Meet the finalists of the Schwab Foundation Social Innovation Awards 2025

Since 1998, the Schwab Foundation for Social Entrepreneurship has been at the forefront of bringing together the world's leading social innovators across the most diverse sectors and geographical boundaries. Its publications outline how social innovation contributes to and impacts fields from AI to healthcare, education to the green transition and waste reduction to empowering underserved populations.

At the core of its agenda is its intent to recognize every year the most inspiring social innovators worldwide. Its Social Innovation Awards serve as a powerful platform to spotlight pioneering social innovators driving systemic change that leads to improving the livelihoods of millions of people across the word, as well as to highlight that these innovative solutions are a reality and have proven to be effective, sustainable and economically viable in creating progress where market or development approaches have failed.

The awards seek to honour social innovators, across the diversity of models we find in society through four different award categories:

1. Social entrepreneurs - who employ innovative, market-based approaches to directly address social issues.

2. Public social innovators - these are leaders in the public sector in government or in international organizations who harness the power of social innovation to create public good through policy, regulation or public initiatives.

3. Corporate social innovators - these are leaders within multinational or regional companies who drive the development of new products, services, initiatives or business models that address societal and environmental challenges.

4. Collective social innovators - these are people who bring together organizations to solve complex problems that cannot be tackled by individual actors.

After a rigorous assessment process, the Scwhab Foundation is delighted to present the finalists of the 2025 Social Innovation Awards. Drawn from 18 countries, these social changemakers are tackling some of the most pressing global challenges.

In the United States, one in four women and one in two black women have a loved one who is incarcerated. Recognizing the isolation and stigma these women face, Essie Justice Group is organizing women into a powerful collective to change the narrative surrounding incarceration. The organization's innovative approach centres on breaking isolation, which it sees as a key lever for social change.

Through its Healing to Advocacy Programme, women impacted by incarceration come together in supportive groups, sharing their experiences and building solidarity. These groups serve as a foundation for advocacy and they lead efforts in criminal justice reform, mutual aid projects and local advocacy. By focusing on women, Essie fills a gap in the criminal justice reform movement, using an ancestral strategy rooted in sisterhood to disrupt systems of harm and create lasting change for women and their communities.

Battery Dance is harnessing the power of dance as a vehicle for social impact, conflict resolution, empowerment and social cohesion. Through dance, the organization addresses the social divides and inequality faced by underprivileged youth worldwide due to poverty, minority status, disability or gender and sexual identity stigmatization. These individuals are often cut off from quality education, particularly in the arts, leaving them invisible, lacking self-respect and unable to advocate for themselves.

Through its Dancing to Connect programme, young people with no prior dance experience are trained by professional dancers to use movement to share their stories and build self-confidence, often bridging political and ethnic divides. As a pioneer in the concept of dance for social change, Battery Dance has systemically influenced international agencies, governments, corporates, foundations and individuals to adopt its methodologies when traditional methods have failed.

Despite significant progress in primary school enrolment in Senegal, retaining students remains a challenge. Many students are discouraged from continuing education beyond the primary level due to untrained and inadequate teachers, challenging school environments and limited educational resources. Additionally, the academic calendar is disrupted by frequent strikes from teachers who are dissatisfied with their working conditions. As a result, students frequently fall behind academically and find it difficult to catch up within the necessary timeframe.

Ecoles au Sénégal is revolutionizing education in Senegal by using digital technology to bridge gaps in access to quality learning. It addresses these issues by providing free, high-quality educational content online, accessible to all students regardless of their social or economic background. With over 433,000 students and 70 teachers involved, the platform offers virtual courses available 24/7 on YouTube. It allows students to learn at their own pace and catch up on missed lessons. By selecting top teachers to produce video lessons, Ecoles au Sénégal ensures that students across the country receive the best instruction, helping to democratize access to quality and continuous education for all.

The Arab world faces significant educational challenges, with 60% of children unable to read or comprehend by age ten, according to the World Bank. This was further exacerbated by conflicts and the COVID-19 pandemic. Public schools are overcrowded and underfunded, while many displaced children lack consistent education.

To address this crisis, Little Thinking Minds develops digital platforms aimed at improving literacy. Its flagship platform, I Read Arabic, is gamified and reward-based, offering personalized learning experiences. With over 800 schools using it, including refugee-serving institutions, the platform features an extensive reading library, pronunciation tools and video content on various subjects. Teachers benefit from lesson plans, search tools and assessment features. The platform has proven effective, boosting literacy outcomes by 25% and it's recognized by organizations such as the World Bank and MIT. Partnering with NGOs and foundations, Little Thinking Minds targets over 100 million children across 11 countries in the Middle East.

Each finalist serves as an inspiring testament to the transformative power of social innovation and the pursuit of global positive change.

Aline Sara, NaTakallam, Lebanon

Amal Alsaif, Tawasal Association, Saudi Arabia

Cherif Ndiaye, Ecoles au Sénégal, Senegal

Christina Gyisun, Sommalife, Ghana

Fariel Salahuddin, Uptrade, Pakistan

Gina Clayton-Johnson, Essie Justice Group, USA

Janet Maro, Sustainable Agriculture Tanzania (SAT), Tanzania

Jonathan Hollander, Battery Dance, USA

Manuel Rosemberg, ANA Healthcare Platform, Mexico

Mariel Ramírez Alfaro, iluméxico, Mexico

Minhaj Chowdhury, Drinkwell, Bangladesh

Muzalema Mwanza, Safe Motherhood Alliance, Zambia

Omar Itani, FabricAID, Lebanon

Rama Kayyali, Little Thinking Minds, Jordan

Raul Gauto, Forestal Sylvis, Paraguay

Smita Satish, Rang De, India

Vineet Singal and Cecilia Corral, CareMessage, USA

Alice Damasceno, Lenovo Brasil, Brazil

Caitlyn (Juhong) Chen, Tencent, China

Eric Cioe Peña, Northwell Health, USA

Fred Hersch, Google Health, Singapore

Africa Sustainable Commodities Initiative, Ghana

Community Health Impact Coalition, Global

European Association of Service Providers for Persons with Disabilities, Belgium

Responsible Coalition for Resilient Communities, India

Join the Schwab Foundation in celebrating the work of these finalists and their teams. The winners of the 2025 Social Innovation Awards will be announced at the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting in January 2025, marking the beginning of a three-year journey aimed at nurturing social innovators and their organizations to further scale their impact.

Follow the Schwab Foundation on LinkedIn for more updates and insights from the foremost community of pioneering social innovators driving systemic change.