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Solve is an initiative of MIT and a marketplace for social impact innovation that sources and advances tech-based solutions to the most pressing global challenges through open innovation–and it is our Members who bring Solve’s mission to life through tangible partnerships.
Solve Membership establishes your organization as a leader in social impact alongside MIT and a community of like-minded thought leaders, including HP, The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Nike, Capital One, and many more. What does a Solve Membership look like exactly? Solve’s annual innovation cycle provides you with multiple opportunities to customize your Membership experience to achieve your organization’s social and environmental goals.
Partner and mentor innovators and impact leaders
At Solve, we have built a vetted pipeline of global innovators championing cutting-edge solutions. Solve Members have exclusive access to this community; they can work with innovators addressing the issues most important to their organization to drive their social impact work and expand their ecosystem of innovation. In one example of Member-Solver partnership building, Solve Member Mary-Ann Etiebet, Executive Director of Merck for Mothers, first met Solver Temie Giwa-Tuboson, founder and CEO of LifeBank, at Solve Challenge Finals in 2018. In January 2020, the MOMs Initiative, a partnership between Merck for Mothers, USAID, DFC, and Credit Suisse, committed $5 million in grant and investment funding to LifeBank. With this funding, Lifebank will be able to supply an expected one million additional units of blood and other lifesaving medical products to help save mothers’ lives across Africa.
In other instances, Solve Members have gone on to join Solver teams as Board Members like Hanni Ali from Hamilton Insurance with Solver Maritime Blockchain. Solve Member Hari Balasubramanian, the founder and Managing Partner of EcoAdvisors, has regularly advised and mentors Sustainability Solver teams, participated in Solve workshops, and has served on Challenge Leadership Groups for three years running. Through these activities, Hari has nurtured potential investees, expanded his network of global sustainability experts, and found an action-oriented community with a shared passion for a more sustainable future.
Influence Solve’s annual Challenges and participate in the selection of our innovators
Solve Members drive innovation by helping shape Solve Global Challenges on the most pressing issues of our times around Sustainability, Health, Learning, and Economic Prosperity. Solve engages with the diverse perspectives of our Member community and a wider group of stakeholders through a diligent, five months-long process that incorporates online voting, input from the MIT community, and Challenge Design Workshops. This ensures that Solve solicits input from the very stakeholders affected by the problems we aim to solve. While some are open to a global audience, other workshops are hosted by Members to directly engage their employees on key social issues.
Once we launch our Global Challenges, we also involve Members who are topical experts as Challenge Leaders to serve alongside MIT faculty and industry experts–such as The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation on the Maternal & Newborn Health Challenge; the Queen Rania Foundation on the Learning for Girls & Women Challenge; and the Novartis Foundation on the Healthy Cities Challenge. Our Challenge Leaders share the Challenges within their own networks, judge solutions, and even partner with Solver teams after selection.
Engage your employees around meaningful social issues
Solve Member, Putnam Associates, turns the opportunity to review Solve applications into an employee engagement activity around Health innovation. Putnam creates employee teams to review the applications together, discuss the solutions and how they fit in with innovation taking place across the field, and pitch their favorite applicants.
Members can also engage their colleagues by hosting Solve facilitated workshops. Solve Member Pfizer used the opportunity as a team-building exercise by hosting a Solveathon across multiple Pfizer departments to design solutions for Health Challenges, while HP’s Solvathon sourced employee and community expertise for early-stage solutions around the Circular Economy. One Member participant said of the Solveathon, “It exceeded my expectations” and was a “great collaborative and team building experience.” Of the Solveathon format, the participant said, “[It] was great to see a structured end to end process of this kind for innovating and product development...The amount of work involved in planning and execution was clearly evident, and ensured a successful outcome.”
Meet like-minded thought leaders at year-round events
As a global organization, Solve has been running virtual and in-person events since our inception. As a Solve Member you will have the opportunity to energize your community virtually and in-person by attending MIT Solveathon, Challenge Design, and Brain Trust workshops. We also invite our Members to host customized workshops, managed by Solve, around issues at the top of their impact agenda. During these workshops you and your colleagues will dive deep into obstacles to innovation, asking the right questions, and flexing your design-thinking muscles.
Solve Members are also granted exclusive access to our flagship events, Solve Challenge Finals during the UN General Assembly in New York and Solve at MIT, a 3-day event gathering our global community together on the MIT Campus. Being a Solve Member presents the opportunity to connect with the next generation of innovators and the leading minds in tech and social impact, and hear directly from inspiring thought leaders such as Yo Yo Ma, Eric Schmidt, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, Former Astronaut Dr. Cady Coleman, or Chief Executive and Chairman of General Motors, Mary Barra.
After attending Solve at MIT, Solve Member Rachel Wexler of Penn Foster said, “Solve at MIT was engaging, thought-provoking, and well-organized….What an interesting conversation with multiple viewpoints, incredible talent and passion, and great audience participation. It was incredible—exceeded my expectations for sure” Speaking on Solve’s virtual events, Solve Member Diana Eggleston of The Hague Business Agency shared, “for the first time since the lockdown I felt I was at an actual event. The networking sessions were great! I liked the overall format, the quality of the speakers and the entrepreneurs were truly impressive.”
If you are interested in learning more about Solve Membership or becoming a Member, please fill out the contact form below.