Career Exploration

Learn more about social impact topics

The Kelley Institute for Social Impact strives to offer the latest information and publications about economic development, social change, and social entrepreneurship at Kelley and around the world. Find resources on the website, or stop by our office—Hodge Hall 2030—to browse our collection.

Do you know of a great person, publication, or project focused on social impact issues? Email your resource recommendation to kisi@indiana.edu.

Talk with KISI staff to explore careers that match your interests and strengths with opportunities for impact. 

Schedule a meeting

Discover your path to impact

You want to make a difference—but where do you start? Begin with KISI's comprehensive guidebook, Path to Impact. Designed by KISI staff and students, this resource can be completed on your own—or with the support of KISI staff—to find the right cause for you.

Path to Impact reader accessible

Path to Impact PDF

 

Build expertise about social and environmental challenges

The KISI newsletter is a great resource to learn more about upcoming events and speakers each week.

Subscribe

Pursue your interest in sustainability. Discover the ins and outs of corporate social responsibility. Explore the impact of social entrepreneurship. These resources will help you dive deep into ideas that excite you most.

 

  • Ashoka U: Prepares the next generation of leaders to effectively address the world’s daunting social and environmental challenges through social entrepreneurship education.
  • The Certificate in Social Entrepreneurship is a partnership between the Kelley School of Business and IU’s O'Neill School of Public and Environmental Affairs. It offers full-time MBA and O'Neill MPA students the opportunity to take courses in both schools in order to gain dual perspectives on the social and business problems facing society. The program prepares students to approach public needs with entrepreneurial practices and social purposes.
  • Next Billion: A collection of articles and blogs related to development and enterprise.
  • Social Enterprise Alliance: Leading membership organization in North America for social enterprises, service providers, nonprofit organizations, corporations, and venture capitalists.
  • Social Venture Network: Connects, supports, and inspires business leaders and social entrepreneurs in expanding practices that build a just and sustainable economy.
  • StartingBloc Institute for Social Innovation: One-day conferences where fellows learn about corporate responsibility, social entrepreneurship, cross-sector partnerships, and sustainability.
  • UN Global Compact: A strategic policy initiative for businesses that are committed to aligning their operations and strategies with ten universally accepted principles in the areas of human rights, labor, environment, and anti-corruption.

Learn more about Social Impact:

  • Aspen Institute: An international nonprofit organization dedicated to "fostering enlightened leadership, the appreciation of timeless ideas and values, and open-minded dialogue on contemporary issues."
  • Break Away: A group that helps create and maintain alternative break programs.
  • Clinton Global Initiative: Founded by former US President Bill Clinton to bring together global leaders to solve some of the world’s biggest social issues.
  • The Girl Effect: The Nike Foundation initiative to improve the lives of adolescent girls the world over.
  • GOOD: A global community of people and organizations working towards individual and collective progress.
  • Kiva: A microfinance organization whose mission is “to connect people, through lending, for the sake of alleviating poverty.”  
  • New Profit: Helps innovative social entrepreneurs and their organizations.
  • Social Innovation Forum and Root Cause: A nonprofit research and consulting firm that partners with nonprofits, philanthropy, government, and business to advance solutions to today’s toughest social issues.
  • Stanford Social Innovation Review: An online and print journal informing and inspiring leaders of social change.
  • TED (Technology, Entertainment, Design): Bringing together the world’s most exciting thinkers and doers.

Recommended reads

  • Making a Living while Making a Difference by Melissa Everett
  • More than Money: Questions Every MBA Needs to Answer by Mark Albion
  • Social Entrepreneurship: What Everyone Needs to Know by David Bornstein and Susan Davis

  • Banker to the Poor by Muhammad Yunus
  • Building Social Business by Muhammad Yunus
  • The Blue Sweater by Jacqueline Novogratz
  • The Fortune at the Bottom of the Pyramid by C.K. Prahalad

  • Citizen You: Doing Your Part to Change the World by Jonathan Tisch
  • Forces for Good: The Six Practices of High-Impact Nonprofits by Leslie R. Crutchfield and Heather McLeod Grant
  • Leaving Microsoft to Change the World by John Wood

  • Good magazine
  • Stanford Social Innovation Review

  • Creating a World Without Poverty: Social Business and the Future of Capitalism by Muhammad Yunus
  • Half the Sky: Turning Oppression into Opportunity for Women Worldwide by Nicholas D. Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn
  • How to Change the World by David Bornstein
  • Social Entrepreneurship, the Art of Mission-Based Venture Development by Peter C. Brinckerhoff
  • The End of Poverty, Economic Possibilities for Our Time by Jeffrey D. Sachs
  • The Power of Unreasonable People, How Social Entrepreneurs Create Markets that Change the World by John Elkington and Pamela Hartigan