Social Startup Success: How the Best Nonprofits Launch, Scale Up, and Make a Difference

Description

Kathleen Kelly Janus, a lecturer at the Stanford University Program on Social Entrepreneurship and the founder of the successful social enterprise Spark, set out to investigate what makes a startup succeed or fail. She surveyed more than 200 high-performing social entrepreneurs and interviewed dozens of founders. Social Startup Success shares her findings for the legions of entrepreneurs working for social good, revealing how the best organizations get over the revenue hump. How do social ventures scale to over $2 million, Janus's clear benchmark for a social enterprise's sustainability? Janus, tapping into strong connections to the Silicon Valley world where many of these ventures are started or and/or funded, reveals insights from key figures such as DonorsChoose founder Charles Best, charity:water's Scott Harrison, Reshma Saujani of Girls Who Code and many others. Social Startup Success will be social entrepreneurship's essential playbook; the first definitive guide to solving the problem of scale.

Kathleen Kelly Janus is an award-winning social entrepreneur, author and lecturer at Stanford University, and an expert on philanthropy, millennial engagement and scaling early stage organizations. An attorney, Kathleen is a cofounder of Spark, a nonprofit focused on building a community of young, global citizens promoting gender equality. Since its founding in 2004, Spark has engaged more than 10,000 young professionals nationwide to support grassroots women's organizations. Additionally, she is Chair of the Board of Directors of Accountability Counsel, a startup human rights organization, and informally advises a variety of other nonprofits and social entrepreneurs locally and globally.

Social Startup Success covers all of the important building blocks...necessary for early stage organizations to succeed and build a strong foundation for further scale.--Heather McLeod Grant, Cofounder, Open Impact, and author of Forces for Good Social Startup Success is a marvelous compilation of stories of some of the most inspiring leaders of our time.--Bill Drayton, CEO of Ashoka: Everyone a Changemaker [A] no-nonsense, energetic guide...Kelly hits her target perfectly, and this is a must-read for anyone who wants to combine a lucrative career with work for the greater good.--Publishers Weekly An insightful and highly useful guide that breaks down how organizations maximize their impact and create lasting change. An important contribution to the field.--David Bornstein, author of How to Change the World: Social Entrepreneurs and the Power of New Ideas An inspiring must-read, with an empathetic voice, for all of us aspiring to maximize our social value through our organizations, work, and lives.--Laura Arrillaga-Andreessen, Founder/CEO, laaf.org, author of Giving 2.0, Founder/Chairman, Stanford Center on Philanthropy & Civil Society, Founder/Chairman Emeritus, Silicon Valley Social Venture Fund An invaluable resource for the next generation of changemakers.--Wendy Kopp, Founder, Teach for America, cofounder and CEO, Teach for All Reveals the secret sauce behind the most influential nonprofits of our time, telling their stories in memorable ways that every nonprofit leader can learn from.--Darren Walker, President, Ford Foundation Shows how to scale an impact organization and, in so doing, change the world for the better.--Charles Best, Founder and CEO, DonorsChoose Social entrepreneurship's essential playbook.--Midwest Book Review The pressing social problems we face today require creative leadership. This book will teach you what you need to know to be a good social entrepreneur.--Muhammad Yunus, Nobel Peace Prize winner and author of the New York Times bestseller Banker to the Poor