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January 29, 2009

White House Office of Social Innovation in the Works?

President Barack Obama seems to be in the process of setting up an Office of Social Innovation in the White House. At least, such an entity is included on a list of White House offices on an official Web page describing the Executive Office of the President.

However, no information is provided about the office and White House press spokesmen have so far not returned messages asking for explanation.

Many nonprofit leaders have been calling for a White House or federal office to promote innovative approaches to social problems and help entrepreneurial nonprofit groups expand their programs. America Forward, a coalition of more than 70 nonprofit groups, for example, has proposed a White House Office of Social Innovation and Results.

“The office would lift up promising nonprofit organizations for greater visibility and promote outcomes measurement and competition for federal funding within the nonprofit sector,” the group says. (Jennifer Macauley, an America Forward spokeswoman, says she has no information about the status of that proposal.)

In a “progressive blueprint” published last November, the advocacy arm of the Center for American Progress, a liberal think tank with close ties to Mr. Obama, proposed a White House Office of Social Entrepreneurship to give innovative nonprofit leaders a “greater voice in the public-policy debates of the day.”

It suggested that the office, for example, ensure that all relevant federal agencies spend money to help successful social projects expand and create an “impact fund” at the Corporation for National and Community Service to help nonprofit groups collect data and better evaluate their success.

President Obama may have taken some of those suggestions to heart. Stay tuned.

— Suzanne Perry

Thursday January 29, 2009 | Permalink

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