Wanted: more "local" problem-solving pitches from social enterprises, social innovators and nonprofit activists to help Americans in need, says Sonal Shah, the chief of President Obama's new $50 million Social Innovation Fund.
Speaking yesterday at Harvard's Social Enterprise Conference, Shah told attendees in a keynote address that the Fund has been getting many pitches recently, but mostly for problem-solving initiatives geared to the developing world. Meanwhile, there haven't been many pitches about solving problems in America, she said, and her team wants to see more ideas that can be replicated across the United States. Social entrepreneurs looking at (and working in) the developing world "need also to apply their ideas to the poor in America," she said.
The remarks were welcomed by many attendees. One, New Orleans-based blogger Nathan Rothstein, wrote today in True/Slant that ever since Hurricane Katrina exposed extreme poverty in the United States, cause activists, social innovators and policymakers in America have been forced to confront tough questions, including: "What does it say about us as Americans if we let fellow citizens suffer like this?" and "Do we have the right to tell other countries how to solve their poverty problem when we have not figure it our for ourselves?" Those questions remain, Rothstein says, but many social problem-solvers have "moved on."
Said Shah:"We can't forget that the United States is a market for solutions."
In other highlights of Shah's talk:
To read the full, original article click on this link: Social Enterprise | White House Fund Wants More "Local" Social Innovation
Author: Marcia Stepanek
