How Change Happens Why Some Social Movements Succeed While Others Don't

THE GUIDE TO DRIVE SOCIAL CHANGE IN THE 21ST CENTURY

"This book is a must-read for change-makers who care about impact for people and the planet. On today's big challenges, we need to do more than make noise; we need to create lasting change." —Kathy Calvin, President and CEO, United Nations Foundation

"Leslie Crutchfield is one of the most incisive and impactful thinkers in the social sectors ... with a distinctive flair for bringing forth practical answers to audacious questions. Now, Crutchfield deploys her intellect, insight, and wisdom to address one of the most fascinating questions of our young century." —Jim Collins, author of Good to Great and Good to Great and the Social Sectors, co-author of Built to Last

"Fueled by social media and a 24-hour news cycle, cultural change seems to be happening faster than at any point in history. Crutchfield makes sense of that change and engagingly tracks the simultaneous rise movements like #BlackLivesMatter and Birtherism, decoding the blur of these seemingly conflicting social phenomena." —Marc Morial, President of National Urban League and former Mayor of New Orleans

"[This book] makes it clear that business can no longer sit on the sidelines of social issues. Whether we like it or not (and some of us like it!), we are all part of the equation for change." —Seth Goldman, co-founder Honest Tea, Executive Chair, Beyond Meat

"Competitive advantage these days is increasingly linked to a company's impact on social issues. This means corporate leaders need to understand how social change happens—and this book offers a well-researched guide to help companies create shared value and simultaneously deliver returns for shareholders and society." —Mark Kramer, Co-Founder and Managing Director, FSG Social Impact Consultants

"Millennials and next-gen activists care deeply about social justice. This book arms us with proven tools and fresh ideas to build leaderful grassroots movements, building on the work of the great civil rights leaders from generations who fought before us and paved the way." —Zach Norris, Executive Director, Ella Baker Center on Human Rights

"It's tempting to assume that historic steps forward are inevitable. But the factors that drive progress are complex. Crutchfield provides a timely examination of the stories behind important cultural shifts of our day, offering a helpful playbook for anyone interested in solving problems that result in new and lasting norms." —Anne Marie Burgoyne, Managing Director, Social Innovation, Emerson Collective

"In a world where so many strive for big, lasting social change, too few sit down to understand how change actually happens. This book provides a much needed compass for aspiring world-changers—from individual systems-changing social entrepreneurs, to collaborative, cross-sector collective impact efforts everywhere." —John Kania, Global Managing Director of FSG and co-author of "Collective Impact" in Stanford Social Innovation Review

Discover how those who change the world do so with this thoughtful and timely book

Why do some changes occur, and others don't? What are the factors that drive successful social and environmental movements, while others falter? How Change Happens examines the leadership approaches, campaign strategies, and ground-level tactics employed in a range of modern social change campaigns. The book explores successful movements that have achieved phenomenal impact since the 1980s—tobacco control, gun rights expansion, LGBT marriage equality, and acid rain elimination. It also examines recent campaigns that seem to have fizzled, like Occupy Wall Street, and those that continue to struggle, like gun violence prevention and carbon emissions reduction. And it explores implications for movements that are newly emerging, like Black Lives Matter. By comparing successful social change campaigns to the rest, How Change Happens reveals powerful lessons for changemakers who seek to impact society and the planet for the better in the 21st century.

Author Leslie Crutchfield is a writer, lecturer, social impact advisor, and leading authority on scaling social innovation. She is Executive Director of the Global Social Enterprise Initiative (GSEI) at Georgetown University’s McDonough School of Business, and co-author of two previous books, Forces for Good and Do More than Give. She serves as a senior advisor with FSG, the global social impact consulting firm. She is frequently invited to speak at nonprofit, philanthropic, and corporate events, and has appeared on shows such as ABC News Now and NPR, among others. She is an active media contributor, with pieces appearing in The Washington Post. Fortune.com, CNN/Money and Harvard Business Review.com.

• Examines why some societal shifts occur, and others don't
• Illustrates the factors that drive successful social and environmental movements
• Looks at the approaches, strategies, and tactics that changemakers employ in order to effect widescale change

Whatever cause inspires you, advance it by applying the must-read advice in How Change Happens—whether you lead a social change effort, or if you’re tired of just watching from the outside and want to join the fray, or if you simply want to better understand how change happens, this book is the place to start.