empowering Others to Tell Your Organization’s Story | File Type: audio/mpeg | Duration: Unknown

Social media can allow an organization’s supporters to use their personal influence to promote a cause. In this audio lecture from the 2013 Nonprofit Management Institute, Julie Dixon discusses different types of cause supporters—from passive online ones to offline activists—and how organizations can engage them. She argues that many potential supporters, believing that organizations want only monetary donations, may be discouraged from supporting a cause, even though they can support it in another way: through influence. Dixon cites the popularity of websites like Yelp to show that people are more likely to trust their peers’ testimony than an organization’s and that organizations should encourage their supporters to engage meaningfully on social media to spread their causes. By empowering supporters through the knowledge that they can have a real impact, organizations can tap into the often-ignored power of influence. Julie Dixon is the Deputy Director of Georgetown University’s Center for Social Impact Communication (CSIC). She manages the day-to-day operations of the center, including applied research, training, curriculum, partnership development, and outreach. Prior to joining the university in 2011, Julie was the Assistant Director of the Center for Social Value Creation at the University of Maryland’s Robert H. Smith School of Business. Dixon completed a master’s degree in public relations, with a focus on corporate social responsibility and sustainability, at Syracuse University’s S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications.https://ssir.org/podcasts/entry/empowering_others_to_tell_your_organizations_story

 The Nature of the Future: From Institutions to Amplified Individuals | File Type: audio/mpeg | Duration: Unknown

Socialstructing is a new model that empowers individuals, rather than institutions, to create impact by utilizing modern technology to build large networks. In this audio lecture from the 2013 Nonprofit Management Institute, Marina Gorbis describes how micro-contributions from people in these networks enable flexibility and unlock potential in ways that institutions cannot. She shares three stories about successful socialstructing: the transformation of an abandoned building, fostering science education, and collecting crime-related data worldwide. Gorbis explains that, through socialstructing, technology allows individuals to accomplish difficult tasks without money, staff, or management, and generates new types of value that can replace institutional approaches in the future. Marina Gorbis is a futurist and social scientist. She serves as executive director at the Institute for the Future (IFTF), a Silicon Valley nonprofit research and consulting organization. In her fourteen years with IFTF, Gorbis has brought a futurist perspective to hundreds of organizations in business, education, government, and philanthropy to improve innovation capacity, strategy development, and product design. She has written a book, called “The Nature of the Future: Dispatches from the Socialstructed World,” and has written for BoingBoing.net, FastCompany, Harvard Business Review, and other major media outlets. Gorbis holds a bachelor’s degree in psychology and a master’s in public policy from UC Berkeley.https://ssir.org/podcasts/entry/the_nature_of_the_future_from_institutions_to_amplified_individuals

 The Science Behind Compassion | File Type: audio/mpeg | Duration: Unknown

At the Stanford Social Innovation Review’s 2013 Nonprofit Management Institute, Dr. James Doty criticizes Silicon Valley’s reluctance to attribute success to support and goodwill in favor of personal genius. He argues for the necessity of altruism and funding for both societal and individual benefit. Drawing on his expertise as a neurosurgeon, Doty highlights the mental and physical health benefits that result from compassion. Referencing a “compassion deficit” among the wealthy, he addresses their general fear of “wasting” funds, despite access to vast resources. Finally, using his personal story as an example of the importance of social entrepreneurship and funding support, Doty urges listeners to consider whether the amount of emphasis our society places on compassion is enough. Dr. Doty is a practicing neurosurgeon and professor of neurosurgery at Stanford University. He is also director of the Stanford Center for Compassion and Altruism, serves as a chairman of the Dalai Lama foundation (among other nonprofits), and is an active entrepreneur and philanthropist. Facing a test of character, Doty followed through on a promise to give valuable stock to a promising start-up, despite losing most of his wealth in the dot-com crash.https://ssir.org/podcasts/entry/the_science_behind_compassion

 Starting A RYOT In Traditional News | File Type: audio/mpeg | Duration: Unknown

What is RYOT‘s game plan to change traditional media? They allow people to “Become the News.” Bryn Moser and David Darg are humanitarians. They have been on the front lines of some of the world’s major catastrophes and have seen positive transformation in communities through human impact. Frustrated with the traditional media’s inflexibility in providing actionable context around news, they decided to #ChangeThat by providing a social online hub that does: RYOT. RYOT connects action with each news story so people can get involved in the world’s most pressing issues. This month’s Social Disruptors podcast is a chat with Bryn and David on their plans to disrupt traditional media. Edward D. (Ned) Breslin is the CEO of Water For People, widely considered a force for positive change by challenging status quo approaches and offering concrete alternatives to water, sanitation, and transparency in philanthropy and aid, by offering concrete alternatives. Breslin received the Skoll Award for Social Entrepreneurship in 2011. David Darg was one of Esquire Magazine’s “2012 Americans of the Year,” and spent the last decade as a first responder and frontline contributor for Reuters, CNN, and the BBC. Currently based in Haiti, David is Vice President of Operation Blessing International and has traveled to over 100 countries. David has won numerous awards as a filmmaker, including a Special Jury Mention at the 2012 Tribeca Film Festival as Co-Director of “Baseball in the Time of Cholera.” Bryn Mooser was named one of Esquire Magazine’s “2012 Americans of the Year” for his work in Haiti. As Country Director for Artists for Peace and Justice (APJ), Bryn helped build APJ’s secondary school in Port-au-Prince, which now educates 1,400 young Haitians per year. Bryn is also an award-winning film maker. His latest documentary, “The Rider And The Storm”, premiered in April in NYC as his third consecutive world premiere at Tribeca Film Festival.https://ssir.org/podcasts/entry/starting_a_ryot_in_traditional_news

 The Whole World In Our Hands | File Type: audio/mpeg | Duration: Unknown

In his 2013 Nonprofit Management Institute talk, Kenyon addresses how organizations need to take advantage of the growing intersection between mobile technology and nonprofits. In a digital age that is increasingly personalized, nonprofits should understand how best to utilize mobile devices without invading supporter privacy. Kenyon argues that nonprofits must base social media effectiveness on listening: What content is popular on social media? What is the community interested in hearing about? How can nonprofits use non-voice mobile technology to their advantage? Kenyon presents strategies for answering these questions and using technology to improve nonprofit outreach. John Kenyon (@jakenyon) is the Principal at Kenyon Consulting, and is a technology educator and strategist who’s advised nonprofits for more than 20 years. He educates nonprofits about using technology strategically through his consulting, as well as through teaching seminars and writing articles, knowing that they can help organizations operate more effectively and efficiently. Kenyon authored the chapter “Effective Online Communications” in the book Managing Technology to Meet Your Mission. With Beth Kanter, he helped craft curriculum for and present the “We Are Media” social media training for nonprofits, and frequently speaks on social media topics. Kenyon is a member of the Executive Consultants Select Group at the Alliance for Children & Families, and is also an adjunct professor at the University of San Francisco. Kenyon has been a featured speaker across the US, England, Australia, and online.https://ssir.org/podcasts/entry/the_whole_world_in_our_hands

 Achieve Great Things: The Art and Science of Aspirational Narrative | File Type: audio/mpeg | Duration: Unknown

Aspirational communication focuses on mobilizing ordinary people to support a cause. In this audio lecture, recorded during the 2013 Nonprofit Management Institute, Doug Hattaway of Hattaway Communications outlines the components of an effective communication campaign: crafting an exciting goal, motivational and non-technical language, and a compelling call to action. Drawing on psychological and anthropological studies, Hattaway describes the types of messages that appeal to a nonprofit’s audience. Such messages are emotion-based, intuitive, and communicated in simple language that can be easily spread via word-of-mouth. Hattaway argues that an organization must speak to the heart before it speaks to the mind; it must connect with audiences by using aspirational communication to place human stories in the context of a larger narrative. Doug Hattaway is president of Hattaway Communications. In his 25 years of experience in the field of communication, Hattaway has served as a spokesperson and consultant to high-profile leaders in politics, government, business, advocacy, and philanthropy. He has worked closely with many global leaders, such as Hillary Clinton and Al Gore, and has traveled extensively to work with government leaders, political parties, and civil society organizations all over the world. Hattaway earned a bachelor of science degree in Journalism from Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism and a master’s degree in English from Florida State University.https://ssir.org/podcasts/entry/achieve_great_things_the_art_and_science_of_aspirational_narrative

 Social Enterprise Enables Hazelnut Farming in Bhutan | File Type: audio/mpeg | Duration: Unknown

Operating a successful social enterprise requires providing meaningful economics to people, in both income and personal worth. In this audio lecture, Daniel Spitzer, founder of Mountain Hazelnuts, describes his experience in applying specific approaches to supply chains and value-creating tools to develop a successful hazelnut farming social enterprise in Bhutan. In this podcast episode of Stanford University’s Social Innovation Conversations, Spitzer details how he enhances supply chains through corporate citizenship and leverages data of all kinds captured from Android phones with specialized apps. From his hands-on experience dealing with supply chains, Spitzer describes why there is nothing is more important than people in operating a profitable business that delivers value to all stakeholders through corporate social responsibility. Daniel Spitzer is Chairman & CEO of Mountain Hazelnuts Group. Daniel has spent most of the past twenty years as Chairman and/or CEO of companies in Asia. Daniel founded several ventures that have successfully combined financial objectives with social and environmental goals, including Plantation Timber Products Group (PTP), which he built into China’s largest sustainable forestry company. PTP established US $200 million of new facilities to process logs grown by 700,000 farmers in the interior of China. Daniel spent the first ten years of his career in finance, and was Managing Director of a global merchant bank and Partner & Managing Director of a major private investment fund. He received his Bachelor’s degree from University of California, Berkeley and his Master’s from Stanford University.https://ssir.org/podcasts/entry/social_enterprise_enables_hazelnut_farming_in_bhutan

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