School of Social Impact

From Freedom to Impact: Key Insights for Changemakers from a Conversation with Nicky Billou

This episode with Nicky Billou is not a technical discussion about marketing funnels or productivity hacks. Instead, it centres the relationship between freedom and enterprise, the psychological barriers that quietly limit impact, and the ethical reframing of “sales” as a form of service that enables good work to be sustained rather than perpetually under-resourced. Freedom […]

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Do Less, Create More: Leveraging Change in a Busy World

In the social impact space, busyness is often worn like a badge of honour. More workshops. More campaigns. More posts. More meetings. More activity. But what if the real question isn’t “How can we do more?” What if it’s “Where is the leverage?” Leveraging change is about increasing your impact while reducing unnecessary effort. It’s

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From Passion to Traction: Why Changemakers Need Brand, Story, and Strategy

Across the social impact sector, many initiatives begin in the same way: with deep care for an issue, a strong ethical commitment, and a desire to make a tangible difference. Grassroots organisations, community groups, and early-stage nonprofits are often founded by people who are motivated by lived experience or moral urgency rather than formal training

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Social Work and Systems Change: Why Care Is Not “Less Than” in the Impact Ecosystem

When people talk about social change, the spotlight often lands on activism, campaigning, social entrepreneurship, or policy reform. These approaches are visible. They feel structural. They promise transformation at scale. But there’s another approach to impact that doesn’t always get the same recognition: social work. Too often, social work is framed as “just service delivery”

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When an aid system stops: what the USAID disruption reveals about power, partnership, and the real work of development

Public debate about foreign assistance often treats “aid” as a single line item. Practitioners know it is not. It is a dense delivery ecosystem—built from government policy, appropriations, contracts and grants, supply chains, local institutions, and the everyday labour of people on the ground (often described as “implementers”). When that ecosystem is abruptly paused or

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What Are Human Rights — and Why Do They Matter for Changemakers?

Human rights are often described as the basic freedoms and protections we have simply because we are human. It sounds straightforward. But once you scratch the surface, the idea raises a series of complex questions: Where do these rights come from? Are they moral truths, legal constructs, or political agreements? Who enforces them? And what

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When Freedom Is Organised: Lessons from Iran for Changemakers Everywhere

Across Iran, renewed uprisings have unfolded amid deepening economic crisis, intensifying repression, and a marked escalation in executions. What has drawn sustained international attention, however, is not only the scale of protest, but its persistence, coordination, and clarity of purpose over time. As explored in a recent episode of Changemaker Q&A, these dynamics offer important

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Policy and Change: Why It Matters—and Why It’s Never the Whole Story

When people talk about social change, policy is often the first thing that comes to mind. Laws are passed. Programs are funded. Strategies are announced. These moments feel concrete and decisive, which makes policy an attractive focal point for anyone trying to improve society. Yet policy is not synonymous with change. It is one pathway

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From isolation to in-person connection: How the Friending app is Creating Change with Tech

A recent Changing Times podcast conversation examined a problem increasingly described in public health and social policy as a “loneliness” or “social connection” crisis: the erosion of everyday, face-to-face relationships and the difficulty many adults report in forming and sustaining friendships after early adulthood. In the episode, the guest, Gabor, positioned repeated relocation and work-driven

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Trade-Offs Are Not a Failure: Why Social Change Can Never Have Everything at Once

Across the social change sector, people are often motivated by strong values, moral clarity, and a deep commitment to justice. These commitments are not incidental. They are foundational to why people enter activism, development, policy, humanitarian work, or systems change in the first place. Yet one of the most confronting realities of this work is

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