Eric Nee
Content by Eric Nee. More information about the author is available at the base of any article listed below.
Technology for the People
The digital system should serve the public interest, with much more intentional governance of technology in its broadest terms, including culture, norms, mindsets, institutions, ethics, and participation.
20 Years of SSIR
While the array of media products that SSIR offers has changed over the last 20 years, our mission has not.
Even Small Foundations Can Have a Big Impact
While large amounts of money can make a difference, it’s not the only way that philanthropists can have an impact.
Transitioning to a Green Economy
A successful transition away from fossil fuels will require strong and vocal civil society organizations and social movements, along with government and business, to make the changes that are necessary if we are to avoid the calamities of global warming.
Creating Tech Prosperity for All
People from disadvantaged communities have largely been cut off from the tech cornucopia. It doesn’t have to be this way.
What’s Wrong With Dirty Money?
Nonprofits need to go into relationships with donors with their eyes wide open and dispassionately weigh the risks and rewards of the exchange.
Collective Impact 2.0
Authors of a seminal article on collective impact explore what it means to put equity at the center of the practice and how that changes the collective impact process itself.
The Mother of Invention
Nonprofits, governments, and businesses around the world have changed how they operate to overcome the impact of COVID-19. The social sector should continue to build on that creativity in the wake of the pandemic.
Building Better Boards
Looking at a board through the lens of colonization can increase its effectiveness and improve board culture.
The Urban and Rural Divide
Despite the poverty rate being significantly higher in rural America, philanthropists continue to pour money into urban areas.
The Union Makes Us Strong
One of the important ways to improve the lives of ordinary Americans is to empower workers and encourage the growth of unions.
B Corps Grow Up
Until recently, most of the 3,422 companies (in 71 countries) that have become a B Corp have been small and medium-sized, but a growing number of large, established corporations are starting to undergo the certification process as well.
Leading During and After a Crisis
Our mission is to find and publish articles by leading thinkers and doers that provide insight on important issues and challenges that social sector leaders must deal with continually. As it turns out, some of these eternal topics are essential now. The Editor's Note from the Summer 2020 issue.
Adapting to the New Coronavirus
How the social sector and Stanford Social Innovation Review are responding now and preparing for what comes next. Part of the series Rethinking Social Change in the Face of Coronavirus.
Don’t Forget the Public Sector
Social innovation leaders should reconsider partnering with the public sector, which has many more resources and much more power than the nonprofit sector, and more of a mandate to address social problems than does business.
Beyond Collective Impact
Rather than a model with a fixed approach, as collective impact is, the community system solutions framework can be adapted to different types of situations. The Editor's Note from the Winter 2020 issue.
Money for Mission
An earned-income business model can tempt nonprofits to pursue the wrong revenue opportunities but they can also be a more reliable income stream than grants or gifts. An Editor's Note from the Fall 2019 issue.
Three Cheers for Regulation
During the Industrial Revolution, labor organizations, social movements, the media, and government came together to rein in big business, providing lessons on how to regulate firms of today like Facebook, Amazon, and Google, writes SSIR's editor-in-chief in an introduction to the Summer 2019 issue.
Living on the Edge
It’s time for socially responsible business leaders to pay higher wages and offer better benefits.
Whither Big Philanthropy
A growing chorus of critics are questioning whether big philanthropy is actually a good thing.
De Tocqueville Redux
As America undergoes dramatic upheavals, one of the ways to understand these changes and to come up with solutions is to examine them through the lens of civil society.
Diversifying the Conservation Movement
The conservation movement has been criticized for being too homogenous, but the National Audubon Society is taking steps to change that.
Why Business May Lead Social Innovation in China
Social innovation will take different forms in different countries. In China, businesses are likely to take the lead.
The Legacy of White Supremacy
America’s first memorial honoring African-Americans who have been lynched opened in Montgomery, Alabama.
SSIR’s 15th Anniversary
Since 2003, Stanford Social Innovation Review has provided a forum for social-change leaders to share new ideas and best practices, and learn from one another.
Year of the Woman
From the Women’s March to #MeToo, women have risen up to change politics and society.
Investing in Our Future
Philanthropists and other impact investors play a critical role in funding risky, early-stage startups developing science-based solutions to climate change.
Globalizing Philanthropy
At a time of rising nationalism and cutbacks in foreign aid in countries around the world, philanthropists play a critical role, not just in providing money, but in fostering cooperation and goodwill between people and nations.
Putting Community First
Community foundations should reaffirm their unique role in the philanthropic landscape and focus on the needs of their geographic community.
Puerto Rico in Peril
Puerto Rico has effectively declared bankruptcy, putting government programs and social progress at risk.
Protecting Our Civil Liberties
The ACLU spent the last decade strengthening its state affiliates, just in time to battle the Trump Administration’s reactionary policies.
Water is Life
Native American activists in North Dakota build broad support to protect sacred lands from environmental degradation.
Thumbs Up for Science
The social sector needs to take greater advantage of the behavioral sciences when developing programs and services.
Marketing Über Alles
Too many nonprofits develop products and services without paying enough attention to their customers (the beneficiaries).
Farming in Detroit
The number of urban gardens in Detroit has been increasing as people seek to put abandoned land to better use.
Mastering Innovation
Innovation is an important tool to create social change, one that can be learned and mastered.
Last Look
Cultivating Coffee Co-ops
Many of the more than 355,000 smallholder coffee farmers in Rwanda are members of producer co-ops.
Change Is Good
Nonprofit organizations and social businesses must adapt to technological changes to survive.
Lion of the Seas
Marine reserves that cut across national borders in Africa are protecting underwater life.
Grassroots Change
To create long-lasting social change, organizations and programs must become embedded in the local community.
Lost to Foreclosure
One of the cities hit hardest by the wave of home foreclosures was Stockton, Calif., a city that later declared bankruptcy.
Show Me the Money
It’s time for more foundations and philanthropists to make $10 million plus grants to social change organizations.
Water to the People
One of India’s biggest challenges is providing clean water to all of its 1.3 billion citizens.
Social Innovation Takes Off in India
Social innovators in India are making progress against social problems as varied as the lack of high-quality education, limited access to clean water and hygiene, and inadequate nutrition.
IMPACT INDIA
Troubled Water
One of India’s largest, and most intractable, challenges is providing clean water to all of its 1.2 billion citizens.
Nonprofit CEOs Advocate for Strategic Communications
Leaders who view communications as a strategic function integral to their organization’s overall operations can be more successful in their work.
European Dreamin’
Thousands of Africans attempt to reach European soil by scaling fences surrounding Spanish cities.
Beware Blurring of Sectors
More than ever we are seeing a blurring of the lines between the nonprofit and for-profit sectors—but that is not always a good thing. An introduction to the summer 2015 issue.
Transformative Dance
A Brazilian organization uses ballet to help disadvantaged youth improve their lives.
Learning From Failure
There are important lessons to be learned from social enterprises that have failed—an introduction to the spring 2015 issue.
Becoming a Woman
A growing number of Maasai in Kenya are ending female circumcision and replacing it with other coming-of-age rituals.
Incremental Innovation
Innovation comes in different forms, and most of the time it's not disruptive. An introduction to the winter 2015 issue.
You Go Girl
The City of Philadelphia Mural Arts Program has produced more than 3,600 murals throughout the city.
Mission-Driven Business
Increased cross-sector collaboration has allowed businesses to use the power of capitalism to solve social problems—an introduction to the fall 2014 issue.
The Gift of Life
Papua province is the epicenter for HIV/AIDS in Indonesia, the world's fourth largest country.
Planning for Uncertainty
Leaders of social change organizations should embrace the uncertainty of strategic plans.
Survivor of an Acid Attack
Women and even girls continue to be the victims of acid attacks by men in Bangladesh and other countries.
Resurrecting Traditional Practices
There has been a renewed interest in traditional Indian spiritual practices by Native and other Americans alike.
A New Look
Stanford Social Innovation Review has a new look that is bolder, more energetic, and more contemporary, reflecting today's social change movement.
Immigrating to a New Land
Every year nonprofits and government agencies partner to help resettle the more than one million new immigrants to the United States.
Fostering Lively Debate
Paul Brest and Kelly Born's Up for Debate article on impact investing zeros in on several important issues and offers some controversial conclusions.
Smile Grenada
NYU's College of Dentristy partnered with the government of the Caribbean island nation of Grenada to fight tooth decay among children.
The Innovator’s Opportunity
Many people think that the term “government innovation” is an oxymoron, but innovation does occur in the public sector and the pace is accelerating.
Creating a Sunny World
Solnechny Mir (Our Sunny World) is a Russian rehabilitation center that hosts more than 250 children and their families each week.
Ten Years of SSIR
Stanford Social Innovation Review celebrates a decade of innovative ideas and practices.
Sodom and Gomorrah
e-waste recycling in Agbogbloshie provides a livelihood for thousands of people, but it also results in a heavily polluted environment.
Impact Investing Grows Up
The impact investing field is maturing as leaders of social innovation reflect on their experiences and research.
People’s Choices Matter
Although new corporate forms like B Corps make it easier to pursue a social mission, it turns out that you don't need one to do so.
Roundtable on Collective Impact
A discussion of the ways in which growing numbers of communities are aligning resources and pulling together to create significant change on a community problem.
Collective Impact Gathers Momentum
Making multi-sector collaborations work—a report from the CECP 2012 Corporate Philanthropy Summit.
Focus on Health
Critics of Obamacare have taken away attention from important aspects of the act, such as its focus on keeping people healthy.
Unconventional Solutions
As we create new ideas and solutions to society’s problems, we have to be careful not to become too wedded to them and think that they are universally applicable.
Jeff Skoll
Jeff Skoll is one of the most creative, generous, and effective philanthropists of his time. And at age 47, he’s just getting started.
Investing in Impact
As entrepreneurs create more for-profit businesses with strong social missions, the opportunity for socially minded investors to invest in them grows.
Collapse of an Iconic Social Enterprise
The ShoreBank saga provides important lessons for people who believe that for-profit institutions can be used for social change.
Manish Bapna
Manish Bapna, managing director of World Resources Institute, is helping China manage its environmental problems.
Neal Keny-Guyer
Neal Keny-Guyer believes that wars, earthquakes, and other disasters create opportunities for Mercy Corps to help improve society.
Jeffrey Sachs
Jeffrey Sachs believes we must lift a billion-plus people out of poverty while reducing our impact on the environment.
Joanne Weiss
Joanne Weiss is in charge of the federal government’s $4.3 billion Race to the Top Fund, a new program that is funding innovations in K-12 education.
Q&A: Jeff Raikes
Jeff Raikes takes over the Gates Foundation at a turbulent time when philanthropic resources are down and social needs are up.
Social Innovations
Q&A: Fred Krupp
Under Fred Krupp’s leadership, the Environmental Defense Fund has become one of the most important power brokers in the environmental arena. Krupp has helped accomplish what some thought was impossible—getting businesses to go green voluntarily.
Social Innovations
Q & A: Judith Rodin
The Rockefeller Foundation is staying at the forefront of new and big ideas, funding new innovation processes like crowdsourcing and collaborative competitions.
Q&A: William Brindley
William Brindley spent most of his career keeping financial institutions at the leading edge of technology. Now, as CEO of the nonprofit consortium NetHope, he is using those same skills to help nonprofits do the same. NetHope now has 25 member organizations, among them Save the Children, Mercy Corps, Oxfam, the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, and Catholic Relief Services.
Government
15 Minutes with Martin Eakes
Managing Editor Eric Nee spoke with Self-Help’s founder and CEO, Martin Eakes, about the subprime loan crisis and its impact on the poor.
15 Minutes with Vicky Colbert
SSIR Managing Editor Eric Nee spoke with Escuela Nueva’s president Vicky Colbert about her efforts to change the way children are educated.
15 Minutes with Thomas Vander Ark
SSIR Managing Editor Eric Nee spoke with the X Prize Foundation’s president, Thomas Vander Ark, about how prizes can stimulate social innovation.
Business
15 Minutes with Hannah Jones
SSIR Academic Editor Jim Phills spoke with Nike’s Hannah Jones about the sportswear giant’s extensive corporate social responsibility programs.
Philanthropy
15 Minutes with Emmett Carson
SSIR Managing Editor Eric Nee met with Emmett Carson to discuss his bold plans for the newly merged Silicon Valley Community Foundation, which is now the fourth largest community foundation in the country.
Philanthropy
Live from CoF: Remittances—The New Way to Alleviate Poverty
Remittances dwarf traditional forms of aid to less developed nations.
15 Minutes with Victoria Hale
MacArthur “genius” prize winner creates drugs for the developing world.
Nonprofits
Field Notes: Independent Sector Conference
Why do nonprofits talk a lot about partnering with business and government, yet rarely talk about building partnerships with trade unions?
Government
It All Started Here
Sidebar to "The Hidden Cost of Paradise:" The Miwoks were exterminated from Yosemite Valley.