Jobs:[Full-time] Office Manager and PA to the Director of Strategy & Operations at King's College London See more on our Job Board.
Scientific advice in Whitehall
Friday, April 26th, 2013
We featured a preview article from this collection in an earlier briefing (you can read it elsewhere in the archive, here) but the full document is worth a read. It offers some great advice for those engaged with policymakers. In particular the shift to an ‘ecosystem of expertise’ highlights the importance of acting as a broker of information – aggregating and translating advice for decision makers. READ MORE (pdf)
DataKind UK
Friday, April 26th, 2013
DataKind UK is the first international chapter of the US non-profit DataKind (formerly known as Data Without Borders). Like its US counterpart, the UK chapter aims to connect pro bono data scientists with social organisations. Regular meet ups and DataDives are also planned. READ MORE
Accelerating entrepreneurship in Africa
Friday, April 26th, 2013
The Omidyar Network believe that entrepreneurship can help close the ‘stubborn income gap’ faced in Sub-Saharan Africa, but only if it can evolve beyond its current state of ‘necessity-based informality’. Its new survey finds that cultural and regulatory factors are comparable to global peers, but access to capital and reliable infrastructure lag too far behind. It also suggests what governments, funders, civil society groups and socially-minded businesses need to do to fix this. READ MORE
Manifesto for the Creative Economy
Friday, April 26th, 2013
There are some thought-provoking analyses and debates in NESTA’s new manifesto for the ‘creative economy’. These include (in chapter eight) a discussion about how to think about the ‘value’ of arts and culture in society. As NESTA note, it’s a question that deserves sophisticated consideration, but normally results in fuzzy economic impact studies. READ MORE
Stop pretending low overhead is good
Friday, April 26th, 2013
NGO leaders believe that if they could strengthen their core functions, they could be much more effective. But there are serious barriers. Whilst the biggest is funders’ willingness to pay for indirect costs, NGOs are complicit in their marketing and fundraising. This Bridgespan Group report shows how low overhead spending leads to fragmentation and an inability to scale. It also shares strategies on how to overcome these barriers.
Their main recommendation is that NGO leaders stop playing the ‘low-overhead-is-good’ game if they are to build organisations that work. READ MORE
Art and Science of Delivery
Monday, April 15th, 2013
To celebrate the 10th Anniversary of the Skoll World Forum, this McKinsey series considers the difficulties of delivering improvements in a range of public and social sectors. It looks at innovations in health, education, food security and how to replicate and scale these models. READ MORE
The GOOD Maker
Monday, April 15th, 2013
GOOD Maker is (yet another) crowdsourcing platform for organisations to pose social innovation challenges. Anyone can suggest an answer and the community votes on the best solution. Currently both US and ‘prize’ oriented, challenges range from coming up with recipes for locally sourced food, to thinking of innovative things to do with old PCs. READ MORE
Givers, Takers and Matchers
Monday, April 15th, 2013
Your “reciprocity style” describes how you interact with other people. This article suggests people settle into one of three styles at work: ’Givers’, ‘Takers’ and ‘Matchers’. ‘Givers’ look to create value for others whilst for ‘Takers’ success is a zero sum game. Most of us are ‘matchers’ trying to balance giving and getting. The interesting finding is that ‘givers’ dominate both the “bottom and the top of the success ladder”. READ MORE
Not just answers
Monday, April 15th, 2013
What is the role of knowledge in government? How do people in government actually make decisions? Geoff Mulgan, Chief Executive of Nesta and a previous director of the Government’s Strategy Unit, has been on both sides of the fence. In this article, he discusses what motivates policymakers to action. Context matters. Success depends on who’s giving the advice, how it’s framed, and when it’s given. Just being clever – or ‘logically cogent’ – isn’t enough. READ MORE
What are Foundations for?
Monday, April 15th, 2013
Robert Reich has written an important and thought-provoking article on the proper role of foundations in a democratic society. On one hand, they are “virtually by definition, the voice of plutocracy” that challenge our ideas of equality in a democracy. On the other, they are uniquely well placed to make long-term, risky bets on public goods no-one else will fund. Their independence and idiosyncracy are their great strengths and potentially their greatest weaknesses. READ MORE