Catalyzing Change Week 2025
Where innovation meets impact
Catalyzing Change Week (CCW) 2025 reaffirmed its place as the world’s largest virtual gathering dedicated to social innovation. From 3–8 November, more than 5,100 leaders, innovators, policymakers, and social entrepreneurs from 125 countries came together across 143 virtual and in-person sessions in nine languages to explore how collaboration and social innovation can tackle the most urgent challenges of our time.
“Young people are not leaders of tomorrow; they are the leaders of today. We need to create solutions with young people, not for them. They need to be actively contributing to policy making and creating solutions with the community.” – Sophia Otoo, World Economic Forum.
Throughout the week, we witnessed how systemic change becomes possible when collaboration, new connections, and collective learning converge. Participants exchanged diverse perspectives and launched more than 10 new initiatives, research projects, and local chapters, turning bold ideas into actionable solutions.
Highlights included:
- The launch of the “Key Competencies in Social Innovation Education” report, which proposes reforms in social innovation education.
- The launch of the Funding Footprint Calculator: a pioneering tool that identifies inefficiencies in funding processes.
- The launch of the Angola Chapter and the Mental Health Collaboration in APAC further expands CCW’s global network.
With hundreds of speakers and thousands of participants across sectors, CCW 2025 demonstrated that the future of systemic change depends on breaking down silos. Whether the conversations touched on public policy, technology, education, or community-led solutions, the shared purpose was clear: co-create sustainable, high-impact solutions for real, lasting change.
“Education is the most powerful weapon we can use to change the world.” – Participant in the session How AI Can Rewrite Our Future.
At Catalyst Now, we close the year on a high note, continuing to create spaces for connection, collaboration, and collective action.
If you missed any sessions or want to revisit your favorite conversations, you can access all session recordings and continue learning, connecting, and driving change.
We extend our gratitude to everyone who made this week possible: our members, speakers, participants, our Ecosystem Partners (Skoll Foundation, Schwab Foundation for Social Entrepreneurship, Echoing Green, One Family Foundation, and Ashoka), and the Partners and Supporters of Catalyst Now (Bertelsmann Stiftung, Propel Philanthropy, General Atlantic Foundation, Chandler Foundation, Conrad N. Hilton Foundation, H&M Foundation, and MacArthur Foundation on the top row; and Mastercard Foundation, No.17 Foundation, SAP, Segal Family Foundation, Target Foundation, Tarsadia Foundation, and The David and Lucile Packard Foundation).
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