While there is plenty of important social innovation happening at a micro-level - i.e your local coffeeshop that hires at-risk youth, or a non-profit organization that has a store selling merchandise, there are some cases of social innovation that has scaled rapidly:
Microfinance: Grameen Bank, founded by Muhammad Yunus, scaled the idea of providing micro loans to impoverished individuals. This is perhaps the first demonstration of social innovation model scaling globally.
Fair Trade: Fair trade organizations, such as Fair Trade USA and Fairtrade International, have scaled the concept of ensuring fair wages and ethical working conditions for farmers and producers in developing countries.
Barefoot College: Barefoot College, based in India, trains women from rural communities to become solar engineers, bringing clean energy solutions to underserved areas. They have replicated their model to other countries.
+many, many more.
Thought: With the generative AI cambrian explosion, I wonder how many social innovations have successfully leveraged deep tech in their approach to scaling. It is widely held that the social is slow to adopt emerging tech. But why? Is it because of resource constraints? Risk aversion due to vulnerable populations they serve? Are there any AI-first social enterprises today?