2011 Request for Qualifications Now Open – Apply to Join the REDF Portfolio

June 20, 2011 – 2:00 pm

REDF is pleased to announce the launch of our second round RFQ as the first step in selecting up to three additional organizations to join our portfolio and receive Social Innovation Fund (SIF) subgrants. Complete applications must be submitted by 5:00 PM Pacific Standard Time (PST) on Friday, July 15, 2011. Submissions prior to the [...]

By Carla Javits | Posted in Uncategorized | Tags: , , , , , | Leave a Comment

Articles Worth Reading

April 18, 2011 – 11:01 am

Worth reading: on evaluation Evaluation of social programs might as well be alchemy or brain surgery for the mystery and complexity surrounding it.  The simple reality though is it’s worth doing when it leads to better results for the people we serve; and when the funders who pay the bills know they are maximizing the [...]

By Carla Javits | Posted in Uncategorized | Tags: , , , | Leave a Comment

Disruptive Innovation – Is “Disruption” Enough?

February 24, 2011 – 1:54 pm

Once a year the Boston venture philanthropy New Profit offers a delicious smorgasbord of speakers and conversations to invited social entrepreneurs and innovators from around the country.  New Profit was an early investor in many of the most successful of these ventures – from Teach for America to Kipp Schools.  The leaders of those and [...]

By Carla Javits | Posted in Uncategorized | Tags: , , , , , , | Leave a Comment

REDF Launches New Portfolio to Create California Jobs

February 15, 2011 – 7:47 am

Today we leave the starting gate — adrenalin surging, hearts pounding.  REDF and our partners in the field have been testing, learning, improving and preparing.  We’re aiming for a sweeping impact:  people who want to work find jobs and move on and up, rather than being frozen out.  Everyone who wants to work has that [...]

By Carla Javits | Posted in Uncategorized | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , | Comments (4)

From Egypt to the US: Governments, Hope, and Jobs

February 7, 2011 – 3:31 pm

Hope and optimism can be crushed or facilitated by government as the events of the past week in Egypt and Tunisia make clear.  When people don’t feel their voices are heard, and they can’t get jobs, they rebel. The other week, during the State of the Union speech, the President focused on how to create [...]

By Carla Javits | Posted in Uncategorized | Tags: , , , , , , , , , | Comments (1)

Good reading

December 1, 2010 – 9:57 am

Worth reading this week – Bay Area social entrepreneur Paul Lamb’s fine piece on social enterprise in the Huffington Post — The Business of Hope; and an interesting article on a Johnson and Johnson sponsored program to help people with mental illness get into the workforce in the Stanford Social Innovation Review — Employment Power. [...]

By Carla Javits | Posted in Uncategorized | Tags: , , | Leave a Comment

Spending money well builds public trust

November 19, 2010 – 1:34 pm

As our newly elected Governor and other representatives prepare for the coming year, and the highly partisan public debate about government spending rages, those of us working at the community level know that the fight over cutting or increasing taxes does not tell the whole story.  We know that business as usual is neither possible [...]

By Carla Javits | Posted in Uncategorized | Tags: , , , , , , | Comments (1)

Election Day 2010: An open letter to the incoming Governor of the State of California

November 2, 2010 – 12:08 pm

Dear Governor-Elect: Congratulations, and please get some rest.  We’ll need all the energy you have for the next four years. When Governor Schwarzenegger was first sworn in as Governor in November 2003, Californians faced an unemployment rate of 6.6% — 5.4% when he was reelected in January 2007. You take the oath of office with [...]

By Carla Javits | Posted in Uncategorized | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , | Comments (2)

Building the Ecosystem – Connecting the Dots

October 28, 2010 – 12:55 pm

Heroes and gurus of social entrepreneurship gathered at the Mozilla Foundation headquarters in Mountain View last week to illuminate what it takes to ‘scale social impact’.  Duke University convened the session which offered the intellectual firepower of Professors Dees, Bloom, Robinson, and Clark and the practical experience of social sector leaders Jordan Kassalow (VisionSpring ); [...]

By Carla Javits | Posted in Uncategorized | Tags: , , , , , , , | Comments (1)

Leveraging change where the market has failed

October 18, 2010 – 3:06 pm

No matter what your position on crime, whether law and order or reform and rehabilitation – just about everyone knows that if we don’t get people to work after they serve their sentences, we are unlikely to change the unfortunate and costly reality that the US has 5 % of the world’s population and 24% [...]

By Carla Javits | Posted in Uncategorized | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , | Comments (2)
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