Supporting an Ecosystem of Innovation
Compassion works to strengthen the capacities and skills of local innovators while supporting an ecosystem to resource the scaling of innovation.
Sourcing Local Innovation
Compassion is the co-founder of the Christian Collective for Social Innovation with Baylor University and a partner of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology on the MIT Solve initiative.
In partnership with Baylor and MIT Solve, we source local innovation for the purpose of program adaptation.
Piloting Solutions
In Latin America alone, Compassion is collaborating with local church partners across five countries to pilot seven solutions identified via CCSI and MIT Solve competitions.
Pilots advance based on strongest evidence of outcomes in our operational areas, then seek to scale in ways that directly impact targeted local communities.
Facilitating Youth Business Competitions
With these university partners, Compassion facilitates youth business competitions in Kenya, Uganda, Togo and Haiti (to date). These competitions are designed to enable market-driven development outcomes based on local innovation.
Building Necessary Infrastructure
To effectively source and scale innovation, Compassion contributes necessary local infrastructure, such as internet connectivity, and facilitates access to mentor and investor networks.
Empowering Program Alumni
In a pilot partnership with Belmont University, Compassion mobilizes successful program alumni — former sponsored children who are contributing to local communities worldwide — to invigorate and equip other youthful innovators.
Based on standardized data collection and tools, the dashboard generates evidence of local needs to power locally led design and adaptation across the program cycle.