Skoll Foundation

Where does your music come from? That’s the question artist and activist Madame Gandhi asked from the #SkollWF stage.  She wondered, why shouldn’t we connect as deeply to the origins of our music as we try to do with our food? The inquiry created a striking parallel to how social entrepreneurs focus as much on how solutions are designed and who participates in them as what the final product looks like.  In a unique performance to conclude the Closing Plenary, Madame Gandhi shared how she uses the “magnificent” sounds of the Earth—singing birds, dripping water—to create music that makes people feel closer to our planet.  See her in action: youtube.com/watch?v=sHTCXs…

Ana Lucía Ixchiú Hernández and Kynan Tegar brought the spirit of Earth’s enduring strength to the Opening Plenary of the 2026 Skoll World Forum, where they invited delegates to join them in their ancestral traditions of honoring our connections to the planet. And, they shared a glimpse of “A Day on Earth,” a new film co-created with communities across 26 countries. The film, led by @IfNotUs_ThenWho, is a reminder that the knowledge needed to address the planet’s greatest challenges already exists: it lives in the communities closest to the land. Experience their opening ceremony here: youtube.com/watch?v=dCu3SF…  #SkollWF

When systems feel broken, community voice can be the fix.  At the #SkollWF session “Forests on the Frontline,” @VivekHMaru of @GlobalNamati described how community participation in the legal system is one way of exercising collective power to protect the climate. Community paralegals—activists who help people access the law—work alongside their neighbors to protect common lands, enforce environmental law, and secure basic rights to health care and citizenship. This legal empowerment is one example of how changemakers are responding to escalating pressures that threaten the world’s forests.  Listen to the full session to hear more examples, from digital mapping of territories to the creation of new economic systems that value keeping trees standing: youtube.com/watch?v=UJ5iYn…

“I am committed to … using every part of the [capital] continuum to drive impact.” Marla Blow, our CEO and President, recently joined the Capital for Good podcast (hosted by Georgia Levenson Keohane at Columbia Business School) for a wide-ranging conversation about catalytic capital and financial inclusion, including insights from her time at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and as a social entrepreneur working to expand access to credit for marginalized communities. She makes the case that philanthropies can participate more fully within capital markets by activating their endowments, not just grant dollars, toward achieving their charitable missions: “If we are serious about systems change, we have to deploy capital in every form at our disposal.” Give the podcast a listen to hear more about why Marla is optimistic about the next phase of social impact: business.columbia.edu/socialenterpri…

Last month, social entrepreneurs and other innovative leaders from around the world came together in Oxford and online to consider: What change might be possible if we connected more deeply with ourselves, with others, and with our planet? How might that web of support buoy our people, transform our funding systems, and generate more creative, durable solutions to the challenge we face? At the 2026 Skoll World Forum, we asked: What would a sustainable social impact ecosystem look like if we built it from scratch? Over four days of collaboration, learning, and relationship-building, our community offered many thoughtful answers. Catch snippets of their insights in our new highlights film or explore recordings of sessions to soak up speakers’ and participants’ full wisdom. Watch the film: youtube.com/watch?v=cP3wmf… Explore the recordings: youtube.com/watch?v=d-MIdy…

A school’s impact cannot be understated. It creates a plan where every child feels seen, safe, and filled with possibility. Join us for the virtual premiere of the short documentary “Light in the Lanes,” on May 19 at 10am EST / 7pm PKT. The film is set in Machar Colony in Karachi, one of Pakistan’s most marginalized informal settlements, where only 12 percent of residents can read and write. The story follows Ms. Mumtaz, the principal of a school run by @TCFPak, as she and her team work to make education a reality for children in this forgotten community. After the screening, join us for a Q&A with the film’s director, Uzair Surhio, as well as a thought-provoking panel discussion on the transformative impact of education. Register now: videoconsortium.zoom.us/webinar/regist… This film is a product of the Solutions Storytelling Project, a Skoll Foundation-supported initiative from the @videoconsortium that connects regional filmmakers and social innovators to produce solutions-focused short documentaries that catalyze positive change. #SolutionsInsideOut #StorytellingForImpact #DocumentarySeries #SocialInnovation #StoriesOfHope #SolutionsThatMatter

Social entrepreneurs know: solving the biggest challenges of our time requires radical collaboration. It requires forging ties across lines of difference, even if our viewpoints don’t always converge. From the #SkollWF stage, the leader of the Human Genome Project offered a helpful reminder: we are vastly more alike than we are different. Francis Collins, the former director of the @NIH, shared that our genomes are 99.9 percent identical. We are, he said, family. What might we achieve if we keep that fact front of mind? #SkollWF

If AI is to serve us all, it must be built by us all. That’s the message that @KateKallot, Founder and CEO of @AminiTech, brought to the #SkollWF. In her work building data infrastructure across Africa and the Global South, Kallot reminds us that the promise of AI depends on inclusive participation in its development. Yet millions of people are excluded not only from building AI systems, but even from contributing their cultures and conversations to train the models. Watch the rest of Kallot’s talk to learn how she’s going beyond inclusivity to achieve true data sovereignty for countries and leaders worldwide—leveraging local talent to ensure the AI revolution benefits everyone, no matter where they call home: youtube.com/watch?v=D_bzXB…

In India, nearly 30% of pregnancies are classified as high-risk, yet many women, especially in rural areas, remain unaware of the dangers they face. But frontline health workers are working to bridge gaps in access to care. To follow one local hero’s story, join us for the virtual premiere of “For Every Breath” on Tuesday, May 13 at 10am EST / 7:30pm IST. Directed by Priyanka Mukherjee, the 14-minute documentary follows Geeta, a health worker in Sambhal, Uttar Pradesh who is committed to helping pregnant women access care. We see her connectSurbhi, a 24-year-old woman in her eighth month of pregnancy, to essential prenatal care and timely medical intervention. Hosted by @armmanindia in observance of Mother’s Day, the virtual premiere includes an opportunity to connect in a Q&A with the filmmaker and frontline health workers. Join us to discuss the process of making the film and learn how teams are strengthening maternal child health outcomes across India. Register to attend: videoconsortium.zoom.us/webinar/regist… This film is a product of the Solutions Storytelling Project, a Skoll Foundation-supported initiative from @videoconsortium that connects regional filmmakers and social innovators to produce solutions-focused short documentaries that catalyze positive change. #SolutionsInsideOut #StorytellingForImpact #DocumentarySeries #SocialInnovation #StoriesOfHope #SolutionsThatMatter

The truest, most lasting form of peace is the one cultivated from person to person—not governments. From her work at the forefront of the Somali peace and reconstruction process, @IlwadElman of the @ElmanPeaceHRC understands that even as official conflict resolution processes play out, it is communities themselves who determine how they will experience peace. As she shared on the #SkollWF stage, investing in communities that have been left out of official processes is essential to building sustainable peace.

Noubar Afeyan, the founder and CEO of @FlagshipPioneer and the co-founder and board chair of @AuroraPrize_, has spent decades studying the logic of biological systems. At the #SkollWF, he shared how he brings that lens to thinking about machine intelligence. Nature, he argued, has always contained forms of intelligence that humans often do not fully recognize—and AI is simply another form we are working to grasp. We are, as he put it, in a struggle to understand these systems even as they help us build solutions to the human and planetary challenges we face. That tension between comprehension and possibility? It may be exactly where the most important work happens.

Former President of Colombia Juan Manuel Santos brokered a peace agreement that ended more than 50 years of armed conflict, and at the #SkollWF, he shared his hard-won wisdom with a community of changemakers striving for a better world. Santos joined Dele Olojede of Africa In the World and @IlwadElman of @ElmanPeaceHRC for a conversation about the conditions that make peace possible. The lessons they shared are essential in this moment, because as Santos put it, working toward peace is "the most noble objective any society can have."

Releasing next week, a new short documentary “From Fields to Flight” follows Babita, a girl from India’s hinterlands who finds the courage to challenge norms and achieve her dream of becoming a drone pilot. Directed by Ipshita Bhattacharyya, this story highlights how Babita’s life seemed destined for early marriage until a turning point: the women’s empowerment group at Breakthrough, which helped her find the confidence to pursue financial independence—and a new perspective. This film is a product of the Solutions Storytelling Project, a Skoll-supported initiative from @videoconsortium that connects regional filmmakers and social innovators to produce solutions-focused short documentaries that catalyze positive change. #SolutionsInsideOut #StorytellingForImpact #DocumentarySeries #SocialInnovation #StoriesOfHope #SolutionsThatMatter

In this new era of funding social change, the question is not just, “How much”? The type of capital, and where it comes from, matters even more. That was a throughline at today's #SkollWF session on how to implement innovative funding approaches for sustainable impact. Angela Gichaga of @EnableAdvisors, Kieron Boyle of @100xImpact, Nicola Galombik of Yellowwoods Holdings, and Tulaine Montgomery of @newprofit challenged some of the sector's most entrenched assumptions about money and risk. Panelists didn’t offer easy answers, but pointed toward a more honest set of questions: How do we bring mission-neutral capital into alignment with mission-driven work? #SocialEntrepreneurship #SystemsChange

Grace Matlhape grew up surrounded by civic-minded women in South Africa who organized resistance marches and made trays of peanut butter sandwiches to feed every child who gathered around with an empty belly. They taught her that women are both the backbone and the defenders of communities. That belief became the foundation of @SmartStartSA, a 2026 #SkollAwardee. Today, the organization Grace founded works with 15,000 women who run home-based preschools reaching 160,000 children every week across South Africa, proving—once again—that the people closest to the challenge hold the solutions. Learn more about SmartStart: skoll.org/organization/s… #SkollWF

Just one hour after delivering at home, a mother carried her newborn—blue and struggling— across Karachi on a motorcycle to reach emergency neonatal care. Both survived. For 2026 #SkollAwardee @ChildLifePak, that story is the motive. Led by Ahson Rabbani, ChildLife works to strengthen the public health system to ensure no child is more than 30 minutes away from lifesaving care—reaching children in rural communities through a nationwide telemedicine network. Read more about the ChildLife Foundation: skoll.org/organization/c… #SkollWF

It took a village (and then some) to get Tarun Cherukuri to the #SkollWF stage: six public institutions across three countries, a team of health care professionals who cared for him when he needed it most, and a grandmother whose belief in him never wavered. Tarun founded @indusaction to extend that same web of care to India’s 800 million vulnerable citizens, making constitutional entitlements a lived reality rather than a bureaucratic obstacle. For the 2026 #SkollAwardee, simple, accessible design is what transforms an aspirational value into everyday practice. Learn more about Indus Action: skoll.org/organization/i…

At the 2026 Skoll World Forum, Richard Gere joined @projdandelion Co-Founder and Skoll Board member Pat Mitchell to discuss his new film, Wisdom of Happiness. The film shows us a timeless truth: happiness is always possible, even in the midst of uncertainty. This powerful message of hope is delivered by Nobel Peace Prize winner Tenzin Gyatso, known to billions around the world as the Dalai Lama. With disarming clarity and deep humanity, he calls each of us to help create a world where compassion is activated as our strongest force for change, and where happiness is within reach for us all. Follow for more #SkollWF photos and moments.

It's the final day of the 2026 Skoll World Forum, and we're bringing it full circle. In our Closing Plenary, we'll hear from big thinkers and bold doers who will explore the concept of the ecology of us: as people, we are inherently part of nature, not separate from it. And as change leaders, the Skoll community is part of a global ecosystem of interconnected solutions. The plenary features Francis Collins, formerly of @NIH; @KateKallot of @AminiTech; Alaa Murabit of 500 Global; Alessandra Orofino of Peri Productions; and musician and activist @MadameGandhi. Don't miss it. Though the week is coming to a close, the work that began here is just getting started. The ideas exchanged this week will travel around the world, carried by the people who showed up with open minds and a commitment to lasting change. (Photos from Day Three of the #SkollWF)

At the Skoll World Forum, Flagship Founder and CEO @NoubarAfeyan joined @Trevornoah to reflect on the evolving role of AI and the idea of “polyintelligence”: the integration of human, artificial, and nature’s intelligence to unlock new possibilities. Harnessing this convergence will require more than technical progress. It calls for bold, interdisciplinary thinking and a commitment to shaping AI in ways that expand human potential and drive meaningful impact for people and the planet. @SkollFoundation