I recently came across this great TED talk by Steven Johnson, a technology, science and innovation author who focuses on the question of where good ideas come from.

Steven Johnson on TED
Over the course of 20 minutes, Johnson discusses open innovation as a vehicle for identifying, nurturing and developing great ideas. Innovation doesn’t happen in a [...]

When you’re looking for CSR work, there’s a very clear mantra that everyone repeats, day in and day out. It goes something like this:
“Real CSR jobs are few and far between. If you want to do CSR, go get a functional job within a big company and innovate from the inside out.”
In social change circles, [...]

“How many of you would call yourself a social intrapreneur?”
This was the question that Mark Feldman, managing director of Cause Consulting posed to the fifty attendees at this morning’s Boston College Center for Corporate Citizenship Conference breakout session, “The Business of Corporate Citizenship: Creating New Social Ventures within Your Company.”
A quick glance around the room showed only [...]

How many of you have heard of Fair Trade? I’d imagine many of you have.
But how many could actually define it, or discuss it, or even promote it? My guess is not as many.
That was the case for me until recently. Recognizing that I’d heard a lot about Fair Trade but that I couldn’t actually [...]

One of my goals for The Changebase is to use the blog as a platform for sharing the stories of companies, organizations and people working to create change in their communities. After all, there are lots of examples of great progress being made in CSR, social enterprise, and philanthropy and they should be celebrated!
This time [...]

Perhaps one of the best parts of being a second year MBA student is getting to pick my schedule. Unlike first year, where all of the core business classes were chosen for me, as a second year student I get to decide which electives I want to take.
Not only has this been a relief (since [...]

I’ve often spoken on The Changebase about social entrepreneurs who’ve chosen to radically reinvent how business creates social change in our communities and around the world.
Organizations like Kiva (microfinance), Carrotmob (conscious consumerism), and Frontline SMS (information access through technology) have literally re-drawn the lines when it comes to creating sustainable, empowered and effective change through grass-roots social [...]

I’ve mentioned in previous posts on The Changebase that, in many ways, my MBA experience has made me feel a bit like a fish out of water. With my non-profit background and change-the-world goals, it’s not surprising that I have had some serious growing pains associated with learning new ways of thinking about and solving [...]

For those of you who read my last post on The Changebase, you know that I recently signed up to go to Brazil in January. The trip, organized by the Boston University School of Management, focuses on issues of sustainability, CSR, and social enterprise in the developing country. It sounds like an incredible journey and an amazing [...]

Recently, at The Feast conference, I was introduced to an organization called Sustainable Health Enterprises (aka: SHE). Elizabeth Scharpf, founder of SHE, was on-hand at the event to share with us how her organization uses market-based approaches to solve a seriously pressing problem.
But first: take a minute to think about what your life would look [...]