While investments in the creative economy have the potential to stabilize threatened communities and generate quality jobs, argues Laura Callanan, the impact investment community has been confoundingly slow to recognize the opportunity....

Impact investing originally was created to improve the lives of others, but nowadays achieving predefined financial returns has become the primary goal; that needs to change, write Mara Bolis and Chris West.... 

Innovations for Poverty Action's Duflo and McAnnally-Linz argue that impact evaluations should always help decision making, whether immediately or in the longer term, and should also add to an existing body of evidence....

In the latest installment of our SSIR@PND series, management consultant Kathy O. Brozek explains how The Wooden Floor is licensing its successful arts education model to break the cycle of poverty....

Strategic philanthropy entails risk no less than big bets, and we should acknowledge its importance and effectiveness — and encourage more of it, says Hewlett Foundation president Larry Kramer....

By prioritizing the needs of coastal communities, we have a better chance of mobilizing the hundreds of millions of people who work in and around fishing worldwide to support ocean conservation rather than oppose it, writes Blue Ventures' Steve Rocliffe....

Effective altruists have a revolutionary idea, writes Createquity's Ian David Moss, but their rhetoric and inflexibility are limiting its potential...

For those working on a cause they care about, the first instinct is often to make sure that as many people as possible are aware of the problem, write Ann Christiano and Annie Neimand. But is that the best approach?...

Kiko Suarez, vice president of communications at the Lumina Foundation, and Alph Bingham, a co-founder of InnoCentive, explain how the low cost of crowdsourcing and the high value of crowdsourced solutions can translate into a high return on investment for foundations....

The mere fact that your organization has built an innovative program doesn't mean there's a demand for it. The Bridgespan Group's Tazz Hussein and Matt Plummer explain why it's time for nonprofits to develop a more sales-driven approach to social change....

Social entrepreneurship in the United States is a strikingly homogenous affair. Michael Zakaras, director of partnerships at Ashoka US, explains what his organization is doing to change the equation....

To meet their challenges, communities in the United States need to increase the scale and the quality of citizen engagement. One way to do that, write Myung J. Lee and Peter Levine, is through "impact volunteering" initiatives....

Social change organizations often stumble when it comes to turning innovation into impact. In the latest installment of our SSIR@PND series, Christian Seelos and Johanna Mair identify — and explain how to prevent — several "pathologies" that underlie this failure....

Easterling, a former director of research and evaluation at The Colorado Trust, argues that philanthropists should create relationships with grantees aimed at fostering critical thinking, learning, and adaptation....

In the latest installment of our SSIR@PND series, Nick O'Donohoe explains how UK-based Big Society Capital has helped "primed the pump" for the impact investment market in the United Kingdom and beyond....

Wong, a Bay Area-based journalist, reports on a new program that aims to give nonprofits the resources to listen more closely to the people they serve....

Despite the many challenges associated with it, the data imperative is here to stay and will make the work of social change organizations and agents more effective over time, writes Benetech's Jim Fruchterman....

In the latest installment of our SSIR@PND series, Julie Petersen and Shauntel Poulson look at how "blended capital" is helping to grow the ed-tech field....