Transformative Scale: The Social Sector’s New Frontier

Presented By: 

Jeff Bradach, cofounder and managing partner, The Bridgespan Group

Susan Davis, president and CEO, BRAC USA

Gerald Chertavian, founder and CEO, Year Up

Moderated By: 

Eric Nee, managing editor, Stanford Social Innovation Review

Date: Tuesday, April 29, 2014 
Time: 10:00am–11:00am PDT, 1:00pm–2:00pm EDT

Social sector leaders around the world are getting impatient. Conscious of the enormity of the need that exists, they are no longer satisfied with impact that expands only incrementally. Now that they know “what works,” there is a deep urgency to help bring solutions to a truly transformative scale, a scale that begins to actually solve the problems we face. But doing so will require new ways of thinking, acting, and investing.

In the Spring 2014 issue of Stanford Social Innovation Review, Bridgespan cofounder Jeff Bradach and a colleague describe nine pathways social sector leaders are exploring to make the leap from incremental to transformative. Join this webinar, hosted by Bradach, to hear about those pathways and learn about scaling challenges first-hand from two social sector leaders: Susan Davis, president and CEO of BRAC USA; and Gerald Chertavian, founder and CEO of Year Up. Participants will be able to post questions to all three panelists.

This complimentary webinar is for social sector leaders, philanthropists, policy makers, and businesspeople who want to better understand the challenges faced by those in pursuit of impact at a transformative scale.

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Speaker Biographies: 

Jeff Bradach is cofounder and managing partner of The Bridgespan Group, a nonprofit advisor and resource for mission-driven organizations and philanthropists. Bradach leads the development of the organization and its knowledge strategy. In this role, he works personally on a variety of nonprofit client and foundation engagements, focusing on issues of strategy and scale. Bradach also writes, teaches and speaks extensively on topics relating to nonprofit strategy, business planning, and philanthropy. He is a graduate of Stanford University, elected Phi Beta Kappa, and completed his master’s in sociology and PhD in organizational behavior at Harvard University. He serves on several nonprofit boards, including the board of directors for Independent Sector.

Susan Davis is the founding president and CEO of BRAC USA, an organization created to advance the global mission of BRAC, the world’s largest nonprofit. She is an author, speaker, and thought leader in international development and civil society innovation. In 2010, she coauthored the book Social Entrepreneurship: What Everyone Needs to Know. She is a founding board member and past chair of Grameen Foundation; serves on the international board committee of Ashoka that selects Ashoka Fellows; is senior advisor to New York University’s Reynolds Program on Social Entrepreneurship; and a member of the Council on Foreign Relations. She was educated at Georgetown, Harvard, and Oxford Universities.

Gerald Chertavian is founder and CEO of Year Up, an intensive one-year training and education program that serves low income youth ages 18 to 24 by providing the technical, professional and communication skills needed to empower urban young adults to make successful transitions to careers and higher education. The story of Year Up’s founding and growth is detailed in the New York Times bestseller A Year Up and has been featured on 60 Minutes.

Eric Nee is the managing editor of Stanford Social Innovation Review, published by the Center of Philanthropy and Civil Society at Stanford University, and co-host of the Social Innovation Conversations podcast channel. He has more than 30 years’ experience in the publishing industry, most of it covering the high-tech industry. Before joining Stanford, Nee was a senior writer for Fortune magazine in the Palo Alto, Calif., bureau. He also helped Time Inc. launch eCompany Now (where he was executive editor), which later merged withBusiness 2.0. Before joining Fortune, Nee launched Forbes magazine’s Silicon Valley bureau, where he was bureau manager. He also served as editor-in-chief of Upside magazine for close to five years.