Root Cause, a nonprofit organization, advances enduring solutions to social and economic problems by supporting social innovators and educating social impact investors.
Social innovators are organizations offering effective, results-oriented solutions to social problems – including nonprofits, government agencies, and for-profit enterprises alike.
Social impact investors are individuals, foundations, and corporations whose primary expectation in funding and supporting social innovators is measurable social impact.
Root Cause envisions a world in which the public, private, and nonprofit sectors work together to invest and re-invest in the most efficient, effective, and sustainable solutions to social problems, regardless of organizational structure, ego, or political agenda.
We pursue our vision and values through four initiatives:
ConsultingRoot Cause offers a unique strategy consulting service to help organizations think and act strategically to maximize social impact. We specialize in developing rigorous business plans focused on growth and sustainability. Root Cause consultants employ the latest management strategies and tools, coupled with knowledge drawn from our own social enterprises, to conduct all phases of the business planning process. Our engagements often include executive coaching for our clients’ leadership teams to ensure timely implementation of the business plan.
Social Impact Research (SIR) provides actionable information for the social impact investor. SIR aggregates, analyzes, and disseminates information to help social impact investors identify and support the most effective, efficient, and sustainable organizations working to solve social problems. Modeled after private sector equity research firms, SIR produces research reports, analyzes philanthropic portfolios, and provides educational services for advisors to help their clients make effective and rigorous philanthropic decisions.
The Social Innovation Forum seeks to build an alternative philanthropic marketplace. We encourage social impact investors to invest and reinvest in innovative, results-oriented organizations who are striving for efficiency, effectiveness, and sustainability. Through an annual rigorous selection process, we choose Social Innovators with promising approaches to addressing specific social problems. We provide our Social Innovators with strategy consulting, executive coaching, and introductions to a Philanthropic Investment Community composed of government leaders, foundations, and individual donors who are willing to offer time, talent, relationships, and money.
Public Innovators, a nonpartisan Root Cause initiative, supports a new wave of government leaders at the city, state, and federal levels who ensure the creation and growth of the most efficient, effective, and sustainable solutions to pressing social problems. Public Innovators builds off of two Root Cause reports: “Social Entrepreneurship and Government: A New Breed of Entrepreneurs Developing Solutions to Social Problems,” published by the Small Business Administration, and “Advancing Social Entrepreneurship: Recommendations for Policy Makers and Government Agencies," a co-publication with The Aspen Institute.
Founded in 2004 by Andrew Wolk, Root Cause has raised more than $22 million in investment and produced seven publications in its pursuit of advancing social innovation. Our clients address issues like youth development, seniors and aging, and economic development. We have developed a network of over 4,500 nonprofit, business, foundation, academic, and government leaders and engaged almost 250 professionally skilled volunteers.
The government and private sectors are increasingly looking to the nonprofit sector for innovative solutions to today’s complex social and economic problems. Social innovators are poised to fill these gaps, but they must first overcome institutional and market challenges – from outdated performance and operation models to a volatile and underdeveloped capital market that makes it difficult to grow to scale. Root Cause supports social innovators and educates social impact investors to overcome these obstacles.
With this preparation, we believe that more organizations will successfully implement business models to operate, develop funding, measure results, and accelerate impact. Increased collaboration among the public, private, and nonprofit sectors will simultaneously facilitate the growth of the social investment market, enabling social innovators to better fill pressing social and economic gaps.