Giving Compass' Take:

• Leslie Crutchfield's book called "How Change Happens: Why Some Movements Succeed While Others Don't" examines why certain social movements are successful. 

• Crutchfield focuses on one topic in particular: Leadership.  What lessons can the philanthropic sector learn from great leaders in social movements? 

• Learn about how funders can support social movements.

While there is no simple recipe for social movement success, Leslie Crutchfield, executive director of the Global Social Enterprise Initiative (GSEI) at Georgetown University's McDonough School of Business, and her research team have identified a number of patterns that distinguish successful social movements from those that didn't succeed and shares them in her latest book, How Change Happens: Why Some Social Movements Succeed While Others Don't. 

The six she identifies are:

  • a focus on the grassroots
  • a recognition of the importance of state and local efforts
  • a commitment to changing norms and attitudes as well as policy
  • a willingness to reckon with adversarial allies
  • acceptance of the fact that business is not always the enemy and often can be a key ally
  • and being "leaderfull"

Crutchfield argues that successful social change leaders invariably recognize the importance of advocating for a shift in social norms, not just policy reforms, and that they never prioritize one over the other. And to support her contention, she shares some key insights from successful change leaders.

At the end of the day, however, a social movement is only as effective as its leaders, and the most effective leaders, writes Cructhfield, are those willing to share power and "lead from behind." Indeed, a "leaderfull" movement successfully harnesses the energy of many, rather than a few, and channels that energy into a common cause.

So what do the findings in How Change Happens mean for social change? According to Crutchfield, it depends on where you sit. Foundations and high-net-worth donors, policy officials and agency heads, business leaders, and citizen activists all bring specific assets and have different roles to play in the process.

Read the full article about successful social movements by Sarina Dayal at PhilanTopic