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.
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.
Featured work
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.
New podcast: Social Innovation Eurovision
In conversation with key social innovation leaders, Louise Pulford and So Jung Rim explore the interaction of social innovators and the environments they function in.
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. Today, Seoul has become a leading global example of a city truly designed around its citizens, inspiring other cities around the world. Learn more about SIX’s work in Seoul and explore our collection of essays and case studies, written by leading social innovation thinkers from across the globe, featuring some of Seoul’s unique experiments alongside cases from other international cities.
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.
North America
South America
Australia
Europe
Africa
Turkey & MENA
Asia
Get in touch to work with us