The Future is Collective Advancing Collective Social Innovation to Address Societys Biggest Challenges 2025

policy-makers to pursue pragmatic goals. When large constituencies work together, a whole host of activities become easier: using resources efficiently, amassing population-level datasets, sharing evidence-based practices, and passing effective policies become financially feasible and practically possible. Collective social innovation is growing in importance for solving large-scale challenges, and it is important to understand and celebrate these approaches as they evolve to meet current needs. Challenges: How can collective social innovation be supported more effectively? Although collective social innovation holds much promise, there are some key barriers that are withholding potential partners, funders and policy- makers from engaging most effectively. These barriers include: –Narratives about social entrepreneurship and innovation often feature heroic leaders and organizations, rather than the less-public work of building strong relationships and creating consensus. –Collective social innovation architectures can appear complex and difficult to understand because they are built to mobilize vast constituencies. –Legal and financing systems are set up for individual organizations, often requiring significant bureaucratic duplication for collective social innovators. –Historical sector divisions result in the lack of platforms and pathways for businesses to engage with social innovators and enterprises. –Finally, stakeholders are used to seeing impact attributed to single organizations and along programmatic timeframes rather than through collective approaches. Mobilizing for collective social innovation This report will “pull back the curtain” on collective approaches, showcasing the values and impact of these innovators, as well as the collective architectures, collective pathways and collective activities that drive collective social innovation. It will also detail the supportive infrastructure that enables collective work and discuss the ways that stakeholders can better position themselves to engage with collective social innovation. Through these learnings, readers will gain a better understanding of how collective social innovators deliver impact. They will also be inspired to support this work more fully in driving social change in today’s increasingly interconnected global community. Methodology BOX 1 This report builds on the extensive insights gathered from approximately 40 participants at the Schwab Foundation Collective Action Convening, held from 2-4 October 2024 in Geneva, Switzerland. The research was supplemented with 17 in-depth interviews conducted in the preparation of 10 detailed case studies that profile collective social innovation, as well as targeted desktop research. The case study interviews delved deeply into the history, principles, practices, methods and activities of collective social innovation, including (but not limited to): –What were your motivations to pursue collective social innovation? –What are you able to achieve collectively that you would not be able to achieve through a single organizational approach? –How is your collective approach constructed in order to promote representation and participation? –What values, principles and practices drive your collective work? –What activities are critical to your work as a collective social innovator? –What impacts has your collective approach achieved so far? –How might funders and policy-makers support your work more effectively? Interviews included collective social innovation leaders from Africa, Asia, Europe, North America and South America. Case studies and this report have been reviewed by the Collective Social Innovation core team for accuracy. When large constituencies work together, a whole host of activities become easier: using resources efficiently, amassing population-level datasets, sharing evidence-based practices, and passing effective policies. Image credit: Community Health Impact Coalition, Global 8 The Future is Collective: Advancing Collective Social Innovation to Address Society’s Biggest Challenges