The Power of Social Innovation: How Civic Entrepreneurs Ignite Community Networks for Good

San Francisco, CA – “Over the years I have seen the very worst and best of communities,” says author Stephen Goldsmith. “But more recently I have seen…the very best of America—the generous, civic minded streak that is not only alive, but thriving.”

With deficits soaring and job losses mounting, now is the time to focus our public and philanthropic efforts on the best possible results. By tapping into the new wave of civic-minded entrepreneurship sweeping the country, leaders across the U.S. and throughout the world are discovering creative ways to overcome the obstacles that seal the doors of opportunity for too many.

The Power of Social Innovation: How Civic Entrepreneurs Ignite Community Networks for Good (Jossey-Bass; 978-0-470-57684-7; March 2010) by Stephen Goldsmith with Gigi Georges and Tim Glynn Burke offers tools for civic entrepreneurs to create healthier communities and promote innovative solutions to public and social problems. It features illustrative case studies of civic leaders and entrepreneurs and the catalyzing role each plays in transforming a community’s social service delivery systems. Based on Goldsmith’s experience, as well as on extensive research and interviews with more than 100 top leaders from the public, private, and nonprofit sectors, this book offers public officials, social entrepreneurs, philanthropists, and citizens the insights and strategies to produce social change.

The Power of Social Innovation is structured around five guiding principles employed in the most effective entrepreneurial interventions. It is full of case studies of inventive private organizations such as United Way, United Negro College Fund, Kickstart, City Year, and The New Teacher Project, plus trailblazing public leaders from Michael Bloomberg to Michelle Rhee who are helping communities across America find better ways to solve problems and achieve results.  Chapters include:

*     Innovation as Catalytic Ingredient: Use transformative innovations to dramatically improve system-wide performance

*     Open Sourcing Social Innovation: Open entrenched systems to entrepreneurship and innovation

*     Trading Good Deeds for Measurable Results: Leverage funding to drive innovation & results from key service providers

*     Animating and Trusting the Citizen: Engage individual citizens in both identifying problems and in solving them

*     Turning Risk into Reward: Understand and underwrite risk to unlock public value throughout the broader system

Each of the stories in The Power of Social Innovation provides insights from the front lines of innovation. Collectively, they present compelling evidence of Goldsmith’s conclusions that change is possible.