Read about how collective approaches to social innovation can address problems too big for individual organizations to handle; how nursing education can be reformed to better serve communities; why cross-sector partnerships struggle and how they can get back on track; how one energy company created a social movement to green an entire country; and other topics in the Summer 2025 issue of Stanford Social Innovation Review.
The world is undergoing simultaneous economic, technological, geopolitical, environmental, and social changes that organizations cannot address alone. Only a collective approach to social innovation can solve for challenges that are too large for individual organizations.
The predominant model for educating nurses prepares them for hospital settings. By adopting a competency-based education model rooted in community care, nursing programs can better equip their students to address the diverse health-care needs and environments of the 21st century.
Many public-private collaborations that address complex social problems flounder. We offer a new model to get such partnerships back on track.
E.ON Italia sparked Italy’s green energy transition by igniting a movement within its workforce—one that rippled out to influence society at large.
Can you ask economically vulnerable women to donate for the empowerment of others? Buzz Women’s giving circle in India is doing just that.
Queer Voices’ audio-walking tours re-create LGBTQ+ history in Leipzig and Halle in former East Germany.
Garden for Wildlife invites college students to design and plant gardens to create a greener future.
Daleela AI seeks to empower Arabic women with access to information about sexual and reproductive health.
The Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project conducts cross-border investigations targeting the world’s most corrupt—from oligarchs and misogynist influencers to political elites.
A telemedicine-based screening program is saving babies from preventable blindness in India’s most remote regions.
A grassroots effort in Silicon Valley addresses the needs of the working-class immigrant community.
The tax code should not dissuade donors from maximizing their impact by supporting 501(c)(4)s.
The hospitality sector can better serve its customers and communities if it rethinks how it procures goods and services.
Funders who care about justice should enable communities to lead their own research projects. | Open access to this article made possible by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation
Sheriffs in Genesee County, Michigan, created an education and job-training program for inmates that reduced recidivism by transforming jail culture.
A nationwide educational program in Mexico that dispatched mentors to schools succeeded by sparking greater parental involvement.
Companies in Taiwan with ties to the ruling party invested in public welfare to reduce the potential for popular backlash during the nation’s democratic transition.
Low-income white families in Los Angeles have easier time finding new rental housing than low-income Latino families because of access to greater resources and social networks.
Andrew Hoffman argues for a reinvention of business education so that tomorrow's leaders can effectively tackle today's largest challenges.
Iconoclast Sarah Schulman pulls from her decades of activism to present a passionate testimony on living a life of solidarity.
As promoters and defenders of a free civil society, we at SSIR today find ourselves taking sides: We stand with you as allies against the rise of authoritarianism in the United States and abroad.
A collection of standout pieces published online about field-building, cross-sector transformation, AI, structural change, and social sector messaging.
“The act of protest, particularly when embodied through rituals such as the whirling of the dervish, exposes a deep tension between the autonomy of the individual and the forces of control exerted by the state.”
