But what about those initial moments—the first few years when ideas are taking shape, obstacles feel insurmountable, and big lessons are learned in real-time?
Panorama’s Changemaker Launch and Learn video series provides guidance on navigating common pain points when launching a social change initiative. Social impact leaders who have recently launched organizations of their own offer their guidance and insights—real people, in real-time, navigating the challenges of creating something new and impactful. The Changemaker series provides emerging changemakers with actionable insights on topics like starting a nonprofit, securing funding, and overcoming imposter syndrome.
Building something from nothing can be an isolating experience. The Launch and Learn videos show founders they are not alone in their struggle— and share the strategies, resources, and mindsets to support them in translating their vision to impact. This series is the latest resource on SPARK: Social Purpose Action Resource Kit, an open-access resource hub for early-stage social entrepreneurs offering 300+ curated tools, 180+ support organizations, and five practical guides.
Panorama is committed to lowering barriers for social change leaders and supporting them to effectively launch and sustain projects. Through Panorama’s Accelerating Social Change Leadership initiative, designed in alignment with the Center for Creative Leadership’s 70-20-10 framework, we support emerging changemakers, activists, and social impact leaders from a variety of fields to launch and scale their social change initiatives. From 12 peer learning lessons and 70+ coaching sessions, we found that social entrepreneurs learn most effectively through social learning, or learning through interaction with others, and experiential learning, or learning by doing. This insight directly informed the Changemaker Launch and Learn series.
Changemakers seek knowledge beyond theoretical frameworks and polished success stories—they want to learn from their peers who are facing the same challenges, obstacles, and triumphs. In addition to this social learning, each video provides a structured way for changemakers to apply the strategies, wisdom, and lessons shared through the learning activities at the end of each video.
Failure is not only a normal part of launching a social change initiative – it is an essential ingredient. The dozens of social entrepreneurs we have engaged with and who have advised Panorama reiterated that learning opportunities must normalize failure to support the health of founding changemakers and their organizations.
The Launch and Learn video series reflects this wisdom and closes with encouraging messages validating that failure is not a reflection of an idea’s or organization’s merit, but a key part of the journey.
The Launch and Learn series was created in partnership with The Phillips Foundation and produced by TechChange, the leading solution provider for international development and nonprofit organizations that need to inspire, connect, teach, or convene for social good.
To see the Launch and Learn video series or find resources to support launching a social change initiative, please visit SPARK. If you’re new to SPARK and looking for tips on how to best use the platform, please watch this three-minute video.
