Philadelphia Social Innovations Journal focuses on the region’s current and emerging leaders of social entrepreneurship, nonprofit organizations, foundations and social sector businesses, and on the principles they have developed to create, manage and promote social change.

The collaborative brainchild of two Philadelphia-area social innovators and Eisenhower Fellows – Nicholas Torres, President of Congreso de Latinos Unidos (Congreso), and Tine Hansen-Turton, Vice President of Public Health Management Corporation (PHMC) and CEO of National Nursing Centers Consortium (NNCC) –Philadelphia Social Innovations Journal (PSIJ) chronicles social innovations affecting a broad spectrum of the community from leadership, human capital and disruptive innovations.

A cooperative effort among local foundations and universities, the Journal bridges formal research and real-life experience. The Journal is inspired by the Stanford Social Innovation Review, an award-winning national magazine covering best strategies for nonprofits, foundations and social businesses.

PSIJ highlights the accomplishments of local leaders and social entrepreneurs who set the standard for regional nonprofit organizations and policymakers, providing an opportunity for these leaders and their agencies to publish their innovations and share best practices and lessons learned. It also provides a forum for the discussion of vital topics facing the nonprofit, foundation and social sector–focused business community. PSIJ articles are not only about these impressive individuals, but written by and with the innovators themselves, people who blend their real-world experiences, best practices and time-proven results with meticulous research.

The first publication dedicated to social innovation in the Delaware Valley, PSIJ brings a regional focus that encourages further innovation in the greater Philadelphia area and beyond, giving the region a broader impact in Pennsylvania and across the nation.

This quarterly publication is produced and distributed in an electronic format. In addition, PSIJ’s annual print edition features the year’s most popular articles.

Why a Philadelphia Regional Focus?

Philadelphia, the birthplace of America, has a strong tradition of supporting innovation and independence, starting with the printing of Thomas Paine’s Common Sense, which encouraged colonists to explore the inner workings of a society, and continuing today in the efforts of countless local leaders who uphold Paine’s legacy of questioning the status quo and insisting on near-constant evolution and improvement. Yet the value that these individuals and their agencies bring to our community is often overlooked, to our collective societal detriment, as the potential for good ideas to inspire more good ideas cannot be underestimated.

What Is Social Innovation?

The Organisation for Economic Co-Operation and Development (OECD) defines social innovation as a mechanism that “can concern conceptual, process or product change, organizational change and changes in financing, and can deal with new relationships with stakeholders and territories.” The OECD’s Forum on Social Innovation identifies the core components of social innovation as:

• “identifying and delivering new services that improve the quality of life of individuals and communities; and
• “identifying and implementing new labour market integration processes, new competencies, new jobs, and new forms of participation, as diverse elements that each contribute to improving the position of individuals in the workforce.”

In the words of the OECD, “Social innovations can therefore be seen as dealing with the welfare of individuals and communities, both as consumers and producers. The elements of this welfare are linked with their quality of life and activity. Wherever social innovations appear, they always bring about new references or processes.

“Social innovation is distinct from economic innovation because it is not about introducing new types of production or exploiting new markets in itself but is about satisfying new needs not provided by the market (even if markets intervene later) or creating new, more satisfactory ways of insertion in terms of giving people a place and a role in production.

“The key distinction is that social innovation deals with improving the welfare of individuals and community through employment, consumption or participation, its expressed purpose being therefore to provide solutions for individual and community problems.”

What Are PSIJ’s Objectives?

• To incubate new ideas.
• To promote regional leadership development for social innovators.
• In spite of the high density of colleges and universities in the Philadelphia region, a substantial percentage of young professionals leave the area within the first five ten years of their graduation. While initiatives to nurture individual emerging leaders do exist in the city, Philadelphia and its surrounding areas lack a forum for these budding leaders to share their ideas and social innovations. PSIJ will provide a unique vehicle for professionals who work in the region’s nonprofit community to share their best practices as well as the successes and failures of innovative ideas. Additionally, the Journal will enable new and existing social innovators to receive greater visibility and be considered for regional leadership opportunities, helping to keep a greater concentration of Philadelphia talent in the local area.
• To benchmark social innovators against other innovators with similar ideas, locally and beyond.
• To create a focal point for national foundations, corporations, government, and policymakers for the recognition of Philadelphia’s leadership in nonprofit, foundation and socially responsible business and as a resource for program development.