The 2nd Annual NYU Social Innovation Symposium was held on Friday, February 10th at the NYU’s Stern School of Business. Hundreds of students and practitioners from the public, private, and nonprofit sectors convened for case studies and panel discussions about social innovation and social entrepreneurship. It made for a day of enriching candid discussion, and an atmosphere of anticipation to hear the keynote speaker, Jonathan Greenblatt, interviewed by Spencer Ante, Deputy Bureau Chief of The Wall Street Journal.

Peter Henry, Dean of NYU's Stern School of Business, remarked in his introduction that social entrepreneurs work with a broad canvas. They source opportunities to create value for businesses and society, which is something Jonathan Greenblatt has done throughout his career. Now a Special Advisor to President Obama and Director of the Office of Social Innovation and Civic Participation at the White House, Greenblatt has worked within both nonprofit and for-profit sectors. In the latter regard, Greenblatt was actually representative of many of the speakers and attendees at the symposium, which made his interview a very appropriate conclusion to the day.

The audience were mostly students of NYU's schools of law, business, and management. Towards the beginning of the interview, Greenblatt asked a question of the audience which received was a fascinating collective response: "How many of you think the sole purpose of business is to drive shareholder value?" There was silence and not a single hand was raised. Greenblatt went on to say that this demonstrates "something is afoot...the game is changing." Two main themes emerged through Greenblatt’s interview: his advice for social entrepreneurs, and the new and interesting activities of the Office.

Greenblatt frequently drew from his wide range of experiences, giving detail about his early career as well as his current job in the White House. He was quite candid about how far social entrepreneurship and social innovation has come. He recalled being met with blank stares and laughter in early days when he would explain that part of his business plan was to give away half their profit. He added that all kinds of entrepreneurs experience "rejection more than affirmation", and yet maintained it is probably more difficult to be a social entrepreneur than a regular business entrepreneur. There are simply more challenges associated with social entrepreneurship, like more complex stakeholder relations. What can social entrepreneurs do to improve? Greenblatt recommends social entrepreneurs focus on cultivating skills, which takes time and experience, and, most important in Greenblatt’s opinion, develop a good team.

It has helped, Greenblatt said, that Warren Buffet and Bill Gates have been evangelizing this kind of work. There is a whole new class of investors who are more aware about creating value that generates social return. An audience member asked how start-ups can compete with larger organizations in the sector, particularly when vying for investment. In response, Greenblatt asked of himself "what can we do to create an enabling environment for impact investing?"

One way is to standardize impact reporting, he said, because investors are more likely to care about impact than intent. New certifications, like B Corp, can help with advancing measurements. Greeblatt pointed out that B Corp is influencing many states, to the extent that there is a critical mass gathering among states to adopt new categories for business. He cited examples of companies whose corporate social responsibility efforts he finds especially impressive, including: GE, PepsiCo, Starbucks (where he was once partner, he admitted), KIND Healthy Snacks, Peeled Snacks, and Meetup. The "most remarkable" example, though, is WholeFoods, whose "values-driven value chain" is "changing the entire retail market."

Change is not only happening with larger companies, it is also evident with start-ups. "I think there is a sea change", Greenblatt said, "at business schools, in boardrooms, at job fairs." Perhaps attributable to his early days as an entrepreneur, Greenblatt did seem to suggest change largely occurs from the ground up. He reminded the audience that start-ups have always been an engine of economic growth in the United States. The Office of Social Innovation and Civic Participation sees a bright future for the country by creating conditions and rules for lots of start-ups.

Greenblatt explained that President Obama created the Office of Social Innovation and Civic Participation as part of a broad agenda of innovation. He suggested that President Obama's legacy, while this task is best left to historians, would be that he has elevated innovation as policy. This agenda is largely about technology and data, but social innovation clearly has an important place too. Greenblatt emphasized that the office is about three words: elevating community solutions. He suggested that Obama's motivations for this approach come not only from his experiences as a community organizer, but also because the President sees this as an "all-hands-on-deck" moment in the United States.

The Office of Social Innovation and Civic Participation is focused on developing federal support for ground-up solutions. The answers to development problems, Greenblatt explained, lie not in Washington but in communities, where solutions are already being enacted by the people who live and work there. The office aims to help communities in a few ways. They identify what is working and either add support to scale up operations, spotlight them when they need it, or kick-start projects with seed funding.

The Office is interested in advancing both human and financial capital to support social innovation. To develop human capital, they are expanding opportunities for national service through AmeriCorps. To attract and leverage financial capital, they created the Social Innovation Fund. Greenblatt described this as a fund of funds, that provides growth capital for high impact nonprofits using local intermediaries to allocate funding. The fund's strengths are in its ability to build local networks and match investor capital at good ratios.

An audience member also asked whether the field of impact investing is undercapitalized, to which Greenblatt answered affirmatively and added constructively with the question "How can we unlock capital?" The office can make it easier for money managers to deploy capital in new ways. One such way is by innovating sectorally-collaborative financial instruments towards public goals, such as Pay for Success Bonds, a type of Social Impact Bond. With these bonds, the return on investment can be between 10-20%, which money managers like, while governments spend less and nonprofits get the cash-flow they need to run services.

If it were possible to identify a single message to take away from the day and Greenblatt’s keynote address, it would be that there is a promising future for what can be achieved with blended-value finance and enterprise, and that much of this work is already underway.

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