By now you’ve heard about the White House’s new Social Innovation Fund. It should be just what I was wishing for, since, after all, I’ve been using much of this space to lament the lack of innovation in human services.
It all reminds me of the time I spoke at a large gathering about the progress of a particular nonprofit. They were very proud of their progress and accomplishments of the preceding year, and asked me to speak about their plan to increase creativity and cooperation across the enterprise. At first I was very skeptical. The very idea of “planned creativity” caused a little chill to run up my spine. But I was too quick to judge.
What the organization had done was to thoughtfully plan to get out of people’s way so they could be creative on their own. The organization brought no canned expectations or creativity outcome requirements to the exercise. They simply got out of the way and let people create hundreds of small creative innovations that each changed lives.
It was wonderful.
Perhaps I am too quick to judge here, too. I would be more encouraged though, if it seemed that the federal government was going to get out of the way so nonprofits could innovate. While the language the White House is using seems to be proposing a top-down approach, complete with all the innovation-strangling bureaucracy that only the government can impose, let us hope that there is still time to provide input and guidance. Let us hope and encourage the White House not to prejudge the innovation, but to unleash the pent-up creativity of a vibrant nonprofit community. We have so much to offer.
Allison Fine, whose blog I’m adding to my daily reading, seems to agree. Let’s hope we can all make this work.
May 7, 2009 at 7:55 pm
Thanks, Jeanine, I think we do agree. I hope you’ll check back as I’d like to continue the conversation by focusing on what the Social Innovation Fund could be.
Allison
May 7, 2009 at 8:03 pm
thanks for the comment Allison. I think your blog post was very insightful, and definitely hit a nerve. I’m looking forward to continuing the conversation.
Jeanine
May 8, 2009 at 12:05 pm
Interesting. I haven’t been following the Social Innovation Fund as carefully as the research money. The feds, for the most part, are making that work. Strangling bureaucracy for SURE -all in the interest of transparency. But the ARRA research money has been about flexibility and risk-taking and figuring it out on the ground. Honestly, except for the reporting requirements -which are INSANE- it’s been pretty impressive.