Category: Social Good

“One language is poverty,” Annah told us. “Two languages is wealth,” she said, breaking into a smile. For a young woman who has been on the job hunt for nearly a year, she understood that…

Learning to apply the principles of Lean Impact Investing has been a journey, with humble beginnings at my local church. I consider tithing 10% of my income to my local church to be the absolute…

Using user-centered design to get more families into social service programs faster. Problem Once an individual finds a resource that can help them meet a basic need, we often see that the application and enrollment…

For nearly fifty years, social innovation has followed roughly the same trajectory – philanthropy funds pilot programs, researchers evaluate the results, and government replicates what works. This process, which we’ll call “pilot-evaluate-replicate”, makes sense given…

At Code for America, we have spent nearly four years building GetCalFresh, a service to make it as easy as possible for all eligible Californians to successfully enroll in CalFresh (AKA SNAP, food stamps) and…

At Code for America, we have spent nearly four years building GetCalFresh, a service to make it as easy as possible for all eligible Californians to successfully enroll in CalFresh (also known as SNAP or…

A Global Learning Crisis Globally, 263 million children do not go to school. Another 330 million youngsters go to school, but are not learning. Not only must the global education community expand children’s access to…

Failure, and knowing when to admit failure, are critical to the innovation process. Thomas Edison once famously said, “I have not failed. I’ve just found ten thousand ways that won’t work.” Thomas Watson, the CEO…

Less Than 21% of Rural Zimbabwe is Electrified. Once the sun sets, which happens remarkably quickly in this southern African country, if you don’t live in an urban hub, there’s a four in five chance…

Funding innovation for sustainable development; what have we learned… This post shares some lessons from the UN Development Programme (UNDP) on how to design a lean innovation fund that doesn’t create additional hurdles for innovators….