What is social innovation, anyway? Social infrastructure? Movement building? Going into my fellowship, these were all questions that I had full confidence I would learn the answers to. I was to support the RECODE program, and my job description included stakeholder engagement, event planning, communications, and programmatic tasks such as report-writing or project management. Easy enough, right? With a strong social justice, community and direct service background, I was excited for this new world of social innovation and philanthropy. In hindsight, however, I was not fully prepared to adjust to the frameworks, tools, relationships, and ways of thinking about social transformation. At the end of my first day of work, McConnell’s Vice President asked me to summarize what I had […]
