Today at SOCAP09, Sonal Shah, Director of the White House Office of Social Innovation, opened the conference with a Keynote addressing the work being done by the Obama Administration in determining the role of government in the social innovation arena. At a time when US communities are in need of new and high-impact solutions to social problems, entrepreneurs and the institutions in the social sector are struggling in the current economic climate.

Ms. Shah broke down the Administration’s goals into three categories:

Directing resources to the most innovative and effective solutions

Through the new “Social Innovation Fund”, the government can assist in directing much needed capital toward “high-impact” models that work. The goal is not to duplicate efforts already taking place, but to provide the assistance to scale proven programs nationwide.

Facilitating Stronger Multi-Sector / Cross-Sector Partnership

The government can play a role in bringing together nonprofits, the private sector, and government agencies. The goal is to defeat the silohs that these sectors frequently fall into, and to share knowledge and innovative solutions to create a more high-impact society.

Identifying Tools to Help Leverage and Foster a Culture of Social Innovation

In part, this has to do with engaging more Americans with the social sector through programs like Americorps and volunteering. But also creating policies that enable the social sector to thrive. An example of this could include creating the appropriate incentives for the flow of patient capital to social enterprises.

Panel Discussion

The following panel discussion focused on how the social enterprise movement has developed to the point that the government has acknowledged it and begun to see how to build upon it. In social enterprise, we speak a lot about “ecosystems’ and creating environments in which innovators can thrive.

Some of the critical issues the social sector faces right now are institutional (eg. L3C incorporation status, financial incentives/disincentives, etc.). With the creation of an “Office of Social Innovation”, we can now see opportunities for policy reform that create an ecosystem better suited for the implementation of innovative new programs that impart high-impact social impact.

One of the key question was, how can we approach the government to get the change that we want. The challenge we face is being able to present meaningful metrics and a direct plan of what change we want to be implemented, particularly when the sector is very decentralized and segmented.

It was also noted that for-profit businesses should take more of a central role in the discussion of policy around social innovation. It is more that corporate social responsibility (CSR) and implementing programs to advance your own programs within your company, but it’s contributing to the overall ecosystem.