Coffee price fluctuations over past decades have created extreme financial crises and long-term poverty for thousands of small-scale Latin American farmers. In this Stanford Center for Social Innovation sponsored talk, David Funkhouser of TransFair USA, details how the Fair Trade movement arose as a market-based approach to poverty alleviation and international development. He discusses Fair Trade's function to offer suppliers fair, above-market prices, and TransFair's role in supporting that movement.

San Francisco's young and charismatic mayor, Gavin Newsom, has suffered his share of punches for taking bold positions on controversial issues. In this Stanford Center for Social Innovation sponsored talk, Newsom tells of the courage and persistence it takes to make real social change as a leader. He outlines progressive reforms in areas such as education, health care, and business, and reflects on the personal and professional price paid for supporting one particularly contentious issue: gay marriage.

At what stage in life do social innovators make their most significant contributions? Economist and creativity researcher David Galenson debunks the myth that high achievement is the domain of youth and genius for an audience of social entrepreneurs over the age of 60. Applying lessons learned from lives of artists and leaders, he considers differences in style and time horizons of creative people, emphasizing that social innovation is more about slow burn than flash in the pan.

The question of what to eat to be healthy has spawned a rash of often contradictory advice by "experts." In this talk, sponsored by the Stanford Ethics and Society Program, NYU professor and author Marion Nestle offers simple advice that cuts through the confusion. She highlights the difference between "nutrients" and "food," and suggests how to bring "nutrition" back into the food realm. Her discussion forays into how agriculture and business interact to produce the foodstuffs on our shelves.

In the frenzy over accountability, funders, donors, and the general public are calling for more program evaluation. Yet few understand how expensive and complex good evaluation is. Speaking at the 2006 Nonprofit Management Institute at Stanford, Dr. Alana Conner, senior editor of the Stanford Social Innovation Review illustrates how half-hearted evaluation can do more harm than good. Rick Aubry and Victor Kuo join her to give nonprofit and foundation perspectives.

AIDS, malaria, and maternal mortality are some of the chronic public health issues that plague Africa. Invited to Stanford, Paul Farmer talks about how his Boston-based organization, Partners In Health, is spending donor dollars to bring the lessons garnered from its work in Haiti to scale up health care services in war-torn Rwanda. His organization seeks to fill the gap that exists between medical R&D and health care delivery so preventions and cures can be brought to more of the people who need them.

Ten years ago, "entrepreneur" didn't exist in the lexicon of many parts of the world. Now, thanks to the work of a nonprofit called Endeavor, entrepreneurs are emerging in countries where such activity was once impossible. Invited to speak at the Center for Social Innovation at Stanford, Linda Rottenberg shares how her organization has gone from a "crazy" idea of two business school graduates to an important engine for empowering entrepreneurs in Latin America and beyond.

With valuable advice for all types of entrepreneurs, this Stanford Entrepreneurship Week panel offers a unique perspective for funding a social entrepreneur start-up. Kriss Deiglmeier leads an engaging discussion between funders and social entrepreneurs that provides actionable advice and insightful lessons.

Now that global warming is recognized as a real and serious problem, discussion is turning to practical challenges of reducing emissions in the long term. Host of the Center for Social Innovation, Rick Duke discusses a new report by McKinsey & Company that considers how to address the problem affordably. Duke outlines some of the emerging technologies and public policy changes that will be needed to support such a process.

If you're living on this planet you probably sense that the world is in a time of tremendous change. Ashoka founder William Drayton calls it "Revolution" in his keynote address on the occasion of receiving the Purpose Prize Entrepreneurial Leadership Award. In this talk, Drayton offers inspiring words about the nature of the times we are in, and how becoming a changemaker is critical for seizing opportunities that are emerging in these unprecedented times.