Executive Program for Social Impact Strategy INFORMATION PACKET May Cohort 2015 PA 19104-6214
The Executive Program in Social Impact Strategy is a new program offered by the Center of Social Impact Strategy at University of Pennsylvania s School of Social Policy and Practice. The program is designed for emerging leaders, social entrepreneurs, and experienced professionals to provide the training and support they need to make a bigger impact on the most challenging social issues of our time. FOCUSED AND SELECTIVE For the 2015 May cohort, the program will gather a small cohort of emerging leaders, social entrepreneurs, and experienced professionals from around the globe who have a strong track record of achievement and are dedicated to making a positive social impact through their work. HYBRID FORMAT FOR CONTINUOUS LEARNING The program offers continuing education in a cutting edge format, combining the best of online and in-person learning to deliver an 8-month curriculum on Social Impact Strategy. LEARN ON YOUR SCHEDULE WHILE GETTING THE SUPPORT YOU NEED Online course materials, which are delivered online by faculty at Penn s School of Social Policy and other expert practitioners, are learned at your convenience remotely then applied to your work in real time to bridge theory and practice. What to Expect A three-day, in-person convening at the University of Pennsylvania on June 24th - 27th, 2015 that includes classes, workshops, and exercises led by Penn faculty and leading practitioners in design thinking and leadership. Two core classes on Social Impact Strategy and Business Models for Social Enterprise, and a minimum of four skills-based electives spread out over the course of 6 months; Course offerings that are specifically relevant to changemakers, including Governance, Fundraising, Impact Measurement, Social Media, Community Engagement and Strategic Marketing that participants can apply to their work in real time; The flexibility and convenience of an online, self-guided program that allows you to balance coursework with your current work schedule; The camaraderie and professional benefits of peer-to-peer learning across a global network of professionals who share your drive to make a greater impact; Personalized feedback and advice from your peers and a team of Penn faculty/advisors; A concluding two-day convening on December 3-4th, 2015 at the University of Pennsylvania for final capstone presentations to synthesize your learning. 2
Core Courses You are required to take both of the core courses. These six-week online courses will give you a foundational knowledge of social impact strategy and business models. SOCIAL IMPACT STRATEGY (May 4, 2015 - June 14, 2015) This core course offers an overview of the skills needed to effectively lead a social purpose organization. The class spans a range of topics including defining mission, setting goals, reaching audiences, measuring performance and understanding your competition. Over six weeks, students gain a core set of useful frameworks to guide their work in the social impact sector. BUSINESS MODELS FOR SOCIAL ENTERPRISE (July 6, 2015 - August 16, 2015) This course is focused on the many different business models that drive successful social enterprises today. We will consider the different revenue sources that can finance social impact, including earned income, donations, public support and new emerging forms of financial support for fueling social enterprises. Students will gain an appreciation of the challenges and opportunities in the fast-changing world of social enterprise finance. Electives (Starts August 24, 2015) After you complete the first required courses, you will need to complete any four of the elective courses. These three-week online courses will help you build a broader skill set and acquire more knowledge of key strategic and operational aspects of an organization. The six electives are: GOVERNANCE Building an effective governing board matters. This elective explores how to form and manage an effective board to lead an organization productively. Learn how to get maximum value from a governing body so it adds value to your organization. FUNDRAISING All social impact organizations depend on securing funding. This course considers how best to go about finding and mobilizing donors to support your ideas. COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT Organizations don t operate in isolation. This elective challenges participants to think about ways in which the organizations can be deeply rooted in community, and understand and navigate the vast range of stakeholders around nonprofit organizations. 3
SOCIAL MEDIA Cut through the noise and make your message resonate online. This elective explores new tools for social media to organize people for change. Learn best practices in this evolving field and how they can help you launch and grow your enterprise. STRATEGIC MARKETING All social enterprise depends on finding an audience and locating authentic demand. This elective walks you through the essentials of finding target markets and focused market segments. You will learn the best ways to message your ideas and explore the many different channels that are possible to reach your intended audience. EVALUATION & PERFORMANCE MEASUREMENT Now more than ever, performance matters. This course will help you understand how to assess the successes or failures of an enterprise. We ll focus on multiple tools for tracking performance, including both qualitative and quantitative approaches. Convenings The program features two convenings on the University of Pennsylvania campus. The first June 24-27, 2015 will focus on leadership and human-centered design. It will include classes, workshops and exercises led by University of Pennsylvania faculty, senior staff and leading practitioners in the field. It will allow you to expand your network, offering you the opportunity to connect with others in this program and with participants in a parallel program on social entrepreneurship. The concluding convening on December 3-4, 2015 will feature capstone presentations to synthesize your learning. International students who are unable to travel to Philadelphia for the final convening will have an online final assignment and have the option to participate remotely. Capstone (December 3-4, 2015) After completing the online and early campus visit, participants will be invited back to Penn to take part in a final campus capstone experience that has a group and individual component. During the capstone, you will be challenged to pull together all of the concepts, frameworks, and tools that you learned in the course by working collaboratively to apply your new thinking to a social problem as part of a team. For your own personal venture, you will pull all of the elements that you ve learned into a cohesive document that you will submit as a final project to represent your synthesis of the course. We will give you the framework and outline around which you can build your venture plan. Working in a team and alone, you will leave the program with a strong sense of having mastered the key learning objectives and a new network of thought partners. 4
Travel and Accommodation You will need to arrange your own travel for both in-person convenings in Pennsylvania and must be present for the entire duration of the event. Travel information to and from Philadelphia is located here: http://www.visitphilly.com/getting-here/ To view a list of local hotels in the area near the University of Pennsylvania, click here: http://www.admissions.upenn.edu/visit/accommodations. Airbnb (https://www.airbnb.com) offers many housing options throughout Philadelphia. Visa Information Participants are responsible for coordinating all visa related issues. Please work with your local embassy to identify which visa you need. The Center for Social Impact Strategy at the University of Pennsylvania can provide a letter of invitation to the program if needed. Ongoing Support During the program you will have access to a team of advisors to help you further explore areas of interest and provide perspective on integrating frameworks and concepts into your work. This customization and the one-on-one connections ensure that the program yields the greatest possible benefit for you. For the online courses and to support participant interaction, we will be using Canvas, an opensource learning management system (LMS) developed by Instructure, an educational technology company based in Salt Lake City (http://www.instructure.com/). Features include discussion boards, assignments, calendar, conversations and gradebook. Introductions to this system will be emailed the first week of January. 5
Teaching Team Peter Frumkin pfrumkin@sp2.upenn.edu FOUNDER AND FACULTY DIRECTOR, CENTER FOR SOCIAL IMPACT STRATEGY Peter Frumkin is the Founder and Faculty Director of the Center for Social Impact Strategy. He is a Professor of Social Policy, and Faculty Director of the Center for High Impact Philanthropy, both at the University of Pennsylvania. A Mindy and Andrew Heyer Chair in Social Policy, his research and teaching focus on philanthropy, nonprofit management, and social entrepreneurship. Frumkin has written articles on all aspects of philanthropy, including the formulation of grantmaking strategy, the changing profile of major individual donors, theories of philanthropic leverage, the professionalization movement within foundations, and other topics. His book, Strategic Giving: The Art and Science of Philanthropy, was published by the University of Chicago Press in 2006. Frumkin is the author of Building for the Arts (co-authored with Ana Kolendo; University of Chicago Press, 2014), which considers the management challenges associated with the recent cultural building boom in America. Frumkin s On Being Nonprofit (Harvard University Press, 2002) won the best book award from the Academy of Management s public and nonprofit section. He has also authored numerous articles on topics related to nonprofit management, including ones focusing on compensation policies in nonprofit organizations, the effective deployment of volunteers, the impact of fundraising strategies on nonprofit revenue generation, nonprofit accountability systems, and the effects of public funding on nonprofit mission definition. Prior to coming to Penn, Frumkin was Professor of Public Affairs and Director of the RGK Center for Philanthropy and Community Service at the Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs, University of Texas at Austin. He has taught at Harvard University s John F. Kennedy School of Government and served as a senior fellow at the New America Foundation. Before academics, Frumkin worked as a foundation program officer, a nonprofit manager, and as a program evaluator in both nonprofit and public agencies. Frumkin received his Ph.D. in sociology from the University of Chicago. 6
Cosmo Fujiyama cosmo@socialimpactstrategy.org PROGRAM DIRECTOR, CENTER FOR SOCIAL IMPACT STRATEGY Cosmo Fujiyama is the Program Director of the Center for Social Impact Strategy. With a background in nonprofit strategy and experience design, Cosmo has worked with social entrepreneurs to help advance their professional goals and social ventures. At the Center for Social Impact Strategy, Cosmo manages and leads programs that help achieve the Center s objective to develop a deeper understanding of the distinctive strategies adopted by changemakers as they seek to innovate and generate social impact. In 2014, Cosmo served as a Fellow at The Governance Lab at New York University, an organization that aims to improve people s lives by changing how they govern using advances in technology and science. Cosmo led The GovLab Academy, a free, online community for those interested in teaching and learning how to open their institutions and work more collaboratively to solve public problems that improve people s lives. She also worked for Ashoka, the world s largest association of social innovators, identifying social entrepreneurs, and led Ashoka Youth Venture s partnership with New York University s Stern School of Business. From 2006 to 2010, Cosmo co-founded and led Students Helping Honduras, a nonprofit organization in Honduras focused on building educational infrastructure, funding educational programs targeted at women and girls and strengthening community engagement. A graduate of the College of William and Mary and New York University s Robert F. Wagner Graduate School of Public Policy, Cosmo has been named a Reynolds Fellow in Social Entrepreneurship. 7
Ariel Schwartz ariel@socialimpactstrategy.org MANAGER OF DISTANCE LEARNING, CENTER FOR SOCIAL IMPACT STRATEGY Ariel Schwartz is the Manager of Distance Learning at the Center for Social Impact Strategy. She is also a Doctoral Candidate in Public Affairs at the University of Texas. This social research degree focuses on social policy evaluation, application of theory to policy, and understanding how real-world interventions can improve lives. Ariel s dissertation qualitatively examines how community level social sector organizations in developing countries can make good use of computing technology, especially in the context of foreign aid. During her dissertation data collection in 2013 Ariel was based at the Technology for Emerging Markets Group at Microsoft Research, India, to study ten Indian deployments of a mobile application to groups of female community health workers. Previously, Ariel was Research Development Specialist at the Institute for Social and Economic Research and Policy (ISERP), and Program Manager at the Initiative for Policy Dialogue, both at Columbia University. In 2008 Ariel co-founded, and currently directs, Maria s Libraries, a US-based not-for-profit organization striving in Kenya for information access and social, political, economic, and cultural development through community libraries. Ariel hold a BA in Government and an MPA from Cornell University. Kaveh Sadeghian kaveh@socialimpactstrategy.org MARKETING DIRECTOR, CENTER FOR SOCIAL IMPACT STRATEGY Prior to working for the University of Pennsylvania, Kaveh was a Change Manager at Ashoka s Youth Venture, where he managed the design and expansion of a youth incubator program in collaboration with Harvard, Stanford, Oxford, the University of Pennsylvania, and the University of Chicago. Prior to Youth Venture, Kaveh served as a creative director in the pharmaceutical industry, overseeing creative development for USbased oncology drug launches and national sales meetings at Celgene and Novartis. He also served as a transformation consultant at IBM, where he was part of a core team that designed and implemented the largest strategic realignment of the company s North America consulting practice. Sadeghian s interests reside in curating experiences that catalyze mindset shifts through the process of empathetic design. His initiatives have garnered attention from several news sources, including CNN, Bloomberg Businessweek, Huffington Post, and Mashable. Sadeghian completed a BBA in Marketing at the College of William & Mary, where he served as the Student Body President. 8