Deconstructing the Bird Cage: How Social Entrepreneurs are Catalyzing Systems Change

Over the last few years, one of the most important and high-potential movements in philanthropy has been around systems change, which we define at New Profit as shifting the holistic conditions that hold entrenched social problems in place. 

The complexity of these problems means that no organization can do the work of big change on its own, which seems obvious at face value. However, for too long, philanthropy has positioned growing organizations and scaling single point solutions at the tip of the problem solving spear, at the expense of all of the other critical policy, public awareness, organizing, and partnership building activities (to name a few). 

Thankfully, this imbalance is starting to be remedied. A growing chorus of social entrepreneurs, philanthropists, and other actors from across sectors are taking on the enormous task of deeply understanding how systemic inequities are perpetuated and developing innovative, integrated solutions to drive breakthroughs against them. 

To build momentum behind these approaches, what we need now more than ever are tangible case studies on systems change to learn from and share, which is why I'm thrilled that my colleagues at New Profit, the venture philanthropy organization that I chair, have released a new paper entitled Deconstructing the Bird Cage: How Social Entrepreneurs are Catalyzing Systems Change. The paper features deep insight on how systems are structured and what models can be used to change them, as well as illustrative cases studies on the Burns Institute, Family Independence Initiative, FoodCorps, GirlTrek, Prosecutor Impact, and The People.

I encourage you to read the article and share it with people in your network who care about the future of social problem solving.  Check out this link Deconstructing the Birdcage