Leslie Crutchfield
Managing director, Ashoka.
Author of best-selling book on high-impact social change organizations.
Highlights
Leslie Crutchfield is coauthor of the award-winning book Forces for Good: The Six Practices of High-Impact Nonprofits, on how to maximize nonprofit effectiveness. Forces for Good was named one of The Economist's Best Books of 2007.
She speaks on social entrepreneurship and leading effective social change organizations, on high-impact philanthropy and on women's leadership.
In presentations based on Forces for Good and its underlying research, Leslie Crutchfield offers practical guidance on how to improve the effectiveness of your nonprofit or evaluate the nonprofits you are interested in funding. Leslie also conducts workshops and facilitates private training sessions for groups of nonprofit leaders, philanthropists and social sector thought leaders.
Leslie is a seasoned nonprofit leader who has launched, led, funded, and advised top nonprofit and philanthropic groups. She is a managing director of Ashoka, the world's oldest and largest venture philanthropy group.
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She is a recent Advisor to Duke University’s Center for the Advancement of Social Entrepreneurship (CASE) at the Fuqua School of Business and a Research Grantee of the Aspen Institute’s Nonprofit Sector and Philanthropy Program.
She co-founded Who Cares, a national magazine for young activists and social entrepreneurs (circulation 50,000). Both Newsweek and Self magazines have featured her as one of America's top leaders under 40. She has appeared in The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times, on NPR, PBS and other media.
Leslie currently serves on the board of the SEED Foundation, Kiva and Little Kids Rock, and she volunteered with Crossroads Africa in the Gambia. She holds an MBA and AB frm Harvard University.
Leslie serves as a philanthropic advisor and strategic consultant to a range of foundations, nonprofits and private philanthropic clients.
Forces for Good
Practical help building stronger nonprofits for higher impact and greater social change.
The best nonprofits find points of leverage outside of their organization to advance their cause.
What makes great nonprofits great? Not large budgets, snazzy marketing, or excellent management. The answer upends conventional wisdom: shift the focus from building an organization to building a movement. Be entrepreneurial, adaptive and externally oriented. Spend as much time working with institutions outside the boundaries of your organization as you do managing internal operations. Try to fix problems and reform whole systems.
Based on four years of research, surveys of 2,800 charity leaders and in-depth interviews of 60 leaders and experts, Forces for Good offers practical guidance on how nonprofits can become much stronger forces for social change, for both nonprofit leaders and funders looking at potential grantees.
Forces for Good was named a Top Ten Book of 2007 by The Economist. Consistently ranked #1 in nonprofits on Amazon.com, 800-CEO-Reads.com and other bookseller websites. Winner of The Skystone Ryan Research Prize and the Axiom Business Books Gold Award.
The Take-aways
- For charity leaders: improve your results
- For association leaders: compete differently
- For philanthropists: give more strategically
- For corporate leaders: partner better, do well by doing good
- For everyone: work together to make a better world
Credentials
- Coauthor, Forces for Good: The Six Practices of High-Impact Nonprofits
- Managing director, Ashoka: Innovators for the Public
- Philanthropic advisor, leading foundations and high net worth individuals
- Advisor, Duke University's Center for the Advancement of Social Entrepreneurship
- Board member, SEED Foundation, KIVA, Little Kids Rock
- BA in Government; MBA, Harvard University
- Cofounder, Who Cares: The Tool Kit for Social Change
- Advisor, Rediscovery House, Boston
- Volunteer, Crossroads Africa
Ashoka
is the world's oldest and largest venture philanthropy group supporting social entrepreneurs with operations in more than 60 countries.Capabilities
Speaking: The authors frequently speak to audiences of all sizes about their research and findings, tailoring their presentation to specific audience interest and the desired outcomes of the event.
Workshops: Interactive sessions for large or diverse groups that include in-depth coverage of research findings grounded in case-based examples, interspersed with break-out learning groups and discussion.
Customized Training Sessions: Half-day or full-day sessions tailored to specific participant needs that will help them apply the six practices to their particular situations, with ample time for one-on-one feedback and facilitated peer learning.
Social Entrepreneur
Just as entrepreneurs change the face of business, social entrepreneurs act as the change agents for society, seizing opportunities others miss and improving systems, inventing new approaches, and creating solutions to change society for the better. While a business entrepreneur might create entirely new industries, a social entrepreneur comes up with new solutions to social problems and then implements them on a large scale.