Tri-Sector Innovation Tools

Free and open innovation tools for people who want to make a difference

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Solving complex problems of the 21st century requires new tools and ways of working together. At Newimpact, we think tri-sector solutions that unsilo, repurpose, and realign resources for impact are a powerful way to address complex problems.

Our vision is for widespread, scalable application of tri-sector solutions, solving problems across the country, in every city or region, in a wide range of impact areas. We envision a free open and collaborative ecosystem of tools and shared data that fuel innovation in business models for impact.

To support this aim, we’ve created free and open purpose-built tools that enable tri-sector innovators and have started free and open sharing of

knowledge and tri-sector solutions⁠

developed in our consulting work. We view sharing as critical to enabling faster forward progress, as it allows others to use and build on existing knowledge and resources.

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Each of our tools is designed to help answer one or more of the NewImpact tri-sector innovation questions, and can be used as standalone tools or can be combined to work together with the NewImpact tri-sector innovation process.

Some of our tools are analysis and strategic design tools that can work in a wide range of software or on a whiteboard, while others are free, cloud-based apps to generate and explore open information and data. Our tools are built for uncovering, organizing, and connecting information and resources from across sectors, industries, knowledge domains, impact areas, and more.

Our tools help innovators:

Understand what opportunities exist for new or better products/tools/services to address specific societal issues

Explore and discover unexpected resources and how to unlock them

Use a new lens to reimagine their own assets

Create a tri-sector business model: an integrated strategy that harnesses the self-interests of each sector in order to leverage their strengths in a model with common benefit

As we look ahead, our vision includes embracing innovative solutions that have the potential to greatly advance our mission. We are optimistic about the positive impact emerging technologies like AI can bring to enabling innovation and solving complex challenges.

All our tools are nascent and will continuously improve – in other words, these are works-in-progress and an invitation to contribute to that progress.

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Learn how each tool helps answer key questions to build business models for impact:

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What are the opportunities for impact? Where are the bottlenecks or unmet needs?⁠

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What does the community want and need? What persists in community conversation?⁠

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Where to focus first? What is the experience of impacted people?⁠

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Who is on the "team"? What resources might be repurposed or leveraged for impact?⁠

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How might we bring all these resources and knowledge together to create a business model for impact?⁠

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What opportunities do we find for alignment that strengthens the business model and increases impact?⁠

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