{"id":23092,"date":"2025-03-25T09:01:28","date_gmt":"2025-03-25T09:01:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/theblogonline.com\/?p=23092"},"modified":"2025-03-25T09:01:28","modified_gmt":"2025-03-25T09:01:28","slug":"skoll-foundation-announces-winners-of-the-2025-skoll-award-for-social-innovation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/theblogonline.com\/?p=23092","title":{"rendered":"Skoll Foundation Announces Winners of the 2025 Skoll Award for Social Innovation"},"content":{"rendered":"

PALO ALTO, Calif.\u2014(<\/span><\/span>BUSINESS WIRE<\/span><\/span><\/a>\/<\/span><\/span>AETOSWire<\/span><\/span><\/a>)\u2014<\/span><\/span>The <\/span><\/span>Skoll<\/span><\/span> Foundation is pleased to announce the five organizations that will receive the 2025 <\/span><\/span>Skoll<\/span><\/span> Award for Social Innovation. The prestigious $2 million award shines a light on the extraordinary leaders and organizations advancing transformational social change to create a more sustainable, peaceful, and prosperous world for all.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

The 2025 class of social innovators includes social entrepreneurs, movement builders, system orchestrators, and global coalitions driving collective action across issues ranging from community health, climate, sustainable housing, and democratic rule of law to financial prosperity.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

They will receive their award and be spotlighted at the\u00a0<\/span><\/span>2025 <\/span><\/span>Skoll<\/span><\/span> Awards for Social Innovation Ceremony<\/span><\/span>, taking place on Thursday, April 3, 4:30-6:00pm BST at the New Theatre in Oxford, UK, and virtually during the 22nd <\/span><\/span>Skoll<\/span><\/span> World Forum.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe are living in a time of profound upheaval. When crisis strikes, social innovators run toward the problem to step in with solutions that address root causes,\u201d said Don <\/span><\/span>Gips<\/span><\/span>, CEO of the <\/span><\/span>Skoll<\/span><\/span> Foundation. \u201cThese leaders show us that the world may be fractured, but repair and lasting progress are possible when we work together across issues, sectors, geographies, and ideologies.\u201d<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

The systems-level work of these five organizations requires sustained funding and partnerships, which the Award and the Forum aim to catalyze. Each Awardee organization receives $2 million in unrestricted funding to scale their work and increase their impact.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cAs global challenges multiply, the 2025 <\/span><\/span>Skoll<\/span><\/span> Awardees continue to meet the moment with determination, innovation, and optimism for our collective future,\u201d said Marla Blow, president and COO of the <\/span><\/span>Skoll<\/span><\/span> Foundation. \u201cWhether it\u2019s resourcing community health workers worldwide to enable lifesaving care, safeguarding the democratic rule of law, generating wealth through employee ownership, making sustainable and healthy homes accessible to all, or structuring school systems to keep students healthy\u2014these social innovators are transforming our world.\u201d<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

The 2025 recipients of the <\/span><\/span>Skoll<\/span><\/span> Award for Social Innovation are:<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Apis<\/span><\/span> & Heritage Capital Partners (A&H)<\/span><\/span>\u00a0is restoring the American Dream by helping low- and middle-income employees become owners of their businesses when sellers are ready to retire, ensuring continuity for businesses and prosperity for workers and communities. A&H converts profitable businesses with diverse, hardworking teams into 100 percent employee-owned <\/span><\/span>enterprises by providing loans for upfront financing and consulting support to help new employee owners succeed. This model rewards the employees who have contributed to these companies\u2019 success, giving them a stake in the company\u2019s future growth and creating more resilient enterprises. To date, A&H has transitioned businesses with a combined value of $65 million to employee ownership, benefiting hundreds of workers and their families. With a large population of U.S. business owners planning to sell or retire in the next decade, A&H\u2019s innovative model offers a ripe opportunity to close the wealth gap and build prosperity for Americans.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Community Health Impact Coalition (CHIC)<\/span><\/span>\u00a0is a global movement of community health workers (CHWs) and health organizations making professional the norm in community health\u2014ensuring CHWs are salaried, skilled, supervised, and supplied to deliver quality care. Indisputable evidence demonstrates that CHWs dramatically improve health outcomes and save lives worldwide. Yet millions of CHWs\u201470 percent of whom are women\u2014remain outside the formal health system. Despite decades of global health investment, one billion people who need care will never see a health worker. CHIC\u2019s work was fundamental to enacting landmark 2018 WHO guidelines that shaped CHW-supportive policies in 194 countries. As a result, 47 countries now recognize and accredit CHWs within their national health policy.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

EarthEnable<\/span><\/span>\u00a0improves the health and living conditions of rural African families and reduces the housing industry\u2019s carbon footprint by working with community-based entrepreneurs and local masons to develop and install more affordable, sustainable housing materials. Worldwide, 1.6 billion people live in homes with dirt floors, which can house parasites and spread disease. Concrete is commonly used for flooring, but expensive for many, difficult to transport, and carbon-intensive to produce. <\/span><\/span>EarthEnable<\/span><\/span> is catalyzing a green housing industry in Africa, helping position the continent to advance a sustainable building sector. There is a growing urgent need for affordable housing in Africa: 70 percent of the buildings that will exist on the continent by 2040 are yet to be built, including millions of homes. More than 200,000 people across Rwanda, Kenya, and Uganda have benefited from <\/span><\/span>EarthEnable\u2019s<\/span><\/span> innovative approach to affordable and sustainable flooring, which has created or improved more than 1,000 jobs in eastern Africa. By 2027, <\/span><\/span>EarthEnable<\/span><\/span> aims to help fulfill housing needs for 700,000 people.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Healthy Learners<\/span><\/span>\u00a0trains teachers in Zambia as school health workers and links schools with the public healthcare system, increasing health service access for children over five years of age. Free pediatric care in Zambia is primarily aimed at children under five, leaving a gap for millions of children between the ages of five and 17. Healthy Learners has partnered with the government and trained school health workers to monitor student health, perform basic first aid, provide preventative care, and refer severe cases to a clinic. This reduces absenteeism and enables students to learn and thrive. Healthy Learners works with 600 schools and serves more than 980,000 children across eight of Zambia\u2019s 10 provinces. With Africa projected to be home to an estimated 42 percent of global youth by 2030<\/span><\/span>,<\/span><\/span>\u00a0now is a critical time to ensure children have access to health and education. By 2028, Healthy Learners aims to reach 2.5 million children, or 70 percent of the primary school population.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Pacto<\/span><\/span> pela <\/span><\/span>Democracia<\/span><\/span> (Pact for Democracy)\u00a0<\/span><\/span>is coordinating the non-partisan pro-democracy movement in Brazil, facilitating a broad coalition to counter anti-democratic forces and build trust in democratic institutions. <\/span><\/span>Pacto<\/span><\/span> pela <\/span><\/span>Democracia<\/span><\/span> has galvanized a cross-ideological coalition of <\/span><\/span>more than 200 civil society partners united to preserve stability and democratic rule of law in Brazil. The coalition cultivates relationships with business leaders, academics, and journalists to build a cohesive, coordinated, and aligned pro-democracy ecosystem. Their work today has proved vital as rising autocratic threats, disinformation campaigns, and election-related violence are testing the resilience of democratic institutions. These efforts enabled the coalition to successfully protect the process and results of the 2022 Brazilian election, coordinating and deploying more than 80 collaborative actions to monitor and respond to election-related threats.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

The<\/span><\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/span>Skoll<\/span><\/span> Foundation<\/span><\/span><\/a>\u00a0catalyzes transformational social change by investing in, connecting, and championing social entrepreneurs and innovators who together advance bold and equitable solutions to the world\u2019s most pressing problems.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Click here to register<\/span><\/span><\/a>\u00a0to attend the <\/span><\/span>Skoll<\/span><\/span> World Forum online, and email\u00a0<\/span><\/span>press@skoll.org<\/span><\/span><\/a>\u00a0if you are interested in receiving a press pass to attend the Forum in person, April 1-4 in Oxford, UK.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

View source version on businesswire.com:\u00a0<\/span><\/span>https:\/\/www.businesswire.com\/news\/home\/20250324416962\/en\/<\/span><\/span><\/a><\/p>\n

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Source:<\/span><\/span> AETOSWire<\/span><\/span><\/a><\/p>\n

Contacts<\/p>\n

Sian Wu,\u00a0<\/span><\/span>sian@resource-media.org<\/span><\/span><\/a>
\n<\/span><\/span>Suzana<\/span><\/span> Grego<\/span><\/span>,\u00a0<\/span><\/span>sgrego@skoll.org<\/span><\/span><\/a>
\n<\/span><\/span>All<\/span><\/span> press inquiries:\u00a0<\/span><\/span>press@skoll.org<\/span><\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

PALO ALTO, Calif.\u2014(BUSINESS WIRE\/AETOSWire)\u2014The Skoll Foundation is pleased to announce the five organizations that will receive the 2025 Skoll Award for Social Innovation.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":23093,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[10466,10464,10465],"class_list":["post-23092","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-metro","tag-2025-skoll-award-for-social-innovation","tag-skoll-foundation","tag-winners"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/theblogonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23092"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/theblogonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/theblogonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theblogonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theblogonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=23092"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/theblogonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23092\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":23094,"href":"https:\/\/theblogonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23092\/revisions\/23094"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theblogonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/23093"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/theblogonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=23092"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theblogonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=23092"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theblogonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=23092"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}