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Belfer Center for
Innovation and Social Impact

Women inPower party

The Belfer Center for Innovation & Social Impact builds and scales initiatives that enable change leaders to activate ripples of impact across their communities.

Community and connection matter more than ever. Without them, people around the world face isolation, polarization, and the decline of communal institutions that anchor everyday life. Yet when communities have the tools and resources they need, they create durable change themselves. That’s why we invest in the capacity of local change leaders, sustain their connection to one another, and scale the networks that emerge to unlock sustainable, positive change.

Since our founding in 2013, we’ve worked to build a world where thriving communities collaborate to create solutions to the problems we face.

  1. 20 initiatives launched that collectively have reached 100+ million people
  2. 50+ organizations, corporations, and social impact investors who support our work
  3. GivingTuesday, our largest initiative, raised $3.1 billion in 2022 alone for organizations and individuals

Our Guiding Principles

These principles help us make choices about how and on what we work.

  • We Work Toward a Better World.

    Our canvas for change is large, allowing us to dream and act expansively.

  • We Innovate in Service of Impact.

    We focus on initiatives with the potential for outsized impact in a given field.

  • We Honor Wisdom and Agency Beyond Ourselves.

    We ground our solutions in wisdom beyond our own, actively seeking outside perspectives and collaborations.

  • We Invest in People.

    We lead in service of change leaders who aspire to create impact beyond themselves.

  • We Embrace Evolution.

    We evolve, expand, and contract solutions as the world — and our understanding of it — changes around us.

Current Initiatives

  • Share Our America is on a mission to reduce polarization by forging unlikely relationships and unlocking trust across differences.

    Learn more

  • Women inPower is a fellowship that provides senior-level women+ across professional sectors the resources needed to advance to the top levels of leadership in their fields.

    Learn more Apply as a Fellow or Mentor

  • Newmark Civic Life Series offers lectures and conversations with leading experts exploring pro-democracy efforts at this critical moment in the US and around the world, supported by Craig Newmark Philanthropies.

    See the Schedule

  • 92nd Street Live brings 92NY’s digital programming to senior living communities across the country, creating opportunities for seniors to experience world class arts and culture programming and build community.

    See All Events

Previous Initiatives

  • The LessLonely Project is a campaign to destigmatize and combat loneliness among Gen Z.

    Join the campaign

  • #GivingTuesday unleashes the power of people and organizations to transform their communities and the world on the Tuesday after Thanksgiving with donations, by volunteering, through acts of kindness and connection, or advocacy.

    Learn more Join the movement

  • The Social Good Summit is a conference that brings together leaders, philanthropists, activists and entrepreneurs from around the globe to explore how we can use innovations in media and technology to make the world a better place by the year 2030.

    Watch a talk

  • 7 Days of Genius was a global festival of creativity to advance the common good from 2014 to 2019. For one week each year, communities around the world came together to create and celebrate new genius solutions to some of the world’s most pressing social issues.

    Watch a Talk

  • CultureSwap, matches participants across the arts and cultural sector with peers at other institutions, accessible online so that anyone can start their own CultureSwap.

    Visit Site Start a CultureSwap

  • In the spirit of Benjamin Franklin’s mutual-improvement club, Ben Franklin Circles gives anyone, anywhere the tools to convene their own “junto” and spark discussions about virtue, ethics, leadership, and community in the 21st century to improve ourselves and the world around us.

    Visit Site Start a Circle

  • The Home Project is a place of identity and belonging for all Jews, where the diversity of the Jewish people is joyfully embraced by creating a welcoming home for all who seek it. With life-affirming, meaningful programming, the Home Project welcomes every member of the Jewish community in ways that are right for them.

    Visit Site

  • 92Y American Conversation launched in 2012 as an election year initiative and brought the very best in political, economic and cultural dialogue for all Americans.

  • The 92Y Jewish Innovation Fellowship offers a select group of Rabbinical students a free, year-long curriculum focused on design thinking, innovation, and leadership. Seeing through the eyes of some of the best leaders in and beyond the Jewish world, Fellows will prepare themselves for the opportunities of a changing Jewish landscape in a radically altered world.

    Visit Site

  • For 16 years, 92Y has run the Ford Motor Company International Fellowship for a diverse group of successful global social entrepreneurs. Beginning in 2018, the Ford Motor Company Fellowship will convene nonprofit and social change leaders from one region outside the US (Brazil in 2018 and 2019) in an innovative leadership-training and skill-building program in that region.

    Visit Site

  • In collaboration with PRI & Mic, The UnConvention engaged millennials in the 2016 Election and sparked dialogue on the top issues facing young people in America.

    Visit Site

  • An initiative of the NYC Economic Development Corporation and 92Y, NYC Fashion Fellows was a year-long fellowship program designed for rising stars in fashion management. Fellows received mentoring, networking and community-building opportunities, as well as continuing education and career advancement workshops with industry professionals and their peers to measurably accelerate their careers.

    Visit Site

  • An initiative of the NYC Economic Development Corporation and 92Y, NYC Venture Fellows is a world class, year-long fellowship program designed to help high potential entrepreneurs scale their ventures in New York City. Sunsetted by 92Y in 2016, the program is now run by Grand Central Tech.

    Visit Site

  • In December 2016, 92Y convened highly curated decision-makers and the general public in NYC and online to discuss and experience how science and technology are shaping our future. The Future.Today Summit featured in-person activations and onstage conversations with experts on topics like the future of artificial intelligence, techno-governing and the first amendment.

    Visit Site

Collaborators and Supporters

Collaborators and Supporters

Awards

Connect with Us

We’re excited to hear from you! Please email us to start the conversation.

Please note that all 92Y regularly scheduled in-person programs are suspended.