Skip to Content

Center for Social Innovation

 

Press Room

CSI Updates

Business Schools Teach Environmental Studies: Learning how to be ecofriendly is an important business skill
US News & World Report ranked Stanford #1 in a tie with Harvard for its 2009 America's Best Graduate School rankings. Accompanying article highlights Stanford's curricular efforts in sustainability and CSR. [U.S. News and World Report]

Stanford tops Aspen Institute Alternative Business School Ranking
The Aspen Institute, a leadership think tank, ranked Stanford as the top school in its "Beyond Grey Pinstripes" biannual alternative rankings of business schools released Oct. 10, 2007. [Business Week]

Government, Businesses, and Nonprofits Need to Work Together
James A. Phills Jr., Director of the Center for Social Innovation, comments on the right conditions for social innovation to happen. [icon - video] Nightly Business Report (2 min)

Sustainable Business Approaches Explored In New Executive Program
More companies in a variety of industries are looking hard at the way they do business to see how to do the least harm to the environment. Over 30 people, including a CEO, five vice presidents, and more than a dozen managers, tackled the issue as part of a new executive education class taught at the Stanford Graduate School of Business. (September 2007) Details

Stanford Business School Conference Makes Case for Socially Responsible and Environmentally Sustainable Supply Chains
A conference at the Stanford Graduate School of Business made the business case for environmentally sustainable and socially responsible supply chain networks. The conference gathered executives, academics, NGO and government leaders to share best practice and insights. It is one of several new initiatives around environmental sustainability at the Business School. (April 2007) Details

Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die?
Faculty member Chip Heath and his brother, Dan, are co-authors of a new book, Made to Stick. They are guests on the Today Show, discussing their book in an interview with co-host Meredith Viera. Today Show (5 minutes, RealPlayer® format) NBC, Wednesday, Jan. 3, 2007

Silicon Valley venture capitalist Bill Draper has made a gift of $1 million to the Stanford Graduate School of Business to support the School's Stanford Social Innovation Review. The three-year-old journal is a publication for practitioners who are interested in achieving social change through organizational management. (September 2006) Details

Stanford Graduate School of Business Launches Social Innovation Podcasting Channel on The Conversations Network
The Stanford Graduate School of Business has launched a podcasting channel offering free audio programs addressing some of the world's most pressing social and environmental challenges. Social Innovation Conversations is designed as a collaborative online platform with programs drawn from conferences, faculty lectures, speaker events, and expert interviews. (June 2006) Details

Stanford Business School Offers DVD on Disaster Relief Management
The Stanford Graduate School of Business has produced a DVD of edited highlights from its 2005 Effective Disruption Management conference. The DVD is now available free of charge to humanitarian relief organizations and other nonprofit agencies Details

The Center for Social Innovation Public Management Program just published its 2004-2005 Public Management Initiative paper: Climate Change Primer.

In a biennial report, Beyond Grey Pinstripes [ PDF 386KB], World Resources Institute and the Aspen Institute identified the Stanford Graduate School of Business as the leader among business schools that are incorporating ethics, corporate social responsibility and environmental sustainability into their curriculums and activities (October 2005) Details

Stanford Graduate School of Business and Amazon.com Announce Winner of the Amazon.com Nonprofit Innovation Award
Commitment to helping teachers and students helps DonorsChoose raise more than $790,000 in donations plus a matching grant from Amazon.com. (October 2005) Details

James A. Phills Jr.: Claude N. Rosenberg Jr. Director of the Center for Social Innovation (Sept 05)
The Center for Social Innovation is grateful for Louise and Claude N. Rosenberg Jr's generosity. Their gift, the largest ever to the Center for Social Innovation, will be remembered through the creation of the Claude N. Rosenberg Jr. Directorship.

The first appointee as the Claude N. Rosenberg Jr. Director of the Center for Social Innovation at the Graduate School of Business is James A. Phills, Jr.

Professor Phills specializes in the emerging area of social innovation. His work explores how business strategy can be adapted and applied to enhance the effectiveness of nonprofit and public-sector organizations. In related research, Phills is studying the increasingly interdependent roles of business, government, and nonprofits in solving social problems. He also has examined learning and change at group, organizational, and societal levels. In particular, he has studied the process through which people who share responsibility for a collective task reconcile conflicting views about how to pursue that task. He recently published Integrating Mission and Strategy for Nonprofit Organization, a book that applies and adapts the core body of general management knowledge about mission, strategy, and execution to help nonprofit leaders deal with the special challenges they face.

As the Rosenberg Director of CSI, Professor Phills is responsible for the Center for Social Innovation's activities. Under his leadership the Center will work toward the realization of its mission of building the capacity of individuals and organizations to develop innovative solutions to social problems for a more just, sustainable and healthy world. CSI promotes solutions through a unique combination of interdisciplinary research, through efforts to engage with those who lead social change by bringing together nonprofit leaders, corporate executives, government officials, and philanthropists to discuss, debate, analyze, and take action to strengthen the community, and ultimately through teaching that extends beyond the classroom.

Location Makes a Difference for Nonprofit Support, Says New Study
Although most nonprofit organizations are small, they collectively represent an important part of a region's economy. An important new study just released by the Center for Social Innovation at the Stanford Graduate School of Business finds that nonprofits in the San Francisco Bay Area are better-funded and spend more per capita compared to the rest of California and the nation. Yet nonprofit leaders in the Bay Area feel stretched when marshalling resources to meet the needs or aspirations of their organization's mission.

These are among the key findings of the inaugural report from the Stanford Project on the Evolution of Nonprofits (SPEN), a ground-breaking research initiative launched in 2003 by the Stanford Graduate School of Business. (August 2005) Details

Stanford Graduate Business School to host Net Impact Conference
The Net Impact 2005 Conference, the largest annual gathering in the world for MBA students and young professionals focused on corporate social responsibility, social entrepreneurship, international development, and environmental management, will be hosted by the Stanford Graduate School of Business November 10-13, the organizers announced today. Details

Stanford Graduate Business School Offers New Executive Program for Philanthropy Leaders
Stanford University's Graduate School of Business will offer a new executive education course geared exclusively for leaders of grant making organizations—a program that is the first of its kind at a business school. The six-day Executive Program in Philanthropy will run July 31 through August 5, 2005. Details

Stanford Graduate Business School partners with Amazon.com on Nonprofit Innovation Award
The Center for Social Innovation at the Stanford Graduate School of Business and Amazon.com have joined efforts to discover and reward nonprofit organizations whose innovative approaches most effectively improve their communities or the world at large. Details

The Skoll Foundation Focus on Social Entrepreneurship
After creating the Skoll Foundation in 1999, Jeff Skoll, MBA '95, helped focus the organization on social entrepreneurship—including helping people help themselves—foundation President Sally Osberg said, addressing the Philanthropy Discussion Series. (February 2004) Details

Stanford Business School Names Executive Director at Center for Social Innovation
The Stanford Graduate School of Business has named Kriss Deiglmeier to the newly created position of executive director of operations at the Center for Social Innovation (CSI). (February 2004) Details

Schools Need More than High Test Scores
Raising standardized test scores is a laudable goal, but if a school really wants to thrive in the long term, it needs to pay close attention to its values, argued speakers at a program discussing K-12 education. The event was co-sponsored by the Stanford Educational Leadership Leadership Institute, a joint effort by the Graduate School of Business and the School of Education, and by the Stanford Social Innovation Review, a new publication from the Business School's Center for Social Innovation. (November 2003) Details

National Educational Leaders Leverage Business and Education to Improve Schools
Teams of school leaders from 12 diverse school districts around the nation spent a week seeking ways to address educational issues during an executive program headed by faculty from Stanford's schools of business and education. (July 2003) Details

Sooner May Not Be Better as Charities Distribute the Wealth
Michael Klausner takes issue with pundits who would like to require charitable organizations to distribute their assets faster than now required. His argument appears in the inaugural issue of the Stanford Social Innovation Review. (May 2003) Details

Managing Nonprofits Requires Mainstream Business Skills
Strategy is key to success for nonprofit organizations says the head of the Nature Conservancy. Steve McCormick, a graduate of the School's Stanford Executive Program, was one of the speakers at the May launch of the new Stanford Social Innovation Review. (May 2003) Details

Alumni Honored for Pro Bono Community Consulting
Business School alumni volunteers who have collectively donated an estimated $1 million dollars in consulting service to Bay Area nonprofits have been honored for their role in the Alumni Consulting Team (ACT) program. (April 2003) Details

Stanford Business School Launches New Journal on Social Sector Issues
Against a backdrop of increasing pressure in the non-profit sector to do more with less, the Stanford Graduate School of Business will launch a new journal, the Stanford Social Innovation Review (SSIR), dedicated to covering the best ideas for nonprofit management, philanthropy, and corporate citizenship. The first issue, Spring 2003, will be mailed to subscribers in April. Details

Beetles, Snails, and Squirrels Can Help Humans Solve Design Problems
Science writer and author Janine Benyus urged an overflow Stanford Business School audience to look to the world of nature for ways to cool buildings, collect water in the desert, keep pipes from clogging with scale, and manage air traffic. Her speech was sponsored by the School's Center for Social Innovation. (February 2003) Details

Schools Need to Develop Leaders, San Diego Education Chief Tells Conference
In a new joint initiative, Stanford's Graduate School of Business will join the School of Education to share knowledge and help redesign schools for the future. The joint venture opened Oct 23 with a symposium called "Developing Educational Entrepreneurship: Redesigning Schools for the 21st Century." (October 2002) Details

Stanford Business School Announces Expansion of Center for Social Innovation to Address Social Sector Issues
The Center for Social Innovation (CSI), dedicated to research, teaching, and outreach, is being expanded at the Graduate School of Business. The three-year-old Center focuses on social entrepreneurship, nonprofit leadership and management, philanthropy, corporate social responsibility, and public policy, as well as sector-specific issues such as healthcare, education, affordable housing, environmental sustainability, and community development. (September 2002) Details

Additional information about the Center may be found in the CSI Fact Sheet.