Obama Creates Council to Promote Social Change

President Obama announced today he has created a council to advise the federal government on ways to promote innovative social projects and get more people involved in civic affairs.

The new White House Council for Community Solutions, established by executive order, is headed by Patty Stonesifer, the former chief executive of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation who now chairs the Smithsonian Institution board, and includes 24 other nonprofit, foundation, and business leaders as members. It will be housed in the Corporation for National and Community Service.

“The council will provide advice to the president on the best ways to mobilize citizens, nonprofits, businesses, and government to work more effectively together to solve specific community needs,” the White House said in a statement.

Other members include Diana Aviv, president of Independent Sector, the coalition of charities and foundations; Jim Canales, president of the James Irvine Foundation; John Donahoe, president of eBay; Jim Gibbons, president of Goodwill Industries International; and Judith Rodin, president of the Rockefeller Foundation.

The committee also has some celebrity glitz: One of its members is the musician Jon Bon Jovi, who heads an antipoverty foundation.

The executive order says the panel will support last year’s Serve America Act, a law that expands federal volunteer and national-service programs, by recommending ways the government can promote “cross-sector” collaboration on national problems and highlight projects that are working.

The council has a similar name to one that would be created under legislation that was introduced last summer by Rep. Betty McCollum, Democrat of Minnesota. However, it appears to have a more limited mandate than the one envisaged in that bill.

Ms. McCollum’s panel—the U.S. Council on Nonprofit Organizations and Community Solutions—would make annual recommendations to Congress and the White House in areas like how to streamline federal grants and contracts, collect more data about nonprofit groups, and create new grant programs to help charities improve their operations. The bill has been moving slowly, and the congresswoman is now deciding whether to reintroduce it in the new Congress.

A list of all of the council members is posted on the White House Web site.