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The third sector is teeming with great ideas, but too few of them change the world. Innovators, investors and commissioners often lack each other’s phone numbers and the capacity and incentive to collaborate. As a result, innovations get a start, but struggle for the connections and resources to sustain or scale. Innovation Exchange exists to tackle this problem, bringing people together to grow third sector innovation.

In the past, support for third sector innovation has been too centralised, politicised and passive. In contrast, the Innovation Exchange works as an honest broker,

• surfacing opportunities for innovation;


• helping innovators, investors and commissioners to connect around them;


• and actively supporting groups to collaborate, develop and grow innovation

Innovation Exchange provides both a vehicle for innovation and fuel for innovation. Through events and online exchange, it enables people to come together around opportunities to innovate. Through work like the Festivals of Ideas, and through its website, it is already sparking connections that strengthen innovation and draw new resources into the third sector. It also provides direct support for the very best of third sector innovation, through advice and facilitation and access to a £200k NESTA Innovation Exchange Fund. This programme enables innovators to develop, evaluate and grow their work.