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National service received some much deserved attention throughout this year’s campaign season. Senators Kennedy and Hatch unveiled the Serve America Act; both presidential candidates incorporated service themes into their campaign platforms; and people across the country demonstrated their commitment to volunteerism at the ServiceNation Summit and Day of Action – to name just a few examples. Now that the election has concluded and President-elect Obama is creating his administration, it appears likely that the administration will call for citizens to participate in service. Right now, and even more so if there’s a explicit call to service, Americans are hungry for information about where and how they can volunteer and really make a difference. This week, Good magazine gave them some answers – a “Good Sheet” on national service.

Root Cause/Public Innovators Joins Advisory Board We are excited to announce that Root Cause/Public Innovators has joined the America Forward Advisory Board. Founded and led by CEO Andrew Wolk, Root Cause advances enduring solutions to social and economic problems by supporting social innovators and educating social impact investors. Public Innovators, a nonpartisan Root Cause initiative, focuses on government - supporting a new wave of public leaders at the city, state, and federal levels who identify and continuously support the most effective, efficient, and sustainable solutions to pressing social problems.

Learn more here.

Social entrepreneurship has no age requirements, as illustrated yesterday by Nicholas Kristof in The New York Times. Kristof tells the story of Talia Leman, an eighth grader from Iowa, who started RandomKid, an organization that helps children engage in global philanthropy.

Online technology played a large role in President-elect Obama’s campaign, and now it’s helping to disseminate information about the progress of the new administration. Last week the Office of the President-elect launched Change.gov, an online information hub to keep the public informed with news and updates about activities conducted by the President-elect and Vice President-elect during the next two months.

As President-elect Obama focuses on key staff appointments and setting up his transition team, some publications across the country are weighing in on how various aspects of the campaign platform could translate into policies enacted by the new administration. Of particular importance for the social entrepreneur community are President-elect Obama’s interest in scaling national service and creating a Social Entrepreneurship Agency and a Social Investment Fund Network.

In his first post-election op-ed, David Brooks shares his dream of the successful presidency this country needs. Among other things, Brooks states that

“walking into the Obama White House of my dreams will be like walking into the Gates Foundation. The people there will be ostentatiously pragmatic and data-driven. They’ll hunt good ideas like venture capitalists. They’ll have no faith in all-powerful bureaucrats issuing edicts from the center. Instead, they’ll use that language of decentralized networks, bottom-up reform and scalable innovation.”

It’s a dream shared by all of us at America Forward.

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Like almost everyone in the world, the America Forward Coalition has been anxiously awaiting the results of the 2008 Presidential election. All along, however, we have felt confident that both Senator McCain and Senator Obama would be strong supporters of policies that support social entrepreneurship. With the most exciting Presidential race in our lifetime now concluded, we can begin to plan for the future. And the future for social entrepreneurship looks very bright indeed!

The America Forward Coalition salutes Senator McCain for his great spirit and unwavering commitment to service, which was so evident during this Presidential election season. Senator McCain spoke about service throughout his campaign, calling on Americans to serve a cause greater than their own self-interest and sponsoring policy ideas that encourage more citizens to participate in service. He also demonstrated support for social innovation, citing innovative organizations such as Teach For America and supporting policy ideas that invest in what works and foster competition to drive quality. By championing service and social innovation, Senator McCain has presented our nation with a vision of a government that acts as an investor and catalyst for positive change rather than the entity that delivers or controls services.