February 18, 2010 | Read Time: 2 minutes
The Corporation for National and Community Service issued its final notice this week on how it plans to spend the Social Innovation Fund, or SIF as insiders call it. And blogs are abuzz with the potential of the new program.
The corporation will provide funds to grant-making organizations, which in turn will award annual money to nonprofit groups that have shown promise in areas of economic opportunity, youth development, and healthy living.
With its focus on supporting groups that can prove their effectiveness and share ideas, “the SIF has the potential to transform how our nation tackles social challenges,” writes the corporation’s board chair, Stephen Goldsmith, on the White House blog.
Before issuing the final guidelines for how to apply, the corporation received more than 200 comments.
Nathaniel Whittemore, the founder of Assetmap, a San Francisco group, says the agency did a good job at listening to outside suggestions and was right to make one change. The corporation will not require applicants to have already chosen the charities they will work with.
The move “suggests to me that this is SIF’s way of providing for more flexibility in terms of where the dollars go while retaining the politically important appearance of ‘investing in what works,’” he writes on Change.org. “Whether that was the intention or not, it certainly creates an opening for intermediaries to be more creative than it seemed like they might have otherwise been able. I hope they take it.”
With all the excitement about the new fund, some suggest it’s been a little too much talk.
The Nonprofit Quarterly has created a light-hearted quiz to see if you measure up to being a real “social innovator,” with an undertone that there’s as much hype as promise about the government fund.
Sample question: “Do you spend 20 percent of your budget on self-promotion … I mean, public outreach and travel to essential national confabs?”
What do you think of the fund? click on the comment button to share your views.
