September 8, 2010 – 10:58 am
Dropping my son and daughter at college for their respective Freshman years, I not only experienced the unique mixture of sadness, pride, and elation that accompanies these fraught moments; but also spent some time thinking about the job market that will await them next summer, and four years from now. I thought about how the [...]
September 1, 2010 – 10:17 am
The following is a guest post by 2010 Farber Intern, Janet Zhou. Janet was one of the seven outstanding “Farber” MBA interns contributing time and talent to REDF and the social enterprises in our portfolio this summer. Janet will receive her MBA from Harvard Business School in 2011, and completed a BS in Management Science [...]
August 25, 2010 – 3:29 pm
There’s been some controversy this week about the transparency of the selection process of the Social Innovation Fund. I will hold my thoughts on that for now, except to say that since we received our grant award, we have spent all of our time focused on how to use these precious resources to create as [...]
In this guest post, Jason Trimiew, REDF’s Director of Fund and Business Development, presents a picture of what nonprofit social enterprise looks like at scale. Like most effective programs of this size and scope, the NISH/AbilityOne example requires the kind of cross-sector partnerships I have discussed in previous posts. It’s an inspiring example that calls [...]
By Carla I. Javits, REDF President From REDF’s June 2010 eNewsletter With unemployment in California stuck around 12%, prospects for increased employment of individuals with significant barriers might seem dimmer than ever. Putting a fine point on it, “I think the unemployment rate will be permanently higher,” noted Mark Sandi, chief economist at Moody’s Economy.com, [...]
A White House invitation spurred a quick trip to Washington, D.C. for an inspiring meeting convened by First Lady Michele Obama, with Patrick Corvington, who heads up the Corporation for National and Community Service (CNCS), and Melody Barnes, Director of the Domestic Policy Council. It was heartening to witness the commitment of the First Lady, [...]
I’ve been in Israel at the invitation of the Rothschild Foundation (called Yad Handiv here) and Fay Twersky of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation who led our Visiting Committee on Evaluation and Performance Measurement, which also included Paul Brest from the Hewlett Foundation, and Martin Brookes of New Philanthropy Capital. Fay’s team at the [...]
In Israel with a small visiting committee on Evaluation and Performance Management. We have met with nonprofits large and small, philanthropy – Israeli and US-based, corporations and banks, and the people and organizations that measure nonprofit performance. A lot of philanthropy here has historically been US-based, but because of more recent economic growth, there is [...]
April 20, 2010 – 10:38 am
According to a new report on National Public Radio, “Americans’ trust in government and its institutions has plummeted to a near-historic low, according to a sobering new survey by the Pew Research Center. Only 22 percent of Americans surveyed by Pew say they can trust government in Washington ‘almost always or most of the time’ [...]
February 1, 2010 – 10:24 am
Continuing on this year’s theme: positive change: what works….. During his State of the Union message, President Obama outlined incentives for small businesses to hire more workers, and for investors to provide more capital. But the next day when the President was asked in a Tampa, Florida town hall meeting about job opportunities for one [...]
