Kyle Harrison
concept

Social Innovation

Social Innovation

One-line definition: Cross-sector, public-private approaches to entrenched social problems — exemplified by collective-impact philanthropy and blended capital structures.

How sources describe it

  • Embodied by Destination: Home’s collective-impact model: convening public and private partners, deploying cheap/forgivable capital, and incubating data-driven systems the county later institutionalizes. (source: a May 2018 conversation, private note in the wiki)
  • Corporate philanthropy (e.g. Cisco’s $50M grant) framed as a necessity of being a community partner rather than a tax on corporate partners. (source: a May 2018 conversation, private note in the wiki)

Where it shows up

Conflicts

  • None.
  • Destination: Home — collective-impact model embodying social innovation: convening public/private partners, deploying forgivable capital, incubating data-driven systems the county institutionalizes.
  • Homelessness — the entrenched social problem this cross-sector approach targets.
  • Cisco — corporate philanthropy example ($50M grant) framed as a community-partnership necessity rather than a tax on the corporate partner.

Saved from Roam

  • Think Tank Awards (Shell) — saved link http://www.excellgroup.com/about/why-excell.aspx [STALE — checked 2026-09-16: the page returns 404, and a 2014 Wayback capture shows the excellgroup.com domain belonged to Excell, a telecommunications company, so nothing about the awards survives at this address]
  • Social impact bonds — pay-for-success contracts in which private investors fund a social program and are repaid by government only if it hits agreed outcomes. The first launched at Peterborough prison in England in 2010 to cut reoffending; the first in the US, in 2012, funded a program for adolescents at Rikers Island with a $9.6M Goldman Sachs loan partly guaranteed by Bloomberg Philanthropies (Goldman Sachs). Saved to Kyle’s Apple Note “Things To Internet” (c. 2013–2015).
  • Innovations for Poverty Action — nonprofit founded in 2002 by economist Dean Karlan that runs randomized evaluations of anti-poverty programs (poverty-action.org). Saved as “Innovation for poverty action”. Saved to Kyle’s Apple Note “Things To Internet” (c. 2013–2015).
  • Le Laboratoire and campus culture labs — Le Laboratoire was the art-and-science center Harvard’s David Edwards opened in Paris in October 2007 (it ran there until 2014). The saved passage sets it beside campus labs: MIT’s Media Lab, Harvard’s iLab (Harvard Innovation Labs), and metaLAB, run by Jeffrey Schnapp within Harvard’s Berkman Center. Saved to Kyle’s Apple Note “Things To Internet” (c. 2013–2015).
  • Royal Society of Arts — the Society for the Encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce, founded in London in 1754 by William Shipley (thersa.org). The saved line says Benjamin Franklin “was the first fellow”; the record is narrower: the Society elected Franklin a corresponding member in 1756, as Shipley told him in a letter of 1 September 1756 (Founders Online). Saved to Kyle’s Apple Note “Things To Internet” (c. 2013–2015).
  • Hub Westminster — Impact Hub Westminster, founded in April 2011 by Westminster City Council, Architecture 00 and Simon Kirkham on the empty first floor of New Zealand House, Haymarket. It worked as part incubator, part innovation lab and ran there for six years; it is now closed (westminster.impacthub.net). Saved to Kyle’s Apple Note “Things To Internet” (c. 2013–2015).
  • “Design for social impact by the Rockefeller foundation” — Design for Social Impact: How-to Guide and workbook, written by IDEO after the Rockefeller Foundation invited it in February 2008 to explore how design firms could work in the social sector (TED Blog). Saved to Kyle’s Apple Note “Things To Internet” (c. 2014).
  • “Economy of time - founded of peace and conflict studies” — [STALE — checked 2026-09-16: not identified. Johan Galtung is usually called the principal founder of peace and conflict studies, but no work or talk titled “Economy of Time” connects to him or another founder]. Saved to Kyle’s Apple Note “Things To Internet” (c. 2013–2015).

Saved talks and reading

  • Change Behavior, Change the World (Joseph Grenny, TEDxBYU)
  • Unexpected Social Innovations (Martin Burt, TEDxBYU)
  • Lasting Impact (Kevin Starr, PopTech)
  • Rediscovering Social Innovation (SSIR)

Referenced in