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America's primary and secondary education lags behind other advanced countries. To improve education levels even to the average of advanced nations would generate enough economic growth to pay for the entire education system. Catching up will require cooperation, national standards, better incentives for teachers, and accountability. In this panel discussion hosted by the New Republic, several experts discuss the way to educational excellence.

Companies that think about the environment as a social responsibility rather than a business imperative are living in the dark ages, says Carter Roberts, president and CEO of the World Wildlife Fund. In this Stanford Center for Social Innovation talk, Roberts underscores solid business reasons why sustainability is no longer just a nice thing to do, how conservation protects business, and how his organization is addressing the economics, science, and politics of conservation around the world.

Over the last decade, social entrepreneurship seems to have exploded on the international scene; there's a tremendous interest in setting up funds to support social ventures. While there's a whole spectrum of services to support the financial industry, the same isn't true of the nonprofit sector. This experienced panel discusses the need for addressing the talent gap in the social, nonprofit segment along with ways to lure talented youngsters to bridge this gap.

How does an organization get through the evaluation process and live to tell about it? In this panel, part of the Stanford Social Innovation Review's conference on evaluation, funders and fundees on both sides of the table from a variety of organizations in the areas of education and social services talk about what it was like to be in the trenches of successful evaluation processes. They tease out common success factors, including how to work collaboratively across sectors and with multiple constituents.

We all tend to talk about problems, but the ability to provide concrete solutions is rare. Van Jones sees the recent fires, floods, and foreclosures as clear signs that we are caught in twin crises: economic downturn and environmental devastation. But there is also opportunity. In this panel discussion from The Commonwealth Club of California, Jones and Darrell Steinberg have a unique solution to this complex set of problems.

Aid organizations around the world are learning that they can solve their technology and infrastructure problems faster and cheaper together than on their own. Enabling that collaboration is NetHope, a nonprofit information technology consortium helping NGOs establish the technology "ecosystems" they need to serve constituencies in more than 150 countries. Eric Nee interviews Bill Brindley, CEO of NetHope, on how the consortium got started, how it works, and how it is expanding its mission.

Nonprofits tend to collect a great deal of evaluative data but often have no idea how to use it to assess their performance--particularly because doing so properly is a complicated process requiring serious social sciences knowledge. In this panel, part of the Stanford Social Innovation Review's conference on evaluation, two experts talk about how an organization may better use such data--as well as "external" information in the form of theory and advice--to create a "culture of inquiry" focused on learning and improvement.

What does it take to keep a large foundation focused on evaluation for self-improvement? As part of the Stanford Social Innovation Review's conference on evaluation, Carol Larson, CEO of the David and Lucile Packard Foundation, shares tools, lessons, and strategies for assessing performance to create a "culture of inquiry." Organizational qualities such as innovation, collaboration among stakeholders, and freedom to make "mistakes" are critical elements to foster an effective learning enterprise.

Why are social entrepreneurs sometimes considered "unreasonable," and how are they different from business entrepreneurs? Author Pamela Hartigan discusses with Design for Change host Sheela Sethuraman how these pesky pioneers are creating markets that are changing the world. She also talks about Volans Ventures, her new enterprise dedicated to integrating the worlds of social and environmental innovation with business-driven wealth creation.

Are you making a difference? Do you add value to your constituents' lives? Are you as effective as possible per dollar output? These are all likely, and potentially useful questions to answer if you're a social entrepreneur or a funding organization. In this interactive 2008 Skoll World Forum session, a talented, experienced panel discusses the challenges of social enterprises and how metrics can impact organizational learning, innovation, and lead to greater resource utilization.

Evaluation is one of the most powerful mechanisms a nonprofit organization can use to unlock its potential, become more effective, and achieve success. But traditional evaluation methods are expensive, require thorough knowledge of the social sciences, and take a good deal of time to perform. In this part of the Stanford Social Innovation Review's conference on evaluation, Mark Kramer details how nonprofits can better incorporate evaluation to achieve their mission and bring about social change.

As you listen to this podcast, you may suddenly feel self-conscious and start to wonder, why have I taken for granted the simple freedoms and rights I enjoy in this digital age? During the Aspen Ideas Festival, moderator R. James Woolsey, past director of the Central Intelligence Agency, leads a fascinating panel discussion on "Human Rights in the Information Age" with discussants Samantha Power and Michael Posner.

The abuse of the synthetic drug known as methamphetamine has become a top crime problem in the United States, and now a global epidemic. In this talk, part of the Stanford Social Innovation Review's conference on evaluation, IT leader and philanthropist Thomas Siebel discusses the nature of meth addiction as well as the efforts of the Meth Project, a large-scale prevention program aimed at reducing first-time meth use through public service messaging, public policy, and community outreach.

Jeroo Billimoria is the founder of six successful enterprises. Her most recent effort is Aflatoun, a nonprofit organization that provides social and financial education to children. Billimoria shares the wisdom she's acquired over the years with Design for Change host Sheela Sethuraman. She talks about her successes with Aflatoun, including securing pro-bono support from various corporations, developing a scalable training model, and creating a global network of organizations.

Teach For America places thousands of energetic and committed college graduates as teachers in under-resourced schools for their first jobs. In this talk at the Stanford Graduate School of Business, Wendy Kopp shares why and how she started Teach for America in 1980, and its progress in raising the bar for under-achieving children. She also discusses how the organization rode out its "dark years," when enthusiasm and corporate support for the effort began to wane.

Social entrepreneurs discuss how they use for-profit activities to fund their organizations' missions in this session of the Skoll World Forum. These are done in combination with, and in addition to, nonprofit activities. From profitably providing water to poor villagers to training street children to run business, and from franchising medical care to creating a transparent market place for handmade goods, these entrepreneurs show that business and nonprofit can mix well.