Social Innovation: A White House Perspective

Event Recap

Over 250 members and guests came to Full Circle Fund's Joint Impact Circle Meeting on June 24 to network, learn more about our work in the community and hear from three White House Representatives: Greg Nelson, Sonal Shah, and Michele Jolin. The standing-room-only event, "Social Innovation: A White House Perspective" was held at Crushpad, a unique new urban winemaking space in the Dogpatch area of San Francisco. Guests had a chance to network while sampling wine from Tenuta Vineyards and Crushpad, and tasting appetizers from M. Woodward Catering. NUMI Organic Tea was sipped along with pastries from Nora's Patisserie.

Full Circle Fund CEO Amy Lesnick kicked off the evening by welcoming Andrew G. Giacomini, Managing Partner at Hanson Bridgett, the event's presenting corporate partner, who expressed support and appreciation for Full Circle Fund's work, and community involvement in general. Amy then touched on the incredible, intoxicating energy at the National Conference on Volunteering and Service in San Francisco earlier in the week, where First Lady Michelle Obama and 5,000 leaders from across the country gathered. Amy talked about turning this moment in history into a movement of civic engagement and shared the four key themes from the conference:

1. It is a unique time in history, and to get through these unprecedented challenges, we must eliminate the silos between public and private sectors.
2. There is a need for conveners to bring folks together to tackle problems.
3. We must seek innovative solutions and invest in sustainable, scalable models.
4. Civic engagement should be a lifestyle, not a single action or instance of service.

Amy noted, not only does Full Circle Fund embrace these ideas, they are our core competencies as we work towards building an engaged community of leaders driving lasting social change.

As is tradition, our newest members were then officially welcomed and Full Circle Fund Circle Chairs reported on recent progress in each of the four circles. Pamela Hawley shared that the Global Economic Opportunity Circle is focusing on self sufficiency and entrepreneurship both domestically and globally. In the past two months they’ve been focusing on their vision and tagline, and look forward to making their first grants in September 2009. Marc Smolowitz spoke about the Technology Circle, noting that they are three-quarters of the way through their 2009-09 grant cycle with their three nonprofit partners. Jeff Camp spoke about the Education Circle, sharing that in 2009 the circle is focusing on two projects: direct action and systemic change. Last, Melanie Nutter gave updates on the Environment Circle, as they are focusing on following through on their commitments to their 2008-09 grant projects, and will begin a new grant cycle in the fall. Melanie also welcomed her new Vice Chair Braden Penhoet.

Full Circle Fund Co-Founder and Board Chair Josh Becker then spoke about how rewarding it is to have an administration that "gets" social innovation to its core. He also announced that our grant partners will be participating in the Summer of Service and their projects will appear on Serve.gov. On behalf of Full Circle Fund, he encouraged Members to participate. Josh then surprised Amy by congratulating her on being named for the second year in a row to the Most Influential Women in Bay Area Business, at which point the crowd gave Amy a standing ovation.

Next Melanie Nutter introduced her former Environment/Energy Circle Vice Chair Greg Nelson. Greg began by thanking Full Circle Fund for inviting him back, and drew connections between our organization and the White House.

Listen to a podcast of the speakers

"The way the White House talks about partnership and public/private enterprise and how social innovation can play a role in helping to get us out of the economic troubles we're in now and rebuild as a stronger country is very consistent with the way Full Circle Fund talks about the same issues and the way you approach your lives, your work, and your leadership in this area," Greg observed.

He expressed that the most important element happening now is a change in how business is done and a change in thinking about who deserves to be involved in decision-making. Greg encouraged members to get involved in town hall events to make their voices heard.

“We have an opportunity to do things differently in government. That means being innovative, that means partnerships. The way we work as a government needs to start looking more like a platform instead of a solutions provider," Greg continued, "Working in partnership with you, as companies and institutions, is going to be a critical part of that.”

Next, Sonal began by describing the inception of the Office of Social Innovation and Civic Participation; it was formed to bring the energy of civic participation and innovation that was created during the campaign into the White House. “It’s an all hands on deck moment," Sonal declared, "The president has said it. That means government alone is not going to be able to solve the problems. We can help create the policy environments, we can create the stimulus package, but at the end of the day we’re not going to come up with all the solutions. What we need is to work with partners.” Sonal then described the ways she feels government can truly be catalytic, and highlighted the purpose of the United We Serve campaign, which was started because one day of service is no longer enough, we need a continued effort of service.

Michele joined Sonal on stage, and agreed that the President and First Lady really truly “get” social innovation. She noted that right now there is a fundamental opportunity for government to start doing business differently, using a collaborative approach. That’s why the President created the Social Innovation Fund, to identify promising ideas around the country and provide them with 3-5 years of growth capital as well as support with infrastructure, technology, data systems, and other critical aspects needed for organizational growth.

They then turned the tables, asking the audience: “What can you do?” and implored the audience to get involved with United We Serve. They stressed the importance of each person doing whatever they can to show that as a country, we stepped up together to solve our community’s programs. Finally, they stressed that their office truly wants to know: What are you doing? How are you doing it? What models are working? They asked Full Circle Fund members to, as they think about global economic opportunity, think about economic opportunities in the United States and bring those models to the Office of Social Innovation. They asked the audience to send best practices and stories of successes, and closed with the message: “Your ideas are welcome.”

Watch an interview with Greg Nelson and Amy Lesnick by Arabella Santiago of BusinessBoomer

Watch an interview with Josh Becker, Co-Founder of Full Circle Fund, and Partner at New Cycle Capital, by Arabella Santiago of BusinessBoomer

Watch "Full Circle Fund: Why I'm Involved" videos taken of members and supporters at the event

About the Speakers

Greg Nelson White House Associate Director for Energy, Environment, and Technology at the Office of Public Engagement Before being appointed to his current position, Greg was selected to the Presidential Transition Team to work as a key liaison for energy and environment outreach and policy in November 2009. Before joining the Obama-Biden Administration, Greg was the CEO and co-founder of Green Harvest Technologies (GHT), an applications and marketing company that developed a line of "clean and green" consumer products using biobased plastics and fibers. Prior to GHT, Greg was the General Manager of the Politics and Public Policy division for a nonprofit software and strategy provider and a partner and Managing Director of CTSG, a 75-person technology and consulting firm. Greg has also been a speechwriter, worked at the US Peace Corps, and been a speaker on technology, business, and sustainability at national conferences and retreats. Greg has been a member of Full Circle Fund since 2005 and was most recently Vice-Chair of the Environment/Energy Circle. Greg received his BA in Political Science and History from Yale University.

Sonal Shah White House Director of the Office of Social Innovation and Civic Participation Widely recognized as a leading voice on global development and an expert on policy creation, Sonal was most recently Head of Global Development Initiatives for Google.org. In this position, Sonal developed a number of successful programs and coordinated important partnerships with leading non-governmental organizations and businesses, such as the Omidyar Network and the Soros Foundation. Prior to her work at Google.org, Sonal was a Vice President at Goldman Sachs, where she led the development of the company's environmental policy. Before that, Sonal worked extensively in Washington, D.C. From 2001 to 2003, Shah led the Center for Global Development as Director of Operations and Programs. From 2003 to 2004, Sonal worked in the Center for American Progress as Associate Director. For both of these institutions, Sonal leveraged her considerable experience in economics to develop intelligent policy initiatives on trade, global development, and reform. Prior to joining the think tanks, Sonal worked in the United States Department of Treasury from 1995 to early 2002. Sonal was appointed to serve as Co-Chair for the Technology, Innovation & Government Reform policy working group for the Obama-Biden presidential administration. Sonal was also an advisor on the Obama-Biden Transition Project Advisory Board prior to her current position.

Michele Jolin White House Senior Advisor for Social Innovation for the Domestic Policy Council Michele Jolin is currently a Senior Advisor for Social Innovation for the Domestic Policy Council at The White House. In this capacity, she is developing policy tools to support and catalyze greater innovation directed at solving our most serious social problems, especially in the areas of education, economic mobility, energy conservation and health care. This includes developing structures to invest in innovative ideas that have demonstrated they work and partnering with citizens, non-profits, the private sector and foundations to make progress on our great challenges. Prior to joining the White House, Michele was a Senior Fellow at the Center for American Progress, where she co-edited the Center’s presidential transition document titled Change for America: A Progressive Blueprint for the 44th President. As a Senior Fellow, she also authored a number of articles and reports on policy tools to promote innovation and impact in the nonprofit sector, including a Stanford Social Innovation Review (SSIR) piece arguing for a White House Office of Social Innovation. Prior to her work at the Center for American Progress, Michele was a Senior Vice President at Ashoka, a global foundation that invests in leading social entrepreneurs in 45 countries around the world. During President Clinton’s Administration, Michele served as the Chief of Staff at the President’s Council of Economic Advisers. Michele also worked for Senator Boxer on the Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee and as an Associate at the Washington, DC law firm Patton, Boggs & Blow.

Thank You to Our Sponsors & Community Partners

Special Thanks

This event would not have been possible without the support of the White House Office of Social Innovation and our speakers, Michele Jolin, Sonal Shah, and Greg Nelson. Additional thanks go out to Michael Brill and Hayden Moulds for welcoming us to Crushpad, to Eventbrite, our registration sponsor...Regina Starr Ridley at Stanford Social Innovation Review...to all the folks at MediaGuns and BusinessBoomer including Rick Billings, Ryan Billings, Rainer Cvillink, Julie Blaustein, Abbie Santiago, Janice Bailon, and Ryan Turner for the webcast and more....Chef Michael Woodward of M. Woodward Catering for the tasty food…Nancy Tenuta, Margaret Baggerly and Norma Kropelnicki of Tenuta Vineyards for the delightful wine…James Hanusa for his amazing video production…Keith Lewis, Julie Blaustein and Thomas Minczeski for capturing the evening's excitement on camera …Aili Ice Designs for creating the beautiful florals...Saul Stokes for the music...Ahmed Rahim for the NUMI Organic Tea...Gary Bauer and Bauer's Intelligent Transportation...Nora Tong of Nora's Patisserie for the scrumptious pastries...and to all our awesome event volunteers; you're the best!

Photos

If you cannot see the photo slide show above, view the photo set on Flickr. To purchase prints from the evening (until 9/26/09) please visit Keith Lewis Photography & Imaging Printroom and find the folder named Full Circle Fund II in the Galleries tab; click on the name to open it. Then click on any thumbnail to enlarge the viewing size; then use the directional arrows to advance to the next image.