You say you want a revolution? Social, industrial, technology or global – take your pick. With the first day of the 2018 SSIR Frontiers of Innovation conference in the books, you don’t have to. It was a day full of memorable takeaways from disruptors and innovators all coming to the table with their experience and ideas on how to create change for good.
Lead with Love
Movements happen when stakeholders not only fund causes that ignite them, but they rise up to advocate for the causes.
Leadership means stepping up to lead change, learning from the past, and understanding the gaps.
A call for funders to learn from what others have tried in the past & getting very clear on what the gaps are BEFORE acting from @Innovationwoman (YES, please!) #SSIRfrontiers
— ImproveInternational (@improve_intl) May 21, 2018
It asks us to embrace the frustration, choose love, and refuse complacency in order to create change.
When confronted with difficult choices, embrace frustration and choose love – @iamahmen on creating a movement and change #SSIRfrontiers #troublemaker #manifesto
— Shivani Garg Patel (@shivanigp) May 21, 2018
Technology + transparency = trust
In the ever-growing social sector where technology is leading the way, sustainable progress is dependent upon transparency for ethical accountability.
“Technologists need to be infused with ethics, and politicians need to understand technology, so sensible regulations can take place” –@robreich #SSIRfrontiers #DigitalLiteracy
— Worldreader (@worldreaders) May 21, 2018
Finding philanthropists with low risk aversion who will back you in the process of trying and failing is the key to gain more philanthropic capital. Seek out those funders who believe in your mission and trust that even though your tech may not be perfect the first try, that it will provide value in its earliest stages and only continue to improve.
“Philanthropic capital can be a great way to take risks, assuming you find the right philanthropists to work with. Once you’ve proved that, more risk-averse stakeholders will come on board.” –@davidrisherWR #ssirfrontiers
— Zev Lowe (@zevlowe) May 21, 2018
Investing in a better world
When companies like Zipline can deliver blood via drone tech to rural clinics or Worldreaders app can provide racks of books virtually to families in developing countries to improve literacy rates, it is strong case for investing in social entrepreneurship and technology to create a better world.
Blood delivery by drone? Yeah, that’s happening in Rwanda. Whaaaaaat? @SSIReview #SSIRfrontiers @KellerRinaudo tells the story of Zipline Narratives are changing, developing countries are leapfrogging US in new technologies that are saving lives and changing the world
— Caroline 🌈 Barlerin (@CBarlerin) May 21, 2018
Systems change is a global movement, not a moment
Every day, we are confronted the injustices that spark anger, empathy and ultimately, ideas for change. Turning this moment into a movement involves responding, building, pivoting and scaling. That is the key to initiate real systems change.
Arisha Hatch sharing the @ColorOfChange story of taking a moment to a movement. Their approach is to respond + build + pivot + scale = real systems change #SSIRFrontiers pic.twitter.com/67pLb1oLdn
— Kelly Hutchinson 💡+👩🏽💻=⭐️ (@kelhutchinson) May 21, 2018
