Eric Schwarz Discusses Obama’s Office of Innovation on NPR

Yesterday’s Morning Edition of NPR featured a story about the Obama administration’s newest program, the White House Office of Social Innovation and Civic Participation. This program, with $50 million in funding for the first year, will provide seed capital to new nonprofit organizations who are addressing social problems in areas such as education, housing and healthcare.

To discuss the plan, NPR spoke to Eric Schwarz, 1995 Echoing Green Fellow and Founder of Citizen Schools. Commenting on the difficulty of finding investors for innovative startup organizations, Eric noted, “Emerson, the philosopher, said if you build a better mousetrap, the world will beat a path to your door…in the nonprofit sector, that’s often not true.” He also discussed the success of Citizen Schools and the impact that similar organizations can have.

What do you think about the White House Office of Social Innovation? What new organizations should receive funding? Let us know in the comments section.