Social innovation — the development and application of new approaches to social problems — is increasingly recognised as essential to addressing challenges that traditional service delivery hasn't solved. In New Zealand, a growing ecosystem of funders, intermediaries, and government agencies invests in social innovation. Understanding this ecosystem helps innovators access the right support and helps funders invest in approaches with transformative potential.
Social innovation is the development and scaling of new ideas — products, services, models, markets, processes — that meet social needs more effectively than existing approaches. It is characterised by:
Social innovation sits between traditional nonprofit service delivery (doing more of what exists) and pure market solutions (which may not serve disadvantaged communities). It includes:
- New service models
- Digital tools for social outcomes
- Market-based approaches to social challenges
- Policy innovations
- Community-based approaches that bypass traditional institutions
Ākina Foundation
Ākina is New Zealand's primary intermediary for social enterprise and social innovation — providing advisory services, incubation, connections, and some direct grant support. Ākina works with social entrepreneurs at various stages of development.
Department of Internal Affairs (DIA) — Social Innovation Fund
The DIA's Community and Voluntary Sector team has operated social innovation funding — supporting organisations testing new approaches to social challenges in communities.
The Social Wellbeing Agency
The Social Wellbeing Agency (formerly the Social Investment Agency) applies social investment principles — data-led, evidence-based resource allocation toward social outcomes — to government social spending. It influences where social innovation investment flows.
Impact Lab
Impact Lab is a social impact measurement and innovation support organisation that helps social enterprises and funders assess and improve the impact of new approaches.
Mind Lab (now part of Unitec)
The Mind Lab ran innovation education programmes at the intersection of education and social innovation, building capability for social problem-solving.
The J.R. McKenzie Trust
The J.R. McKenzie Trust has social innovation as an explicit focus area — supporting organisations testing new approaches to entrenched social challenges, particularly those affecting children and young people.
Tindall Foundation
The Tindall Foundation has supported social enterprise and social innovation, particularly for models with potential to scale their social impact.
Edmund Hillary Fellowship
The EHF brings social entrepreneurs and innovators to New Zealand through a fellowship programme — providing community, networks, and access to support for high-potential innovations.
New Zealand Lottery Grants Board
Through specific grant streams, the Lottery Board has supported social innovation and community development approaches.
Impact investing funds
The Christchurch Social Investment Collaborative, the Auckland Council's social enterprise initiatives, and emerging impact investment funds provide capital for social innovations with revenue-generating potential.
Social Impact Bonds (SIBs) — or social bonds — are an innovation in social financing that New Zealand has piloted:
New Zealand SIB pilots have focused on areas including intensive family support (IMAP and similar programmes) and youth justice. Results have been mixed — the model works better for some challenges than others, and transaction costs can be high.
Early-stage social innovation requires space and resources for testing:
Small exploration grants: modest funding (often $5,000-$30,000) to test a hypothesis — does this approach work? These grants acknowledge that most innovations fail, and failure is valuable learning, not wasteful.
Accelerator programmes: time-limited intensive support — often including small grants alongside mentoring, networks, and business development — for promising social innovations.
Co-design funds: funding for deep community engagement to design solutions alongside the people they're intended to serve (rather than for them).
Implementation research funding: funding to rigorously evaluate whether a new approach works before scaling — building the evidence base for larger investment.
Effective social innovation funding is distinctive from traditional grant programmes:
- Tolerance for failure — innovation necessarily involves attempts that don't work
- Patient capital — social innovation takes longer to prove than traditional service delivery
- Non-financial support alongside funding — connections, expertise, networks matter as much as money
- Portfolio thinking — funders invest in multiple innovations, expecting some to fail and a few to succeed significantly
Grant applications for social innovation should:
- Articulate the problem clearly and why existing approaches are inadequate
- Describe the proposed innovation and why it's likely to work (theory of change)
- Be honest about what you don't yet know and what you're testing
- Outline a realistic evaluation plan to determine whether it works
- Show that the organisation has the capability to both innovate and learn
Tahua's grants management platform supports funders investing in social innovation — with portfolio management across exploration, prototype, and scale stages, milestone-based grant tracking, innovation outcome measurement, and the tools that help innovation funders manage risk and learning across complex social investment portfolios.