We believe in the transformative power of people working together. Through exchange of knowledge, expertise, innovation and inspiration, we connect, empower and drive social change.

Work with us

Everyone benefits when knowledge and practice are shared, so our two interconnected strands of activity work together to expand the collective intelligence of the global social innovation community and help organisations prepare for the challenges ahead.

Field building

A programme of activities mobilising our expansive network of social innovation practitioners to connect, share, support and create shared visions for a better future.

Innovation Services

Expertise and knowledge of global innovative thinking and practice leveraged to build capacity, knowledge and skills within organisations to tackle complex challenges effectively, at speed.

Upcoming online event

Social Innovation in South Africa: A Dialogue on People Powered Change

Join us online on 18th June for a dialogue exploring people power change in South Africa, featuring esteemed speakers Vice-Chancellor Francis Petersen from the University of the Free State and Dr. Francois Bonnici from the Schwab Foundation for Social Entrepreneurship

Register here.

Featured online event

Partnering with Purpose: Centring Communities in Business for Good

We had the privilege of hosting speakers from TELUS, Togetherall, and eBay, each offering unique perspectives on the practice of ‘partnering with purpose’ and placing communities at the centre of their business strategies. Watch now

 

Featured Project

Motivating Business for Good

Post-pandemic, the new business landscape is complex and uncertain. In 2020, in partnership with MaD, Innofoco and other partners in Hong Kong, we released a study mapping what might motivate businesses to create shared value in Hong Kong. Read the report and learn more about our other work in this area.

Featured Project

Seoul as a people powered city – A decade of social innovation impact

Since 2011, Seoul has exemplified a new breed of city that is hungry to learn from and share with others. For more than a decade, SIX has worked with organisations across Seoul to accelerate this global learning, and helping to embed social innovation in civil society and public institutions across the city.

Why and how of social innovation?

In the face of some of the world’s biggest challenges, fresh approaches and new ways of doing things are needed more than ever. As a result, the concept of social innovation has gained momentum. But it isn’t a new concept – people have always sought new and better ways of tackling social challenges.

Using innovation to address our biggest challenges is not a job for social sector organisations alone. Sometimes civil society provides the impetus for local, bottom-up, grassroots solutions. Governments can also take the lead, by including citizens in policy making, or working across departments to redesign processes and remove red tape. In other cases, finance and private enterprise lead the change.

At SIX, social innovation means taking a pluralist approach to solving society’s most complex challenges, using the best every sector has to offer. It often happens in between places and sectors. It involves people working together, bringing diverse experiences and perspectives.

What matters most, whether the innovation is coming from the public, private or third sector, or from a formal or informal institution, is that social innovation delivers new power relationships, disrupts the status quo, and delivers solutions that make a genuine and positive difference to people’s lives. We must empower people and equip them with the capabilities to play more active roles in their own lives, and in the decisions that affect them.

Our global reach

We worked worked with dozens of partners from  governments, companies, foundations and NGOs, across 6 continents over the last 15 years. We’ve hosted hundreds of events, fed into policy agendas and developed programmes to advance new agendas. Learn about some of our work on the map below.

More of our recent work

SIX in 2022 – intersectionality, pluralism and going beyond a Western centric world view

The world is beginning to open up for many of us and whilst there are increasing opportunities to get together, we are still working in an isolated and siloed way – we are running faster, but in our own lanes. Here are some key questions we are working on at SIX where we’d like to build collaboration.

A decade of social innovation impact – Seoul as a people powered city

Since 2011, Seoul has exemplified a new breed of city that is hungry to learn from and share with others. For more than a decade, SIX has worked with organisations across Seoul to accelerate this global learning, and helping to embed social innovation in civil society and public institutions across the city.

New report: How philanthropy can support Business for Good

Philanthropy can play a key role, as a catalyst for systemic change and as a trusted bridge and convenor between sectors. Our new report offers three areas where philanthropy could advance the business for good movement in the South East Asia.

Philanthropy can advance business for good around climate ambitions and beyond

Businesses have an important role to play in transitioning our planet to a sustainable and green future, but the idea that businesses should care about the climate, even from a materiality perspective, let alone a moral or existential one, is still relatively new.

Get in touch to work with us