2025 Greater Philadelphia Awards

 

VISION

We strive to live in an equitable society recognizing that we do not all start from the same place and must acknowledge and make adjustments to imbalances.  To achieve a more just and equitable society, ecosystems need formalized processes systems and systems to identify authentic changemakers.

We inspire leaders to dream by tapping into their own creativity, to test and grow their ideas, and to become better versions of themselves.

PURPOSE

We host the Greater Philadelphia Social Innovations Awards as a formalized process to find, recognize, and drive financial capital to authentic changemakers so that they can grow their ideas into innovative practices.

We celebrate and honor our region’s most passionate social innovators, entrepreneurs and changemakers whose work and social impact too often goes unacknowledged, yet their efforts are what makes our communities thrive by revolutionizing realities.

PUBLIC NOMINATION AND VOTING PROCESS

The 2025 Greater Philadelphia Awards accepts nominations from THE PUBLIC in 10 categories. The public nominations will be grouped by county (Bucks, Chester, Delaware, Montgomery, and Philadelphia) and members of the county selection and nomination committee will select 1-2 finalists per category. The six finalists, representing their respective county, will then be included on a slate for PUBLIC VOTING. All nominations, whether or not they move to the finalist stage, will be recognized for their work and impact on their local ecosystems.

THE FINANCIAL CAPITAL AND CAPACITY SUPPORT PROCESS

The Collaborative Impact Fund invites the region’s foundations and philanthropists to contribute and then direct their funds to finalists to support the seeding, exploration or implementation of an idea, innovation, or collaborative.

A reception and virtual convenings are hosted for the finanlists to foster relationships between social innovators and social sector investors.

Finalists are connected to opportunities, through our partnership with Penn Pac who provides probono alumni consulting.

 

THE STRATEGY TO CREATE MORE EQUITABLE SOCIETY ECOSYSTEMS

The traditional strategy for ecosystems is to recognize and support innovative and entrepreneurial organizations and ecosystem changemakers by teaming up with a diverse range of passionate people and partners within an ecosystem.  These teams combat issues across multiple cause areas with the most effective model possible with the purpose to redefine how these sectors intersect, and help transform and collaborate with the communities they serve with new models never before thought possible. 

The Social Innovations Strategy and process is different.  Specifically, the social innovation strategy and focus is to create and realize a more just and equitable society, and engage the public in the nomination and voting process. This process creates the conditions for an ecosystem to identify and invest in legitimate changemakers. The Social Innovations Strategy also teams up with a diverse range of passionate people and partners, but also engages the public as a way to identify the legitimate contributors and increase their impact by fostering the development of relationships among investors and actors. 

For definition purposes, an ecosystem is a social sector ecosystem is a community (i.e. city, region, state) that include the following fundamental supports, working in tangent with each other, as outlined by Daniel Isenberg, Babson College:  

  1. Financial Capital (grants, crowdfunding, venture capital, debt, etc generated from Community Foundations and other organisations)

  2. Culture/community of support (success stories and societal norms) 

  3. Market demand (beneficiaries, partners, networks, etc)

  4. Human Capital/Talent 

  5. A strong policy and regulatory environment

  6. Supports (legal, accounting, bankers, training and education) 

For definition purposes principles translate values into actionable choices, strategies and practices.  Principles are a set of recommended guidelines that must be adopted and followed in order to ensure the quality and reliability.  Guidelines are recommendations that can be adopted and practiced.  Standards are established norms or requirements. 

For definition purposes an equitable society is one in which all community residents can participate and as a result prosper.  The goals of an equitable society must be to create the environment and platform that allow the participation of all community residents thereby ensuring a pathway for all to reach their full potential.  An equitable society creates a path from hope to change. 

Finally, for definition purposes the public is defined as anyone who lives in the geographic location of the defined ecosystem.

SOCIAL INNOVATION ECOYSTEM PRINCIPLES

To be successful, the social innovation strategy needs recognized principles.  The below six (6) Social Innovation Ecosystem Principles outline six suggested and important, in our view, elements of a social sector ecosystem working toward a more just and equitable society.  Each principle is outlined within multiple phases recognizing that an ecosystem will be in different stages at different times in the development and there is always space for growth and improvement.

  1. Equitable Representation of Government, Private Sector, Foundations, Intermediaries, Academia, Not-for- Profit, Service Recipients, and Community Leadership.

  2. Clearly defined categories that reflect the primary ecosystem social challenges that are documented by verified data and trends.

  3. Engagement of the public in the identification and nomination process of an ecosystem’s most passionate social innovators, entrepreneurs and changemakers.

  4. Engagement of the public in the public voting process where votes are cast on the merit of the innovation and impact. 

  5. Engagement of ecosystem investors to listen to community voices and designed solutions to invest in the new and emerging ecosystem’s most passionate social innovators, entrepreneurs and changemakers.

  6. Foster new relationships among funders and an ecosystem’s most passionate social innovators, entrepreneurs and changemakers.

AWARDS TIMELINE

Nominations Open - October

Nominations Close - November 3rd, 2024

Voting Opens - December 5th, 2024

Voting Closes - December 22nd, 2024

In-Person Reception - January 23rd, 2025

Virtual Awards Ceremony - January 30th, 2025

2025 Sponsors - Thank You!

ACHIEVING A MORE JUST SOCIETY

Innovating ideas, Revolutionizing realities