Stanford Social Innovation Review
@ssir.org
We're a self-funded nonprofit publication with a mission to inform and inspire leaders of social change.
Support us by subscribing at ssir.org.
Get our free weekly newsletter: https://ssir.org/email
Support us by subscribing at ssir.org.
Get our free weekly newsletter: https://ssir.org/email
"Data is never neutral or objective. Data systems are designed by people working within institutions, and when those institutions are built on structural racism, patriarchy, and other systems of oppression, the data they produce will reflect and reinforce those same inequities."
The Urgent Need for Data Equity, Justice, and Sovereignty (SSIR)
Transforming civic data in the United States is essential to improve our collective health and well-being.
ssir.org
January 16, 2026 at 5:28 PM
"Data is never neutral or objective. Data systems are designed by people working within institutions, and when those institutions are built on structural racism, patriarchy, and other systems of oppression, the data they produce will reflect and reinforce those same inequities."
Reposted by Stanford Social Innovation Review
🎉Our new piece on Iterative A/B Testing is out in @ssir.org
with @noamangrist.bsky.social @mandabeat.bsky.social & Tendekai Mukoyi.
A case & toolkit for rigorous, rapid, and regular testing to improve cost-effectiveness at scale👇
💡 ssir.org/articles/ent...
🛠️ www.youth-impact.org/insights/a-b...
with @noamangrist.bsky.social @mandabeat.bsky.social & Tendekai Mukoyi.
A case & toolkit for rigorous, rapid, and regular testing to improve cost-effectiveness at scale👇
💡 ssir.org/articles/ent...
🛠️ www.youth-impact.org/insights/a-b...
Iterative A/B Testing for Social Impact: Rigorous, Rapid, Regular (SSIR)
How organizations can close the gap between measurement and implementation
ssir.org
January 16, 2026 at 3:15 PM
🎉Our new piece on Iterative A/B Testing is out in @ssir.org
with @noamangrist.bsky.social @mandabeat.bsky.social & Tendekai Mukoyi.
A case & toolkit for rigorous, rapid, and regular testing to improve cost-effectiveness at scale👇
💡 ssir.org/articles/ent...
🛠️ www.youth-impact.org/insights/a-b...
with @noamangrist.bsky.social @mandabeat.bsky.social & Tendekai Mukoyi.
A case & toolkit for rigorous, rapid, and regular testing to improve cost-effectiveness at scale👇
💡 ssir.org/articles/ent...
🛠️ www.youth-impact.org/insights/a-b...
Reposted by Stanford Social Innovation Review
📣 Passionate about closing the gap between evidence and day-to-day implementation? Check out our new article "Iterative A/B testing for Social Impact: Rigorous, Rapid, and Regular" now out in @ssir.org w/ @mandabeat.bsky.social @ccullen.bsky.social Tendekai Mukoyi
ssir.org/articles/ent...
ssir.org/articles/ent...
Iterative A/B Testing for Social Impact: Rigorous, Rapid, Regular (SSIR)
How organizations can close the gap between measurement and implementation
ssir.org
January 15, 2026 at 7:21 PM
📣 Passionate about closing the gap between evidence and day-to-day implementation? Check out our new article "Iterative A/B testing for Social Impact: Rigorous, Rapid, and Regular" now out in @ssir.org w/ @mandabeat.bsky.social @ccullen.bsky.social Tendekai Mukoyi
ssir.org/articles/ent...
ssir.org/articles/ent...
Reposted by Stanford Social Innovation Review
Sowing Backlash, One DEI Training at a Time ssir.org/books/excerp... - Lily Zheng, @ssir.org
Sowing Backlash, One DEI Training at a Time (SSIR)
An excerpt from Fixing Fairness on the fall and rise of workplace DEI
ssir.org
January 15, 2026 at 4:51 PM
Sowing Backlash, One DEI Training at a Time ssir.org/books/excerp... - Lily Zheng, @ssir.org
Many nonprofits in LMICs face a critical mismatch: urgent social problems demand rapid program iteration, yet organizations often wait years for externally-produced evaluation results.
When they do conduct rigorous evaluations, one-off studies rarely keep pace with evolving implementation contexts.
When they do conduct rigorous evaluations, one-off studies rarely keep pace with evolving implementation contexts.
Iterative A/B Testing for Social Impact: Rigorous, Rapid, Regular (SSIR)
How organizations can close the gap between measurement and implementation
ssir.org
January 14, 2026 at 9:27 PM
Many nonprofits in LMICs face a critical mismatch: urgent social problems demand rapid program iteration, yet organizations often wait years for externally-produced evaluation results.
When they do conduct rigorous evaluations, one-off studies rarely keep pace with evolving implementation contexts.
When they do conduct rigorous evaluations, one-off studies rarely keep pace with evolving implementation contexts.
"In the same way that we now have nearly a thousand studies showing us the perils of solving workplace DEI problems with training alone, it turns out that we have scores upon scores of research and case studies showing us exactly what works instead."
An excerpt from "Fixing Fairness" by Lily Zheng:
An excerpt from "Fixing Fairness" by Lily Zheng:
Sowing Backlash, One DEI Training at a Time (SSIR)
An excerpt from Fixing Fairness on the fall and rise of workplace DEI
ssir.org
January 14, 2026 at 12:28 AM
"In the same way that we now have nearly a thousand studies showing us the perils of solving workplace DEI problems with training alone, it turns out that we have scores upon scores of research and case studies showing us exactly what works instead."
An excerpt from "Fixing Fairness" by Lily Zheng:
An excerpt from "Fixing Fairness" by Lily Zheng:
"In this moment of cascading climate shocks, adaptation looks more like a mangrove than a sea wall built out of concrete: nurturing the capacities, ties, and institutions that allow people and places to bend without breaking."
Climate Adaptation Means Building Social Infrastructure (SSIR)
Resilience to climate change is less about building walls than cultivating the social capacities for people to navigate uncertainty with agency, solidarity, and security.
ssir.org
January 12, 2026 at 7:40 PM
"In this moment of cascading climate shocks, adaptation looks more like a mangrove than a sea wall built out of concrete: nurturing the capacities, ties, and institutions that allow people and places to bend without breaking."
Accusations of hypocrisy are everywhere. Yet despite this noise, little seems to change.
In an excerpt from his new book, "The Hypocrisy Trap," @mhallsworth.bsky.social introduces “induced hypocrisy,” a tactic that offers a new, more respectful way to help people live up to their commitments.
In an excerpt from his new book, "The Hypocrisy Trap," @mhallsworth.bsky.social introduces “induced hypocrisy,” a tactic that offers a new, more respectful way to help people live up to their commitments.
Constructive Confrontation (SSIR)
An excerpt from The Hypocrisy Trap on how to avoid it
ssir.org
January 6, 2026 at 8:58 PM
Accusations of hypocrisy are everywhere. Yet despite this noise, little seems to change.
In an excerpt from his new book, "The Hypocrisy Trap," @mhallsworth.bsky.social introduces “induced hypocrisy,” a tactic that offers a new, more respectful way to help people live up to their commitments.
In an excerpt from his new book, "The Hypocrisy Trap," @mhallsworth.bsky.social introduces “induced hypocrisy,” a tactic that offers a new, more respectful way to help people live up to their commitments.
Reposted by Stanford Social Innovation Review
📢 “At its core, conservation is about behaviour change.”
New @ssir.org article highlights why behavioural science must be central to conservation - from project design to evaluation and systems change.
Read more 👉 ssir.org/articles/ent...
#Conservation #BehaviouralScience #BehaviourChange
New @ssir.org article highlights why behavioural science must be central to conservation - from project design to evaluation and systems change.
Read more 👉 ssir.org/articles/ent...
#Conservation #BehaviouralScience #BehaviourChange
Making Behavioral Science Work for Conservation (SSIR)
At its core, conservation is about behavior change. Yet few organizations have put in place the structure, standards, and accountability needed to apply behavioral science effectively.
ssir.org
January 6, 2026 at 4:35 PM
📢 “At its core, conservation is about behaviour change.”
New @ssir.org article highlights why behavioural science must be central to conservation - from project design to evaluation and systems change.
Read more 👉 ssir.org/articles/ent...
#Conservation #BehaviouralScience #BehaviourChange
New @ssir.org article highlights why behavioural science must be central to conservation - from project design to evaluation and systems change.
Read more 👉 ssir.org/articles/ent...
#Conservation #BehaviouralScience #BehaviourChange
Reposted by Stanford Social Innovation Review
Fresh because it isn't new: Philanthropic investors can use patient and concessional capital (grants, cheap debt, generous equity) to prove the profitability of a business or a model. Then, let the commercial investors comes in when the math maths.
ssir.org/articles/ent...
ssir.org/articles/ent...
There Is No Such Thing as Impact Investing (SSIR)
There is philanthropic investing, and there is commercial investing, and there is nothing in between.
ssir.org
December 30, 2025 at 1:19 AM
Fresh because it isn't new: Philanthropic investors can use patient and concessional capital (grants, cheap debt, generous equity) to prove the profitability of a business or a model. Then, let the commercial investors comes in when the math maths.
ssir.org/articles/ent...
ssir.org/articles/ent...
Reposted by Stanford Social Innovation Review
We’re honored to be featured in @ssir.org’s “Building an Adaptive Metanetwork to Fight Climate Change.” The piece shows how ecoAmerica’s broad, diverse network helps people take meaningful climate action. Now is the time for hopeful climate engagement.
Read the article: ssir.org/articles/ent...
Read the article: ssir.org/articles/ent...
Building an Adaptive Metanetwork to Fight Climate Change (SSIR)
EcoAmerica has developed a network to inform and coordinate other networks to push for climate action. With a reach of 60 million individuals across the United States, it offers important lessons for ...
ssir.org
December 22, 2025 at 5:16 PM
We’re honored to be featured in @ssir.org’s “Building an Adaptive Metanetwork to Fight Climate Change.” The piece shows how ecoAmerica’s broad, diverse network helps people take meaningful climate action. Now is the time for hopeful climate engagement.
Read the article: ssir.org/articles/ent...
Read the article: ssir.org/articles/ent...
Reposted by Stanford Social Innovation Review
🗓️ 2025 Highlight: Stanford Social Innovation Review, @ssir.org, just named a piece by our chief impact officer, Mitchelle De Leon, as one of the top stories that inspired them this year! 🎉
Check out their list here:
ssir.org/articles/ent...
Check out their list here:
ssir.org/articles/ent...
Need a Boost? 14 Stories That Inspired Us in 2025 (SSIR)
Innovation stories on collaborating for greater impact, protecting and preserving history, affordable housing, an inspiring model of civic leadership, and more.
ssir.org
December 27, 2025 at 11:05 PM
🗓️ 2025 Highlight: Stanford Social Innovation Review, @ssir.org, just named a piece by our chief impact officer, Mitchelle De Leon, as one of the top stories that inspired them this year! 🎉
Check out their list here:
ssir.org/articles/ent...
Check out their list here:
ssir.org/articles/ent...
Reposted by Stanford Social Innovation Review
The biggest achievement of the year was the publication of my book "You Must Become an Algorithmic Problem"... Here is an excerpt from @ssir.org that focuses on the shift from understanding to prediction and the effects on liberal democracy (5/5)
ssir.org/books/excerp...
ssir.org/books/excerp...
Breaking the Algorithmic Contract (SSIR)
An excerpt from You Must Become an Algorithmic Problem on the internet’s social contract
ssir.org
December 31, 2025 at 10:33 PM
The biggest achievement of the year was the publication of my book "You Must Become an Algorithmic Problem"... Here is an excerpt from @ssir.org that focuses on the shift from understanding to prediction and the effects on liberal democracy (5/5)
ssir.org/books/excerp...
ssir.org/books/excerp...
What SSIR stories stuck a chord around the world this year?
Our local-language partners in Brazil, Korea, China, Japan, and Latin America shared the social innovation topics and articles that were most resonant for their readers this year:
Our local-language partners in Brazil, Korea, China, Japan, and Latin America shared the social innovation topics and articles that were most resonant for their readers this year:
A World of Innovation (SSIR)
A look at the issues and articles that resonated most with SSIR’s local language edition readers in 2025.
ssir.org
December 18, 2025 at 8:58 PM
What SSIR stories stuck a chord around the world this year?
Our local-language partners in Brazil, Korea, China, Japan, and Latin America shared the social innovation topics and articles that were most resonant for their readers this year:
Our local-language partners in Brazil, Korea, China, Japan, and Latin America shared the social innovation topics and articles that were most resonant for their readers this year:
What did SSIR readers gravitate toward in 2025?
Here are the 10(+ the next 10) most-read articles at ssir.org this year:
Here are the 10(+ the next 10) most-read articles at ssir.org this year:
The 10 Most Popular SSIR Articles of 2025 (SSIR)
Building collective capacity; AI's power for the greater good; grappling with systems collapse; lessons from collaborative philanthropy; and more.
ssir.org
December 16, 2025 at 3:41 PM
What did SSIR readers gravitate toward in 2025?
Here are the 10(+ the next 10) most-read articles at ssir.org this year:
Here are the 10(+ the next 10) most-read articles at ssir.org this year:
Reposted by Stanford Social Innovation Review
Building inclusive, useful, and transformative civic data systems relies on data equity, data justice, and data sovereignty. In @ssir.org, learn how the Modernized Anti-racist Data Ecosystems (MADE) for Health Justice initiative applies these concepts to data transformation. ssir.org/articles/ent...
The Urgent Need for Data Equity, Justice, and Sovereignty (SSIR)
Transforming civic data in the United States is essential to improve our collective health and well-being.
ssir.org
December 16, 2025 at 2:21 PM
Building inclusive, useful, and transformative civic data systems relies on data equity, data justice, and data sovereignty. In @ssir.org, learn how the Modernized Anti-racist Data Ecosystems (MADE) for Health Justice initiative applies these concepts to data transformation. ssir.org/articles/ent...
"The capacity to interpret, to disagree, and to withhold judgment is essential to any pluralistic society. But the consequences reach beyond cognition. When systems reward simulation over understanding, meaning begins to erode, and when meaning collapses, so does the self."
What Kind of World Is AI Building? (SSIR)
The ideologies behind today's most powerful technology
ssir.org
December 15, 2025 at 9:26 PM
"The capacity to interpret, to disagree, and to withhold judgment is essential to any pluralistic society. But the consequences reach beyond cognition. When systems reward simulation over understanding, meaning begins to erode, and when meaning collapses, so does the self."
Reposted by Stanford Social Innovation Review
"Given the dramatic contraction of Big Aid, we need market-based solutions more than ever, and it’s a really bad time for impact investing to be failing us.
Luckily, I have a solution to the myriad disappointments of impact investing: Get rid of it."
New from @mulagostarr.bsky.social:
Luckily, I have a solution to the myriad disappointments of impact investing: Get rid of it."
New from @mulagostarr.bsky.social:
There Is No Such Thing as Impact Investing (SSIR)
There is philanthropic investing, and there is commercial investing, and there is nothing in between.
ssir.org
December 11, 2025 at 4:39 PM
"Given the dramatic contraction of Big Aid, we need market-based solutions more than ever, and it’s a really bad time for impact investing to be failing us.
Luckily, I have a solution to the myriad disappointments of impact investing: Get rid of it."
New from @mulagostarr.bsky.social:
Luckily, I have a solution to the myriad disappointments of impact investing: Get rid of it."
New from @mulagostarr.bsky.social:
Reposted by Stanford Social Innovation Review
💡 Registering to vote is still harder than it needs to be for young people.
It’s not a lack of interest — it’s a systems problem.
👉 Read the full article with @ssir.org : buff.ly/0IQSWfb
It’s not a lack of interest — it’s a systems problem.
👉 Read the full article with @ssir.org : buff.ly/0IQSWfb
December 12, 2025 at 7:03 PM
💡 Registering to vote is still harder than it needs to be for young people.
It’s not a lack of interest — it’s a systems problem.
👉 Read the full article with @ssir.org : buff.ly/0IQSWfb
It’s not a lack of interest — it’s a systems problem.
👉 Read the full article with @ssir.org : buff.ly/0IQSWfb
Reposted by Stanford Social Innovation Review
"Given the dramatic contraction of Big Aid, we need market-based solutions more than ever, and it’s a really bad time for impact investing to be failing us.
Luckily, I have a solution to the myriad disappointments of impact investing: Get rid of it."
New from @mulagostarr.bsky.social:
Luckily, I have a solution to the myriad disappointments of impact investing: Get rid of it."
New from @mulagostarr.bsky.social:
There Is No Such Thing as Impact Investing (SSIR)
There is philanthropic investing, and there is commercial investing, and there is nothing in between.
ssir.org
December 11, 2025 at 4:39 PM
"Given the dramatic contraction of Big Aid, we need market-based solutions more than ever, and it’s a really bad time for impact investing to be failing us.
Luckily, I have a solution to the myriad disappointments of impact investing: Get rid of it."
New from @mulagostarr.bsky.social:
Luckily, I have a solution to the myriad disappointments of impact investing: Get rid of it."
New from @mulagostarr.bsky.social:
Reposted by Stanford Social Innovation Review
🇨🇮 In Côte d’Ivoire, the TRECC initiative enabled the government to test what works and scale TaRLAfrica’s approach nationwide.
Read more via @ssir.org 🔗 ssir.org/articles/ent...
#FoundationalLearning #SystemsChange
Read more via @ssir.org 🔗 ssir.org/articles/ent...
#FoundationalLearning #SystemsChange
December 11, 2025 at 12:10 PM
🇨🇮 In Côte d’Ivoire, the TRECC initiative enabled the government to test what works and scale TaRLAfrica’s approach nationwide.
Read more via @ssir.org 🔗 ssir.org/articles/ent...
#FoundationalLearning #SystemsChange
Read more via @ssir.org 🔗 ssir.org/articles/ent...
#FoundationalLearning #SystemsChange
Reposted by Stanford Social Innovation Review
Diagnosing and redressing democratic backsliding.
ssir.org/articles/ent...
ssir.org/articles/ent...
December 5, 2025 at 5:21 AM
Diagnosing and redressing democratic backsliding.
ssir.org/articles/ent...
ssir.org/articles/ent...
Reposted by Stanford Social Innovation Review
Eight years in, one truth has carried our administration forward: real leadership is rooted in love. It’s designing systems that center community and share power. We didn’t just talk about equity. We built it. We changed how government shows up. When you lead with love, transformation follows.
Policy Rooted in Love (SSIR)
St. Paul sits at the heart of a growing national movement—one that insists our systems serve people, not the other way around. This movement challenges us to rethink how government operates and calls us to lead with a new kind of courage.
tinyurl.com
December 5, 2025 at 11:40 PM
Eight years in, one truth has carried our administration forward: real leadership is rooted in love. It’s designing systems that center community and share power. We didn’t just talk about equity. We built it. We changed how government shows up. When you lead with love, transformation follows.
For 60 years, USAID’s memory lived in PDFs. The agency commissioned over 100,000 evaluations, stacking up tens of millions of pages.
But the system was human-bounded by three limits that defined it:
- Cognitive load
- Timing
- Incentives
So what do you find when you can finally read everything?
But the system was human-bounded by three limits that defined it:
- Cognitive load
- Timing
- Incentives
So what do you find when you can finally read everything?
When USAID Shut Down, Its Lessons Nearly Vanished. AI Helped Recover Them (SSIR)
A final sweep of 60 years of evidence reveals durable truths about how development succeeds and fails.
ssir.org
December 8, 2025 at 1:57 PM
For 60 years, USAID’s memory lived in PDFs. The agency commissioned over 100,000 evaluations, stacking up tens of millions of pages.
But the system was human-bounded by three limits that defined it:
- Cognitive load
- Timing
- Incentives
So what do you find when you can finally read everything?
But the system was human-bounded by three limits that defined it:
- Cognitive load
- Timing
- Incentives
So what do you find when you can finally read everything?