The question that originally inspired this thesis was: which sector is best at social
innovation? I asked this question after reviewing information about the new Social
Innovation Fund grant program administered by the Corporation for National and
Community Service, a federal agency. (The organization I work for considered applying.)
The most interesting requirement to me was that it required the applicant to be a grantmaking
nonprofit or foundation, with a commitment from a foundation or the private
sector to match 100% of government funding. This implies that the Obama
Administration thinks that nonprofits are the best source of innovation, and that the role
both the government and the private sector should play is that of funder.
That got me thinking… are nonprofits really the best source of social innovation?
Shouldn’t the government and the private sector be doing more to solve problems
through social innovation besides throwing money at others’ innovation? Clearly, the
public and private sectors are just as influential, if not more so, than nonprofits and
individuals. The government can legislate an innovation into existence; the private sector
can easily harness the power of the market to spread an innovation. It seems governments
and the private sector have let themselves off the hook for social innovation. Both
government and business will continue to do good, of course, but let the truly innovative
ideas and new solutions from the nonprofit sector