FAQ
ReCoding Good Charrettes
#ReCodeGood
What is this project?
#ReCoding Good is part of the Project on Philanthropy, Policy and Technology at
Stanford University’s Center on Philanthropy and Public Policy (PACS). We are asking
five key questions about the emerging social economy:
1. What does a post-Citizens United world mean for nonprofits, philanthropy, and
the public good?
2. How is digital technology changing our conception of public accountability and
public goods?
3. How will big data, the sharing economy, and open government influence
philanthropy?
4. How can we better align our regulatory frameworks that govern and structure the
creation of public goods with the technological innovations being made in
bioscience, data processing, and other rapidly advancing fields?
5. What are the 21st century policy frames we need to encourage the use of private
and public resources to help address our major domestic and global challenges?
The social economy is meant to capture all the ways – from nonprofits to B corporations
to sharing to opening up government data to blurring lines between nonprofits and
campaign finance – that we use private resources to produce public goods. First we want
to help map out this emerging space. Then we want to understand what policies and
practices can help make sure we are making more public good, not just using more
private resources. In the past, most of this was contained within the world of nonprofits
and philanthropy. As the ways to work have diversified and created this new social
economy, the rules for guiding this economy need to be created as well.
This economy matters to all of us: nonprofits, donors, social investors, social
entrepreneurs, activists, public officials, and, above all else, citizens. The rules reflect
what we want from government, markets, and individuals in solving our shared social
problems. The answers to these questions will inform policies that fit the ways we
actually work today. They will protect and expand the public good while attracting
appropriate private resources.
It is time to think hard about whether the rules and norms that shape how we use private
resources for public goods, many of which are decades old and from a pre-digital era, still
apply. We think it is time to ReCode Good.
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Why talk about the sharing economy and nonprofit/philanthropic policy?
Many sharing companies/platforms are organized as nonprofit organizations. More
important, many of the community-oriented goals of sharing – meeting your neighbors,
using fewer resources, building community – are values held by (and in many people’s
minds) institutionalized by the nonprofit sector. But we think this is changing – those
same values can be brought to life by commercial brands, informal networks, and all
kinds of hybrid organizations.
What is the purpose of this conversation?
This conversation is the first in a series of discussions to be held in 2012 about the new
social economy. We want it to spark two things –First, a set of big ideas about how
sharing practices, platforms and companies are directing private resources to public good
and what that might look like over the next decade. Second, we want to consider the
practical policy implications that the growth of sharing companies creates for nonprofits,
donors, activists, and social investors. Where are these two parts of the social economy –
sharing and giving – in alignment, where might they be in conflict, and what are the
policy implications and opportunities?
What policy domains matter?
Over the last 60 years American law has come to privilege philanthropy and nonprofits as
the place where private resources are used for public good. We do this through the federal
tax code and state corporate codes. B corporations are one new way to formalize new
models of using private resources for public goods. We want this conversation to identify
the policy domains (Tax? Corporate code? Intellectual Property? Investing rules?
Governance issues) that sharing companies face. We hope to identify practical issues that
can be addressed as well as concepts or :out there ideas” for new areas of policy
consideration.
What happens after the conversation?
We want to keep the ideas flowing. We will share all the ideas and insights of the
conversation publicly on the web and encourage all the participants to take these ideas
and apply them, build on them, improve them in their own work or issue-specific
networks. We will synthesize the conversation and document it on the web for others to
use and comment on. We will use the results of this conversation to inform other
charrettes in the series. Depending on how the ideas flow, we may revisit the topic later
in the year.
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Who can participate and how?
All materials and ideas from the charrettes will be shared publicly – and preparatory
materials are available for the taking. We want these ideas to be used and improved and
built upon by anyone who needs them – other countries, other sharing platforms,
nonprofit advocates, technology innovators. Anyone can sign up to get our materials.
You can share your ideas with us XX and build a worldwide discussion using the
#recodegood hashtag.
How can I participate in other charrettes?
The charrettes are conversational moments in time. The real conversations and idea
repository are the online, cross network discussions we hope to foster and connect. Check
out and use #recodegood for the online version, sign up for project updates at XX and
check out our ongoing blog posts at SSIR and PACS.
How can I connect this conversation, materials, and group of people to others that
are related or intersect?
We encourage you to do this any way possible. The materials on this site are all public
and for use with attribution. Please link, tweet (#recodegood), blog, write about this and
feel free to launch similar conversations within your sphere of interest. We want to cohost these conversations and make them part of other discussions as much as possible so
please contact me (Bernholz@stanford.edu, @p2173) to discuss how we might work
together.
Who can I contact for more information?
Please email Lucy Bernholz, project co-lead, at Bernholz@stanford.edu or reach me on
twitter at @p2173. Project information is posted on the PACS website. Regular updates
are on the Stanford Social Innovation Review site, From the Field, and on my blog,
Philanthropy2173.com. Sign up for our mailing list here.
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