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Overview

In 1996, Democratic President Bill Clinton declared in his State of the Union address that the era of big government was over. There is a possibility that in the 21st century, the era of big government could be replaced with an era of social entrepreneurship and national service, whereby citizens in the hundreds of thousands would become directly involved in meeting needs and addressing public problems, and social entrepreneurs would invent new solutions and institutions that the government could help take to scale.

Over the course of the past decade, social entrepreneurship has become a key concept that has revolutionized thinking about identifying solutions to critical social issues. According to scholar J. Gregory Dees More, social entrepreneurs “play the role of change agents in the social sector… engaging in a process of continuous innovation, adaptation, and learning, acting boldly without being limited by resources in hand, and exhibiting a heightened sense of accountability to the constituencies served and for the outcomes created.” More and more, people are bringing the kinds of entrepreneurial ideas, concepts, and approaches to problem solving and the distribution of resources to the public sector that have long been a hallmark of the private sector.

The national service movement has played a key role in the growth of social entrepreneurship in the United States. Many young people who have participated in AmeriCorps and the Peace Corps have come up with their own ideas of how to meet the pressing social challenges of our time, leading to the founding of innovative new organizations. Additionally, AmeriCorps and the Peace Corps have provided talented personnel to fuel these new social organizations as they grow and develop. Numerous organizations have been founded with a social entrepreneurial approach, including: BELL, Boston Children’s Chorus, Citizen Schools, City Year, College Summit, Computers for Youth, the Hands On Network, Jumpstart, Kaboom!, Management Leaders for Tomorrow, New Leaders for New Schools, New Profit Inc., Peer Health Exchange, the Seed School, Stand for Children, Teach for America, Working Today, Year Up, Youth Build and many, many more.

“Action tanking” is a tool of social enterprise available to social entrepreneurs. Recently, many have realized that to make big change, you not only have to come up with an innovative project, but also you need to operationalize it as an “action tank” to connect the goals of the project to larger public policy impact. An action tank is an organization dedicated to bringing about major changes in society, often targeted to advance a specific public policy solution or agenda, in a manner that combines and leverages direct programmatic experience, policy generation, advocacy, and civic mobilization across multiple sectors and the public at large.

In the coming decade, social entrepreneurship and action tanking will become an increasingly important force for change and a career path for young adults and others who are interested in putting their talents and idealism to work for social justice. The non-profit sector is the fastest growing sector in American society. According to Lester Salamon, in 2004, 1.2 million nonprofits in the U.S. employing 11 million paid workers and 6 million full-time equivalent volunteers— representing about 7 – 8% of the nation’s work force. Salamon’s research suggests that between 1977 and 1997, the sector grew more than 150%. In Massachusetts, a study by MassINC showed that the non-profit sector workforce grew by 9 percent between 2001 and 2003, a period when overall employment declined by 4 percent. Worldwide, growth numbers of NGOs are equally impressive. While it is nearly impossible to accurately capture the growth of local, grassroots NGOs worldwide, The London School of Economics publication, Global Civil Society 2004/5, reports a 43% growth in the worldwide number of international NGOs (INGOs) between 1993 and 2003.

With the combination of the growth of the non-profit sector and the pending retirement of the Baby Boom generation, we face a leadership gap in the non-profit sector. According to a recent study by the Bridgespan Group, over the next 10 years, there will be a deficit of 640,000 senior managers in the non-profit sector in the United States, and by 2016, the non-profit sector will need 78,000 new senior managers each year. The leadership talents and interdisciplinary perspectives of students from Harvard and the Kennedy School will be increasingly needed in the non-profit sector. The future of innovative social change lies in the talents of leaders and citizens who can bring together insights from the business, government, and non-profit sectors, an approach that will be highlighted in this study group.

The goal of this study group is to introduce Harvard students to an approach to changing the world, public service and making a difference that utilizes a partnership between the non-profit, private and government sectors. We will explore the national service and social entrepreneurial movements and the concept of the “Action Tank” approach to change. We will review the various concepts underlying national service and social entrepreneurship including funding, organization-building, public-private partnerships, policy leverage, and the role of the media. And we will meet some of the leaders in this field who are on the cutting edge of driving this new movement.

Sept. 27: An Introduction to Social Entrepreneurship, National Service, and “Action Tanking” This session will introduce fundamental concepts and ideas that will be central to our study group over the course of the next eight weeks. Using the growth of the national service movement as an example, we will discuss how social entrepreneurs can turn their innovative ideas into reality. We will also discuss the concept of “action tanking” as a platform for leveraging the social impact of new ideas and new programmatic forms into local and national legislation that can implement change at a much broader level.

Speaker: Alan Khazei, Co-Founder, City Year, Inc.

Oct. 4: Social Entrepreneurship and the Media

The media plays a critical role in disseminating entrepreneurial ideas and concepts to the greater public, generating widespread interest in new social ideas and concepts, leveraging funding, and building support for legislation and policy. In this session, we will discuss the role that the press has played in generating support for national service programs and policy, as well as other current ideas and concepts for change that are gaining cultural capital through the media. We will hear from one of our nation’s leading journalists who has devoted considerable time and energy to both covering and understanding the national service movement and the nonprofit world.

Speaker (confirmed): Jonathan Alter, Senior Editor and Columnist, Newsweek; Board Member, Donors Choose

October 11: Social Entrepreneurship – Practitioner Perspectives

Boston is one of the leading cities for social entrepreneurship in America, and in this session we will hear tips and insights from several outstanding Boston-area social entrepreneurs, who are also having national impact. Guest speakers will share ideas and lessons learned as they founded and built their social change organizations. Topics will cover the range of experience from start up, to going to scale, to affecting national policy and more.

Speakers (confirmed): Hubie Jones, Founder & Board President, Boston Children’s Chorus
Eric Schwartz, Founder & CEO, Citizen Schools
Dorothy Stoneman, Founder & President, YouthBuild USA

October 18: National Service as a Vehicle for Social Change and Reinvigorated Citizenship

Senator Hart was one of the first leaders in Congress to propose a universal system for national service. He has written several books about the ideas and philosophy underlying our system of Government in the United States and the importance of citizens exercising not only their rights but also their responsibilities in order to have a healthy Republic. Senator Hart will discuss America’s history of civic republicanism and how national service can help reinvigorate the ideals of citizenship necessary for a robust republic. He will also share his views on what America can and should do to meet the unique challenges of the 21st Century.

Speaker (confirmed): Dr. Gary Hart, Former U.S. Senator, Co-Chair US Commission on National Security/21st Century

October 25: Affecting Policy Change through National Service & Social Entrepreneurship

This session will expose students to leading policy experts who led the effort to develop national service policy in America during 1980’s and 1990’s. They will discuss and review the history of national service in the past 20 years, including the creation of the first White House Office of National Service, the Points of Light Foundation, the Commission on National and Community Service, The Corporation for National and Community Service and the founding of AmeriCorps, and America’s Promise. They will also share their visions for where national service policy can and should go in the future and how social entrepreneurs can work with policymakers to effect large-scale social change.

Speakers (confirmed): Robert Gordon, Senior Vice President for Civic Leadership at City Year and Colonel, United States Army (retired)
Gregg Petersmeyer, Founder & Vice Chair, America’s Promise, Former Assistant to President George Bush and Director of the Office of National Service
Shirley Sagawa, Sagawa/Jospin, former Managing Director of the Corporation for National and Community Service

Nov. 1: Social Entrepreneurship and the Power of Public-Private Partnerships

The widespread creation of philanthropic arms of large corporations, as well as private foundations founded from the wealth of corporate innovators (such as the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and the Omidyar Network), suggests that an ethic of corporate citizenship has begun to transform the way that we do business in America. Many corporations are starting to move beyond traditional philanthropy towards the alignment of their basic values with positive social impact. Additionally, more and more non-profits are incorporating best practices from corporate environments, where innovation and experimentation have long been the rule of thumb. Public-private partnerships have begun to move beyond traditional philanthropy to the development of innovative programs and practices that benefit communities, employees, and the bottom-line of both organizations. In this session, we will discuss trends in public-private partnerships, and the way in which these partnerships are leading to new social innovations. And we will hear from one of the true visionary leaders of this new movement for corporate social responsibility.

Speaker (confirmed): Jeff Swartz, CEO, The Timberland Company

Nov. 8: Investing in Social Entrepreneurship: Non-Profit Capital Markets and Taking Things to Scale

The non-profit “capital market” functions very differently from the private sector capital market. While there is often lots of opportunities to receive funding for new ideas and programs, relatively little funding is available for growing successful social innovations and taking them to scale. This gap is being addressed by a new breed of “venture philanthropists” and innovative funders who draw analogies and practices from the private sector to the non-profit world. This session will review the challenges that social entrepreneurs face in scaling their enterprises, as well as new philanthropic initiatives designed to address the gap in funding and support for social organizations to achieve scale. We will hear from several of the leading figures in this new and important movement.

Speakers (confirmed): Vanessa Kirsch, CEO and Co-Founder, New Profit, Inc.
Paul Grogan, CEO, The Boston foundation
Chuck Harris, Managing General Partner, Harris Capital Partners, CEO SeaChange

Nov. 15: Wrap-Up

This session will review what we have covered over the previous seven weeks with particular emphasis on the topics and issues raised that study group participants are most interested in.