The Disconnect
My experience last week was a study in contrasts that highlighted the severe fragmentation within the social impact world.
I spent one day in a meeting room filled with experienced leaders, many of whom were veterans in the sector. I, despite my years, was one of the younger ones present. The conversation, focused on scaling giving and changing the global narrative, was characterised by a sense of disappointment and negativity.
The focus was on the enormity of the problems, the difficulty of system change, and the constant struggle for resources that they have faced for years. While their collective experience is invaluable, I sensed an institutional isolation, a perspective developed over years of struggle that no longer maps the realities on the ground but is averse to innovation and change and engaging in a dialogue that has not really evolved over the years.
The next day, I was immersed in a gathering of young social innovators. They presented work from the frontline, sharing stories of small, powerful changes created in their communities. The atmosphere here was charged with hope and raw potential.
These individuals are the engine of change; they are constantly running, iterating, and trying whatever is necessary to solve problems with agility. Yet, the stark reality of their situation was clear: they are desperately struggling for spaces for genuine innovation and an audience that is actually working with them, not just for them.
The critical missing link is the funder. If they had been present, we wouldn’t have two isolated entities; we’d have three.
As an entrepreneur navigating this landscape, particularly through my work with vallindia.com, the contrast was a profound learning experience. It showed me two things
We are on the right track with VAll to innovate and try to bridge the young energy & skills with experienced leaders and organisations
The biggest obstacle we face: a three-sided isolation that prevents actual innovation and change.
The two rooms I sat in are representative of two different universes. The older cohort risks writing off the youth’s efforts because their solutions don’t conform to the traditional, linear models of scale dictated by experience. Meanwhile, the youth are pioneering new paths but are marginalised by a lack of access to structured funding and strategic mentorship.
On the other side, Funders who were absent are often insulated, as heard in both rooms, relying on metrics and proposals that privilege low-risk, established models. This risk-aversion starves the very grassroots innovation the young entrepreneurs are developing. It creates a perverse incentive structure: the veterans become pessimistic because the system rewards slow, safe growth, and the innovators struggle because their urgent, disruptive solutions are deemed too risky.
This stagnation means millions in funding continue to circle the same few established models, resulting in diminishing returns on social investment
My core learning is that our challenge isn’t a deficit of ideas or money, but a deficit of connection. To move forward, we have to keep building the bridges we are creating at VAll to engineer environments that force these three segments to become co-designers.
We have to consciously act as a bridge, translating the youth’s energy into the language of impact metrics, and bringing the veterans’ wisdom down to support tactical execution, fundamentally replacing isolation with collaboration. We need mechanisms that compel senior strategy and capital to genuinely flow to and through the youth’s lived expertise or skillsets with innovative ideas.
Our work at VAll isn’t just about connecting people; it’s about shifting the sector’s default setting from pessimism to performance. We believe that by creating these co-design environments, we can unlock an exponential factor of impact that silos currently suppress.
Do you have any ideas about these joint collaborative movements, and how we can make this happen at VAll? We are looking for advice, ideas, funding and lots of partners to work with on this going ahead.