This paper focuses on how the University of Michigan-Flint's Innovation Incubator supports emerging for-profit businesses and nonprofit organizations through programming, business plan development, and ongoing mentorship. The Incubator is especially interested in supporting start-ups that address key social issues in the surrounding community,…

The most pressing social problems facing humanity in the 21st century are what systems theorist Russell Ackoff referred to as "messes"--complex dynamic systems of problems that interact and reinforce each other over time. In this article, the authors argue that the lack of progress in managing messes is in part due to the predominance of…

The evaluation of three Ford Foundation supported Community Development Corporation (CDC) programs with performance relative to output targets (milestones) that are both identifiable and quantifiable are presented in this paper. The milestone targets, developed in 1973 for the following year, are targets over which the CDC would legitimately be…

An evaluation of four experimental programs designed to stimulate participation of agricultural and rural leaders in public affairs assessed the effectiveness of leadership training on young men and women in California, Michigan, Montana, and Pennsylvania. Varying from two to three years in length, the programs emphasized the analysis of major…

This monograph is devoted to the first Ford Foundation Gray Area Project in Oakland, California. In 1961, the Foundation granted $2 million for an interagency project whose goals were to: (1) reverse the process of social disorganization, (2) accelerate the integration of newcomers, (3) salvage and improve human resources, (4) preserve a…