Programs
The Social Impact Lab is a pioneer in developing multiple models of experiential philanthropy that have empowered students around the world to award over $800,000 to local nonprofit organizations.
Experiential philanthropy education (EPE) is a teaching methodology that engages students in authentic grantmaking to immerse them in the ethical and practical challenges of funding nonprofit organizations and demonstrate the potential of strategic philanthropy to achieve meaningful social impact. The experiential nature of EPE courses heightens students’ sense of self-efficacy and social responsibility because their decisions are independent and have meaningful consequences for local communities.
The Social Impact Lab has developed multiple models of EPE to expose as many students as possible to this transformative learning model.
Our EPE Programs
Northeastern Student4Giving (NS4G), our flagship program, was established in 2008. Authentic grant making is embedded in an undergraduate course on the nonprofit sector, philanthropy, and social change. Every semester, students are challenged to reckon with the practical and ethical dimensions of their responsibility for awarding a five thousand dollar grant to a local nonprofit organization. Students spend the semester learning as much as they can about a pool of candidate organizations and creating systems maps to visualize their emerging understanding of the complexity of the issues they are addressing in their communities.
See our past grantees here.
The Global Philanthropy Initiative (GPI) was created as a partnership between the Social Impact Lab and the Khaled and Olfat Juffali Family to support partner universities around the world in developing Experiential Education Courses that support the social, cultural, economic, and legal contexts of different communities.
Swinburne University in Melbourne, Australia, was the first to adopt the Northeastern model. Through GPI, we will work with universities in other countries, beginning in Saudi Arabia.
See more information here.
Modeled after Northeastern Students4Giving, our Social Impact-athons challenge students to learn about urgent social challenges, vulnerable communities, and the nonprofit organizations serving them. Social Impact-athons equip students with systems thinking fundamentals, a social justice lens, and SIL’s RISE Framework for assessing nonprofit organizations’ relevance, impact, sustainability, and excellence in management and operations. Participants collaboratively award real-dollar grants to one or more of the participating organizations. The difficult decision-making process requires participants to confront the practical and ethical implications of controlling scarce resources in the face of immense need.
Social Impact-athon events include engaging with issues and contexts such as COVID response, Mumbai, India, and Environmental Justice.
See more information here.
Northeastern University and the Learning by Giving Foundation partnered to create Giving With Purpose, the world’s first massive open online course (MOOC) on effective charitable giving.
Offered in 2013 and 2014, Giving With Purpose engaged 18,000 people in over 100 countries in awarding over a quarter million dollars to nonprofits across the U.S. Students nominated and collaboratively assessed nonprofit organizations using principles taught in the course.
See more information here.
