The Schwab Foundation’s 2024 Awards seeks to honour social change leaders, across a diversity of social innovation models in society in four different award categories:

• Social Entrepreneurs
• Corporate Social Intrapreneurs
• Public Social Intrapreneurs
• Collective Social Innovation Award

The Schwab Foundation recently incorporated a new award category, the Collective Social Innovation Award, to recognise evolving systemic approaches to social change. Inspired by the collective approaches developed by social entrepreneurs over the years, collectives are groups or networks of organisations committed to addressing a bigger problem than what an individual organization can take on and best suited to achieving large scale, system-level change.

Please note that the Schwab Foundation does not accept unsolicited applications and instead relies on a referral and nominations process sourced from a global network of social innovation experts and partner institutions.

Who are we looking for?

Leaders, social and environmental change models and initiatives that have a primary emphasis on vulnerable, excluded or marginalized populations and their natural ecosystems.

• That stand out for their creative and unique way of addressing the issues.
• Whose work is already well established and has proven its impact.
• With a systemic lens to tackle the root of the problems instead of an isolated issue.
• That both drives and considers the environmental impact of its activities.
• That embraces diversity and inclusion in its governance, strategies and practices.
• Whose work leverages technology to amplify and accelerate impact.

The selection journey

19 January 2023 – Nomination opens
6 March 2023 – Last day for nominations, followed by initial screening
April – May 2023 – Successful nominees are invited to submit a detailed application of their work
June 2023 – Successful applicants are invited to participate in an interview
July – August 2023 – Final internal assessment
September 2023 – Finalists are presented to the Schwab Foundation’s Board for their decision
October – December 2023 – Successful candidates’ on-boarding
January 2024 – Awards announcement at the World Economic Forum’s Annual Meeting