Does the White House Office of Social Innovation Need a Different Approach?

Allison Fine, a social-media expert and Chronicle contributor, isn’t thrilled with the details that have begun to emerge about the White House Office of Social Innovation.

On Tuesday, Michelle Obama described the effort this way: “By focusing on high-impact, results-oriented nonprofits, we will ensure that government dollars are spent in a way that is effective, accountable, and worthy of the public trust.”

So what gives Ms. Fine pause?

First, she says on her blog that Ms. Obama’s description sounds an awful lot like the focus of venture philanthropy in the late 1990s on measuring the performance of organizations and trying to grow high-performing groups.

“But the reality is that real social change is too hard to measure in the bite-size pieces that the risk-averse government needs,” Ms. Fine says.

Secondly, she worries about the White House’s emphasis on market-based solutions to social problems. “This is exactly what hasn’t worked in large part in the social sector in the last 10 years; that’s why for-profit schools are a bust,” she writes.

Finally, Ms. Fine says the administration is taking the wrong approach to “scale.” Instead of trying to help charities build new offices and expand nationally, it should be creating “networks of problem solvers.”

“This is a heck of a lot less expensive than bricks and mortar,” she says. “The way you do it is provide intensive leadership development for creative people.”

Ms. Fine also encourages the White House fund to become a “focal point for sharing ideas” and to abandon the “high impact Harvard Business School language.”

What do you think?