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Social Innovation Fund from Obama

For those who are interested in social innovation, you should read the press release from President Obama. To quote:

And that’s precisely the idea behind the $50 million innovation fund included in the Edward M. Kennedy Serve America Act — an initiative designed to assist community solutions like these that we’re asking Congress to fund this year.

We’re going to use this fund to find the most promising non-profits in America.  We’ll examine their data and rigorously evaluate their outcomes.  We’ll invest in those with the best results that are most likely to provide a good return on our taxpayer dollars.  And we’ll require that they get matching investments from the private sector — from businesses and foundations and philanthropists — to make those taxpayer dollars go even further.

And today, I’m announcing that I’ll be asking Melody Barnes, who is our director of the Domestic Policy Council, and our innovation team to lead this process, traveling across the country to discover and evaluate the very best programs in our communities.

And we won’t just be looking at the usual suspects in the usual places.  We won’t just be seeking the programs that everybody already knows about, but we also want to find those hidden gems that haven’t yet gotten the attention they deserve.  And we’ll be looking in all sorts of communities — rural, urban, and suburban — in every region of this country, because we know that great ideas and outstanding programs are everywhere — and it’s up to us to find them.

You might also like to see posts on this blog, focussing on social innovation.