Be the best of whatever you are

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 [...]

REDF Leverages First Social Innovation Fund Grant

We are feeling a combination of tremendous optimism and significant responsibility as we gear up to do all we can to launch successful implementation of our Social Innovation Fund (SIF) grant. I will be sharing more here about that as we move ahead. Last week I had the chance to write a guest post on [...]

REDF Receives $3 Million Social Innovation Fund Grant

Click here to read REDF’s official press release about the grant. Learn how Ramses turned his life around after being hired at a REDF-supported social enterprise. …………………………………………………………………… Today REDF was elated to receive news of a two year $3 million federal Social Innovation Fund grant from the Corporation for National and Community Service (CNCS). The [...]

Hope vs. Optimism

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, [...]

My Day in Washington: First Lady Michelle Obama Talks Innovation

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, [...]

Where is the Trust?

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’ [...]

Working Wikily

Sticking with my vow to relentlessly focus on ‘what works’ in this blog*, today’s post is about building what Haas Business School professor Jane Wei Skillern calls the ‘networked nonprofit’ and Monitor Group calls ‘working wikily’. It’s high time that we build a tighter network among innovators who identify with ‘entrepreneurship’ and those more identified [...]

Positive change in the new year

Holiday greetings! A resolution for 2010: Make positive change. And the corollary: Focus on the positive. Searching for ‘how to’ …some great guides below: Dan Pallotta’s always interesting blog suggests a new name for the “nonprofit” sector — just about anything is better than a word that starts with “non”. A hot new book coming [...]

Where social enterprise is headed

After more than a decade of learning from success, as well as from the school of hard knocks, the time is ripe for dramatic expansion of the social innovation that REDF has been privileged to pioneer with our extraordinary partners. Over the next several years, REDF’s new strategy will accelerate the growth of job-creating social [...]