Social Impact

The graduation approach to moving households out of extreme poverty and into sustainable livelihoods requires intensive up-front investments but seems to be cost effective in the long run.

Mercy Corps CEO Neal Keny-Guyer ’82 discusses the challenges of addressing the world’s worst humanitarian crises—and where he finds hope.

Ira Peppercorn ’85 says that creating affordable housing in the world’s fastest-growing cities requires accurate data and an incremental approach.

Daniel Weiss ’85, president of the Met, discusses the challenges of changing with the times while preserving the past.

Yale SOM’s Mushfiq Mobarak talks with three practitioners about improving the process of technology adoption among the poor.

Dr. Francois Bonnici of the University of Cape Town on navigating South Africa's turbulent social sector.

Sandra Urie ’85 of Cambridge Associates talks about helping clients find the right level of risk.

Should organizations favor the dependable efficiency of rules and standards or a less calculated but more flexible operation that bends to accommodate individual situations? How about both?

Somehow ice and cold water have become the social media phenomenon of the summer. Millions of people have shivered and screamed while dumping buckets of ice over their own heads, and a medical charity has tens of millions of dollars raised as a result. Yale Insights spoke with Yale economist Florian Ederer to try to make sense of all of this.

Recent research, drawing on behavioral economics, suggests that donors make larger contributions to a nonprofit organization when they have a sense of active involvement in the organization's mission. In an op-ed for the New York Times, Professor Robert Shiller suggests that changes to legal and institutional structures could be powerful new tools to increase engagement and giving.