About Social Impact Research
Social Impact Research (SIR) is the independent research department of Root Cause, a research and consulting firm dedicated to mobilizing the nonprofit, public, and business sectors to work together in a new social impact market. 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 more informed philanthropic decisions.
Mission
SIR focuses exclusively on the needs of social impact investors and those who advise them. 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.
Vision
One day, social impact investors will be able to easily compare public, private, and nonprofit organizations working to solve social problems according to consistent indicators of performance and outcome. Social impact investors will be able to make well-informed investment decisions to direct more funds to the most effective organizations, thereby accelerating the impact of solutions addressing the most pressing social problems.
Andrew Wolk — CEO, Root Cause
Widely recognized as a leading social innovator and a pioneering teacher of social entrepreneurship, Andrew founded Root Cause in 2004 and continues to lead its overall strategic direction. He has consulted to dozens of nonprofit organizations in their quest to achieve enduring social impact, and has published a number of white papers and the Root Cause How-to Guides Business Planning for Enduring Social Impact and Building a Performance Measurement System. Andrew designed and taught one of the first courses on social entrepreneurship in the country. Currently, he is a senior lecturer in social entrepreneurship at MIT, and he was recently appointed a Gleitsman Visiting Practitioner in Social Innovation at David Gergen’s Center for Public Leadership at Harvard University. He has served on the board of Social Enterprise Alliance and the Advisory Board of the Social Capitalist Awards, sponsored by Fast Company magazine and The Monitor Group, and helped establish the Boston chapter of Social Venture Partners. Andrew holds an M.B.A. in Entrepreneurship and Nonprofit Management from Boston University and a B.A. from Lehigh University.
Colette L. Stanzler — Director
Colette is the director of Social Impact Research (SIR), the research division of Root Cause. She first began working with Root Cause as a graduate student in 2006, when she was brought on to develop the feasibility study for SIR. Colette’s professional background includes more than seven years of experience in product development and internal strategy consulting at financial-service firms, most recently as a vice president of equity research at Deutsche Bank. She holds a Master's Degree in Business Administration from the MIT Sloan School of Management and a Master's Degree in Public Administration from the Harvard Kennedy School of Government, where she focused on business strategy and social sector entrepreneurship, specifically the measurement of organizational effectiveness.
Anne Radday — Program Manager
Having joined Root Cause in 2008, Anne brings over seven years of experience in government and the social sector to Root Cause. Prior to joining Root Cause, Anne’s work focused on the social and economic empowerment of women. She has worked at both the grassroots level in Niger, West Africa, as a Peace Corps Volunteer and at the strategic level at the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) headquarters. Anne graduated magna cum laude from Columbia University with a B.A. in Political Science and holds an M.P.A. from International Christian University in Tokyo, Japan, where she was a Rotary World Peace Fellow.Japan.
Cristina Calzadilla — Research Associate
Having joined Root Cause as a Fellow in 2009, Cristina is a Research Associate within the organization’s Social Impact Research (SIR) division. Previously, Cristina held the position of Account Executive at Cone, a strategic communications and cause branding firm. At Cone, she helped develop and implement cause-related programs to accomplish social and business objectives for global and U.S.-based nonprofits and Fortune 500 companies. Cristina’s professional experience also includes working as a Consulting Associate at Cambridge Associates, a leading provider of independent investment advice and research to institutional investors and private clients. Cristina graduated cum laude from Tufts University with a B.A. in International Relations and concentrations in Conflict Resolution and in Mass Communications and Media Studies.
Ralitza Abadjieva — Senior Research Fellow
Jessica Smock — Senior Research Fellow
Jessica is a second-year doctoral student and Junior Fellow in Educational Leadership and Policy in the School of Education at Boston University. Her research areas include the educational nonprofit sector, college access, and school choice. Previously, she worked as a research assistant for a study assessing the effectiveness of an early childhood education program, as a reporter for a weekly newspaper in New York State, and as a social studies curriculum coordinator. She also taught English and History for ten years in both private and public schools, including Buckingham Browne and Nichols and Boston Latin School. A native of the Adirondacks in upstate New York, she received her Masters of Arts in Teaching in 1999 from Boston University and graduated Phi Beta Kappa from Wesleyan University in 1996 with a major in sociology.
Lia Mayka — Program Assistant
Lia joins Root Cause as a Social Impact Research Program Assistant. She is a third-year candidate for a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Sociology with minors in International Affairs, Latin American Studies, and Social Entrepreneurship, and a LaCLA Scholar at Northeastern University. Lia recently spent a semester studying and volunteering in Argentina and participated in a month-long microfinance field study program in the Dominican Republic and Belize through Northeastern’s Social Enterprise Institute. Previously, she was an intern at Jobs for the Future where she did research for the Early College High School Initiative. Lia is passionate about working on social justice regarding immigrant and urban issues, especially those affecting members of the Latino community and other underrepresented groups.
About Root Cause
Root Cause believes that, while many successful approaches to improving lives around the world already exist, we are not doing enough to spread those approaches and support new social innovation that meets the demands of unmet market gaps. The social impact market gives us the infrastructure necessary to spread proven approaches while fostering social innovation – so that we can make people’s lives better, faster.
We stand for the following core ideas that guide our quest for a social impact market:
- Investing for Social Impact: The development of, access to, and usability of information on practitioner performance is essential to helping investors and intermediaries direct resources to the best approaches.
- Generating Sustainable Social Impact: Practitioners must receive the skills and information they need to measure their performance and maximize their social impact.
- Collaborating within and across Social Issues: Market participants must prioritize collaborative efforts while sharing information to maximize resources and spread solutions.
- A New Role for Government: Government leaders must realize and act upon government’s special role in facilitating collaboration and supporting policies that unlock citizen potential.