News

In May 2018 CSIS offered a credit-bearing program for current Penn students (in collaboration with SP2’s Masters in Nonprofit Leadership program): Penn Impact Lab (PIL). Students convened in Grand Canyon National Park to learn tools for social innovation and volunteer with the National Park Service.

Running a venture has been tough, but I’ve learned from four key areas in which I have failed − and emerged much stronger. Here are the four transformative lessons I’ve gained from failing, from the first approach to its better adaptation.

In March 2018, National Arts Strategies convened 94 arts and culture leaders for the first in-person meeting of the 2018 Executive Program in Arts & Culture Strategy (EPACS), developed in partnership with CSIS. Students represented 26 states and US territories, and 7 countries, traveling from as far abroad as Australia and Brazil.

Whether you missed the 2017 Alumni Summit or just hope to reminisce, here’s an overview of the event in photos.

In the final week leading up to the convening, nearly 100 students completed requirements for the Executive Program in Social Impact Strategy, the culmination of 8 months of new tools deepening the impact of their work. Thursday brought leaders from Indonesia, Kenya, Germany, and the greater Philadelphia community back to campus to synthesize their learning.

To shed some light on what “social impact” means to people coming from different perspectives, we asked thought leaders and experts we know to share their thoughts on the subject. Here’s what they had to say.

Growing up in Mexico City, the reality that surrounded a young Irma Uribe Santibáñez showed evidence of inequality wherever she looked. “Mexico is a very unequal society and it was very clear to me since I was a kid”, Irma, the founder and CEO of ateconqueso says. “And I never liked it.”

When you think about how social enterprises start, what comes to mind? Is it with an individual or group who want to make an impact on a social or environmental issue, and build a business that can support that work? Or someone who comes up with a business idea that isn’t initially related to impact, but they decide to use that idea to do something good for the world? These are just two of the many ways social enterprises are born.

The Summer Doctoral Fellows program at the University of Pennsylvania is a four-week intensive program for a small cohort of PhD students researching aspects of social impact. In their cohort, Fellows propose a draft of a research paper, and spend a month workshopping one another’s papers.

From March 28 to March 31, over 100 participants from 23 countries are visiting the University of Pennsylvania for the Innovation Summit hosted by the Center for Social Impact Strategy’s Executive Program in Social Impact Strategy. The Convening will be held from March 28 to 31, and it is the first in-person learning session of this year’s Executive Program.