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Center for Social Innovation

 

Social Innovation Events

3rd Annual Nonprofit Management Institute
September 23 - 24, 2008
Stanford Social Innovation Review (SSIR) and Association of Fundraising Professionals (AFP) join forces to bring you the 3rd Annual Nonprofit Management Institute, conducted by the world’s leading experts and professors from the Stanford Graduate School of Business. Strengthen your executive management skills to lead a more effective nonprofit. [details]

 

 

Past Conferences and Speakers

Environmental Investment Can Pay Dividends
There are “huge opportunities for companies and other private sector players in the environmental area,” said Mark Tercek, an investment banker who spent the past 24 years at global giant Goldman Sachs. “We’re off to the races there. (May 2008) [read more]

Ethical Issues in the Design of Entrepreneurial Ventures in the Developing World
Professor James Patell and Mr. Todd Johnson, discussed ethical issues they have encountered with their students in applying design, engineering, and business skills to create comprehensive solutions for challenges faced by the world's poorest families. (May 2008)

Fill Classrooms With Commited Teachers
Wendy Kopp, founder of Teach for America, spoke about raising the bar for low-income students. (April 2008) [read more] View Video

Socially and Environmentally Responsible Supply Chains
This one-day event brought together corporate and nonprofit leaders, policymakers, and academics to share insights on how breakthrough supply chain practices can improve business performance. (April 2008) [details]

Criticism May Produce Innovation, Wal-Mart CEO Scott Says
Wal-Mart’s innovative approach to environmental sustainability and its addition of health care services to stores were partly triggered by critics of the company in other areas. CEO Lee Scott spoke with Sloan Fellows. (March 2008) [Read more]

Funding Social Enterprises
As part of Entrepreneurship Week at Stanford, CSI Director Kriss Deiglmeier moderated a lively discussion on ways of funding social enterprises. Panelists included: Jenny Shilling Stein of the Draper Richards Foundation, Jessica Jackley Flannery of Kiva.org, Amy Clark of Ashoka, and Suzanne McKechnie Klahr of BUILD. (February 2008)
[E-Week Site]

Pondering the Ethics of Global Business
Professor David Brady led a lively discussion on "Academic vs. Real World Ethics" (February 2008) video icon View Video

Who Should Tell the Global Warming Story?
Global warming and environmental deterioration has not played a major role in the 2008 U.S. Presidential Campaign. Journalists and environmentalists at a Business School panel discussion debated just why this issue isn’t higher on the national agenda. (January 2008)
[Read more]

Demand for Green Buildings Grows at Stanford
Speakers told an alumni conference how Stanford University is fighting global warming with plans for greener buildings. Ambitious plans are underway to construct more buildings on campus that use fewer resources and don’t release as many harmful greenhouse gases. (January 2008) [Read more]

Consumers Influence Can Shutter Sweatshops

Professor Hayagreeva Rao offered his take on the issue of sweatshop labor overseas during a panel discussion, “Responsible Competitiveness: Economics, Ethics and the Global Labor Force.” An expert on the social and cultural causes of organizational change, Rao asserted that consumers can wield great influence over the working conditions in which their goods are manufactured. (November 2007) [Read more]

Infosys Leaders Discuss Benefiting Stakeholders and Society

Narayana Murthy shared this story of the genesis of what would eventually become Infosys, his enormously successful global information technology consulting and software services company. Murthy shared his conviction that entrepreneurship aimed at large-scale job creation is the only viable mechanism for eradicating poverty. (October 2007) [Read more]

Social Responsibility Is Now a Business Imperative, Says Roberts of World Wildlife Fund
"Companies still thinking about the environment as a social responsibility rather than a business imperative are living in the dark ages,” Carter Roberts, CEO and chief conservation officer of the World Wildlife Fund, told the audience at the Business School’s annual von Gugelberg Memorial Environmental Lecture. (October 2007) [Read more]  

Actress-Activist Natalie Portman Urges Students to Help Alleviate Poverty

With a presentation on microfinance, actress-turned-activist Natalie Portman kicked off the Social Innovators Speaker Series launched by the Center for Social Innovation at the Stanford Graduate School of Business. She also called on students to take social action to alleviate poverty. (October 2007) [Read more]

Takeaways from the 2007 Nonprofit Institute

  • It’s Often Smart to Make the First Move in a Negotiation
    Making the first offer in a negotiation can have the power of setting a starting point, Professor Margaret Neale advised a conference of nonprofit managers. She advises being aggressive—“just this side of crazy.” (September 2007) [Read more]  
  • A Brand Is a Promise to a Customer
    Nonprofits may not compete as fiercely as for-profit businesses, but they must find ways to make their brand stand out and evoke emotions from potential supporters. (September 2007) [Read more]  

Socially and Environmentally Responsible Supply Chains Inaugural Conference: Making the Business Case
On the day after the Supreme Court handed down a landmark decision allowing the Environmental Protection Agency to regulate carbon dioxide emissions, more than 200 corporate and academic supply chain management experts gathered at the Stanford Graduate School of Business to exchange ideas and best practices aimed at making the global supply chain more sustainable. (April 3, 2007) [Read more]

Let My People Go Surfing: Yvon Chouinard, Patagonia
Patagonia Inc. founder and owner, Yvon Chouinard, offered his Stanford audience a slew of counterintuitive business practices that have helped make his apparel company a success. (October 2006) Details

Innovation Summit: When Baby Boomers Lead Social Innovation
When most Americans think of retirement, they see golf courses, sandy beaches, and cruise ships. But another vision of retirement is gaining traction. That vision—"Americans leading with experience"—was the focus of the 2006 Purpose Prize and Innovation Summit, cosponsored by San Francisco-based Civic Ventures and the Center for Social Innovation at the Stanford Graduate School of Business. (September 2006) Details