The Office of Social Innovation and Civic Participation was an office new to the Obama Administration, created within the White House, to catalyze new and innovative ways of encouraging government to do business differently. Its first director was the economist Sonal Shah. The final director was David Wilkinson.
History In 2009, President Barack Obama created the White House Office of Social Innovation and Civic Participation (SICP) as part of his Domestic Policy Council within the Executive Office of the President, the office that coordinates White House domestic policy.
The idea for a White House Office for Social Entrepreneurship was first developed at the Center for American Progress by then-Senior Fellow and former Ashoka staffer Michele Jolin.
In the past, public monies have often been directed to social initiatives that are failing or that have only a limited impact. At the same time, non-profit organizations, even if readily able to obtain short-term startup financing, face difficulty securing capital to sustain and expand successful programs.
Building on ideas of past administrations, the Obama-Biden transition plans included the creation of an agency within the Corporation for National and Community Service dedicated to building the capacity and effectiveness of the nonprofit sector. The plans highlighted the potential of this sector – as of 2012, nonprofits generated $1.5 trillion within the US economy, employed 13.5 million Americans and contributed nearly 5.5% GDP, while struggling with a scarcity of resources, given the uncertainty of donations, and their lack of access to traditional incentives to growth enjoyed by for-profit businesses. (By statute, 501(c)(3) organizations are not eligible for Small Business Authority loans, nor can they obtain many commercial debt products designed for small and medium enterprises.) The transition plans also called for using federal seed money to leverage private sector funding, so as to improve local innovation, expand successful programs, and test the impact of new ideas.
Also significant as a background to the creation of the SCIP were the recent changes in the social sector, with the emergence of scalable, market-based models of social change as a driving force. Such models include social enterprises with earned income strategies; mission-driven businesses that focus on achieving a double-bottom line; impact investors that seek to earn a financial return while achieving social benefit; and multinational companies pursuing models of corporate responsibility. No administration had focused on these trends until the Obama Administration created the Office of Social Innovation to build a policy agenda in this realm.
Definition The term Social Innovation, as defined by Stanford Social Innovation Review (SSIR), refers to a methodology of solving societal problems through new mechanisms that harness human and financial capital, and often stand at the crossroads of non-profit, public, and private sectors. Specifically, SSIR frames social innovation as "a novel solution to a social problem that is more effective, efficient, sustainable, or just than existing solutions and for which the value created accrues primarily to society as a whole rather than private individuals".
Social innovation refers to invention and new problem solving methods not only in non-profits, but also more broadly in how social entrepreneurs seek to address human development challenges, how impact investors think about providing capital to organizations who maximize stakeholder value, and how mission-driven businesses and socially responsible corporations lever their comparative advantages to improve societal outcomes.
Mission The mission of the Office of Social Innovation and Civic Participation is to strengthen and support the social sector. This includes nonprofit organizations, foundations, and social entrepreneurs, non-governmental organizations, mission-driven business, and multinational developmental banks.
Strategy The White House Office of Social Innovation and Civic Participation seeks to facilitate social innovation by harnessing human capital and facilitating the flow of financial capital. Based on evidence that communities with higher degrees of civic health exhibit better economic resilience, lower jobless rates, and faster returns to the workforce, the administration believes that a strong social sector leads to better economic opportunity.
Tactically, the Office of Social Innovation seeks to unlock social innovation potential on two fronts: Unlocking human capital and unlocking financial capital.
Policies and programs
Priorities within harnessing human capital The Office of Social Innovation drives federal policy regarding national service and volunteering. This is based on research that indicates that communities with higher degrees of civic health have increased economic resilience and lower rates of unemployment. Such civic health can be measured by indicators such as the rates of volunteering, voting, and the density of per capita nonprofits that provide essential local services. It is consistent with scholarship that has shown that unemployed people who volunteer have a higher likelihood of finding work than those who do not volunteer.
The data also indicates that interest in volunteering has reached extraordinary levels with historic numbers of applications for public programs such as AmeriCorps and Peace Corps. The popularity of non-governmental service programs such as Code for America, DataKind,DataKind and Global Citizen Year also has grown in recent years. All seem to indicate that more Americans want to serve – and that such talent could be put to good use to contribute to national renewal and stronger communities.
National service National service has been a part of the fabric of American society since the founding of the country. It encompasses various models of public service including military service, and civilian service, such as AmeriCorps. Typically it is characterized by dedicated service to a single year or multi-year commitment at a single nonprofit organization. Participants benefit from a stipend of some sort that is important due to the fact that national service can be a part-time or full-time commitment, but the nature of the commitment precludes the participant from other full-time work.
Serve America Act In April 2009, President Barack Obama signed the Edward M. Kennedy Serve America Act reauthorizing and expanding national service programs. The law added the number of AmeriCorps positions from 75,000 to 250,000 and created four new service corps. It was the most significant piece of national service legislation since the 1993 The National and Community Service Trust Act signed into law by President Bill Clinton.
After laying out a plan for expanding AmeriCorps, the administration launched FEMA Corps,FEMA Corps a new service corps that builds upon the long-standing partnership between NCCC and Federal Emergency Management Agency through the creation of 1600 new AmeriCorps positions focused on disaster preparedness and relief activities. Enabled by new federal funding, these incremental corps members will gain hands-on experience and new skills that will improve their own professional prospects for the rest of their lives while they are increasing national resilience. Since the announcement, FEMA Corps members have been on the ground, helping with the coordinated response to disasters such as Superstorm Sandy in New York and New Jersey and the 2013 Moore and El Reno tornado outbreaks in Oklahoma.
Presidential Memorandum on National Service In July 2013, President Obama announced a Presidential Memorandum on expanding national service. The memorandum supports new partnerships between federal agencies and Corporation for National and Community Service (CNCS) to expand national service opportunities for Americans. The memorandum, which created a task force consisting of members of the cabinet, focused on expanding national service. Agencies are required to create a plan to utilize national service and volunteering. The task force is chaired by the CEO of CNCS and the director of the Domestic Policy Council.
Volunteering
Day of Service In 1994, Congress designated Martin Luther King Jr. Day as a federal holiday as a national day of service, and in 2009 designated September 11 as a national day of service. Both designations are affiliated with President Obama's United We ServeUnited We Serve campaign, a nationwide service call.
Community partnerships
White House Council on Community Solutions In 2010, President Obama signed the executive order establishing White House Council for Community Solutions to engage cross sector leaders to identify initiatives that expanded civic participation, helped solve the nation's most serious problems and create new pathways for "Disconnected Youth", 16- to 24-year-olds who are out of school and work. First Lady Michelle Obama served as honorary chair of the Council. The Council was chaired on a daily basis by former Gates Foundation CEO Patty Stonesifer. Its membership included a cross-section of business, nonprofit and community leaders including rock musician Jon Bon Jovi, Starbucks executive Paula Boggs, and eBay CEO John Donahue.
The Council participated in a series of town hall meetings across the country and conducted considerable research to understand the issues facing this population. The Council delivered its Final ReportFinal Report and RecommendationsRecommendations to the president in June 2012. One of its recommendations was to reposition the conversation about "Disconnected Youth" to "Opportunity Youth" in order to more appropriately consider these young people as valuable assets who could contribute to economic growth and civic renewal. The Council also generated additional output, including the creation of toolkit for employers seeking to hire Opportunity Youth. It spawned other outcomes, including the launch of the Aspen Forum for Community Solutions headed up by former White House Domestic Policy Advisor Melody Barnes.
Summer Jobs + and Youth Jobs The administration launched the Summer Jobs + initiative,Summer Jobs + initiative which provided paid employment opportunities to low-income and disconnected youth and pathways to employment through resume writing workshops, mentorship programs and job shadow days. Through the initiative, over 300,000 employment opportunities were provided to youth in 2012, over 100,000 of which were paid.
In April 2013, the president launched the Youth Jobs + initiative. He challenged business, non-profits and government to work together to provide employment opportunities for low-income and disconnected youth that will also aim to reduce youth violence in local communities. In September, the White House hosted a convening that focused on youth employment, especially "opportunity youth", people between 18–24 years of age. The event recognized and honored employers and nonprofits for innovative work to develop the discipline and skills associated with the employment for the country's youth.
Priorities within harnessing financial capital Based on the research, it is clear that the social sector lacks adequate capital to address the needs of Americans and maintain its role as a safety net and economic engine. To reverse this trend, the Office of Social Innovation has laid out a strategy to optimize the flow of scarce public dollars and to increase the flow of incremental private dollars. This dual track is enabled by a five-part framework:
Better information New instruments Strong intermediaries Institutional capital Impact at scale