Nora L. Silver
Adjunct Professor | Founder & Faculty Director, Center for Social Sector Leadership | Haas School of Business, University of California, Berkeley
Berkeley, CA, UNITED STATES
Specialist in leadership and social impact
Areas of Expertise (4)
Multi-Sector Leadership
Networks for Social Impact
Next-Generation Social Sector Leadership
Cross-sector Collaborations
About
Nora Silver is Founder, Faculty Director, and Adjunct Professor of the Center for Social Sector Leadership. She teaches Social Sector Solutions, Impact Investing Practicum, and Large Scale Social Change: Social Movements, for which she is an Aspen Pioneer Faculty Award winner.
Silver is a serial entrepreneur, having founded a number of nonprofit social enterprises. She was founder of a unique collaboration of corporate, community, and family foundations united to strengthen and diversify volunteerism in the U.S. She also founded a groundbreaking enterprise that examined traditional notions of community service and taught a broad range of organizations to better engage volunteers. Early in her career, she served as Executive Director of a domestic violence organization, taught Spanish in an inner city school, and worked as a psychotherapist in private practice.
As an organizational consultant, she has worked with hundreds of organizations worldwide—including nonprofits, businesses, education, governments, foundations, and universities—on strategy and organizational development, cross-sector collaboration, community engagement, and board and executive development. She served as a senior trainer for the Peter F. Drucker Foundation.
Silver holds a Ph.D. in organizational and clinical psychology. She is the author of "Telling the Whole Story: Voices of Ethnic Volunteers in America," and "At the Heart: The New Volunteer Challenge to Community Agencies." She has also authored papers on multi-sector leadership, nonprofit networks, and next-generation social sector leadership.
Multimedia
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Education (3)
Professional School of Psychology: PhD, Psychology
San Francisco State University: MA, Human Relations
George Washington University: BA, Education and Spanish
Links (2)
Honors & Awards (1)
Aspen Institute Faculty Pioneer Award
2016
Selected External Service & Affiliations (2)
- Provide strategy and organizational consulting to nonprofits, foundations, businesses, governments, and universities, including: American Red Cross, Consumers Union, Corporation for National Service (AmeriCorps), Georgetown University, Government of Singapore, National Judicial College, Office of the Governor of Hawaii, United Way of America, UPS Foundation, Walter and Elise Haas Fund, YMCA of the USA and others
- Boards and advisory boards: Greater Good Science Center, G2 Insurance, Learning by Giving Foundation
Positions Held (1)
At Haas since 2003
2014 – present, Faculty Director, Center for Social Sector Leadership, Haas School of Business 2006 – present, Adjunct Professor, Haas School of Business 2003 – 2014, Founder and Executive Director, Center for Social Sector Leadership, Haas School of Business 2007, Visiting Professor, University of Klagenfurt, Vienna Dialogic 1990 – 2003, Founder and Director, The Volunteerism Project, San Francisco, CA 1998 – 2001, Senior Trainer, Peter F. Drucker Foundation 1985 – 1989, Founder and Director, PAVE Alameda County 1982 – 1985, Executive Director, Tri-Valley Haven for Women, Livermore, CA 1975 – 1982, Instructor, Chabot College, Hayward, CA
Media Appearances (5)
California will reward volunteering college students with aid — but spend half the money on overhead
CalMatters online
2022-02-07
A new California volunteer financial aid program for college students is using less than half of its budgeted money on actual student aid. Should this money support an expensive volunteer program or go to students directly? Adjunct Professor Nora Silver, faculty director of the Center for Social Sector Leadership at Berkeley Haas, said the program does both: It gives students money directly and includes a lot of programming to train students and connect what they learned as volunteers to the job market.
Haas pilots impact investing practicum
Poets & Quants online
2018-06-16
The eight-week investing session called on eight full-time MBA students to solve problems for companies like Patagonia’s Tin Shed Ventures and the SF Foundation. The session was co-taught by Adj. Prof. Nora Silver, faculty director of the Center for Social Sector Leadership, and Assoc. Prof. Adair Morse of the Haas Finance Group.
Sal Khan creates online academy to educate anyone in world for free
San Francisco Chronicle online
2018-01-19
Khan exemplifies a trend in tech, with investors and entrepreneurs interested in making a difference rather than just making money, said Nora Silver, founder of the Center for Social Sector Leadership at the UC Berkeley Haas School of Business.
#morekidsonbikes: New youth cycling group works with university to 'map' existing youth programs
Bicycle Retailer online
2017-04-04
The Youth Cycling Alliance, which was formed last year following a meeting at Interbike, is working with UC Berkeley's Haas School of Business to map and assess existing youth cycling programs around the country.
Berkeley-Haas Research on the Rewards, and Costs, of a Cross-Sector Career
Metro MBA online
2016-07-29
Paul Jansen and Nora Silver, both professors and members of Berkeley-Haas’ Center for Social Sector Leadership, studied the career paths of over 2,000 executives.
Selected Papers & Publications (8)
The Multisector Career Arc: the role of cross sector affiliations and sector hopping in career acceleration
Berkeley Haas
Nora Silver and Paul Jansen
2016
Leveraging Social Sector Leadership
Special publication of GEO (Grantmakers for Effective Organizations) and Regents of the University of California
Nora Silver, Laura Callanan, and Paul Jansen
2015
Four Network Principles for Collaboration Success
The Foundation Review
Jane Wei-Skillern, Nora Silver
2013
Cracking the Network Code: Four Principles for Grantmakers
Scaling That Works
Nora Silver, Jane Wei-Skillern
2013
Cultural Competency: Not a Lump Sum of Stereotypes
The Journal of Volunteer Administration
Nora Silver
2002
The Promise and Pitfalls of Technology in Creating an Engaged Citizenry
The Grantmaker Forum on Community & National Service Session Highlights
Nora Silver
2000
At the Heart: The New Volunteer Challenge to Community Agencies
The San Francisco Foundation
Nora Silver
1989
Teaching (3)
Large Scale Social Change: Social Movements
MBA 292N
Social Sector Solutions – Nonprofit Consulting Projects
MBA 292S
Impact Investing Practicum
MBA 292N
Social