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Here’s five interesting #SocInn links we’re clicking on today:

1. New Profit Blog: The 20th Anniversary of AmeriCorps In the spirit of the 20th Anniversary of AmeriCorps, Shirley Sagawa and Deborah Smolover of America Forward demonstrate how AmeriCorps has played a significant role not only in providing the human capital needed to help families lift themselves out of poverty, but also in fostering social innovation. They argue that the full potential of AmeriCorps remains unrealized, due to underfunding at the federal level, and advocate for a set of goals that America Forward is working towards, with the hope that Congress and the President will get behind them too.
2. SSIR: Investing in Leadership to Accelerate Philanthropic Impact An introduction to why some foundations are making leadership development a core part of their grantmaking strategy. “Over the next three months of the Talent Matters blog series, you will hear perspectives from six foundation leaders who… will share why they support leadership development and show how these investments advance their foundations’ broader programmatic priorities…While each foundation’s approach to investing in leadership is distinctive, they share attributes that our experience suggests are important. Chief among these are that leadership is best cultivated over time and that support is tailored to specific priorities and needs…it is about helping build leadership at the multiple levels needed to support broader goals.”
3. The Marketplace: The teaching profession gets a makeover Three aspiring teachers have spent the last four weeks in these close quarters, traveling cross-country. Along the way they talked to educators, policymakers and entrepreneurs to learn about the many forms a career in education can take… The road trip is part of a national campaign to elevate the status of teaching. A study a few years ago by consulting firm McKinsey & Company found that most top college students simply aren’t interested in teaching, because of the lack of prestige and low pay. High school teachers make, on average, about $55,000 a year…But even those who choose teaching often don’t stay. Nearly half of new teachers leave the profession within five years, says Liam Goldrick, policy director of the nonprofit New Teacher Center. He says many don’t feel respected or supported at work. Tenure is under attack and performance standards keep changing.” New Profit is a proud funder of New Teacher Center.
4. Huffington Post: Taking the AmeriCorps Pledge to Grow It Michael Brown, CEO and Co-Founder of City Year, advocates for why it’s time to get AmeriCorps growing again. City Year is an America Forward Coalition Member.
5. AAAS: Putting women and girls at the center of development Melinda Gates advocates that “the development field needs to be more serious about gender inequities and women’s empowerment. By ignoring gender inequities, many development projects fail to achieve their objective. And when development organizations do not focus on women’s empowerment, they neglect the fact that empowered women have the potential to transform their societies.”