Global platform launched to promote positive plagiarism among foundations


Ellie Ward at PioneersPost: “A group of leading foundations and NGOs, including the Rockefeller Foundation, Oxfam and the Skoll Foundation have launched a peer-to-peer platform to make solving pressing social issues easier.

Sphaera (pronounced s’faira) is a peer-to-peer online platform that will collate the knowledge of funders and practitioners working to solve social and environmental issues around the world.

Organisations will share their evidence-based solutions and research within the portal, which will then repurpose the information into tools, processes and frameworks that can be used by others. In theory a solution that helps fishermen log their catch could be repurposed for healthcare workers to track and improve treatment of contagious disease. …”Sphaera makes it easy to discover, share and remix solutions. We put the collective, practical knowledge of what works – in health, finance, conservation, education, in every sector relevant to wellbeing – at the fingertips of practitioners everywhere. Our hope is that together we are better, faster, and more effective in tackling the urgent problems of our time.”

Arthur Wood, founding partner of Total Impact Capital and a global leader in social finance, said: “With the birth of cloud technology we have seen a plethora of models changing the way we use, share, purchase and allocate resources. From AirBNB to Uber, folks are now asking why this trend has had zero impact in Philanthropy.”

Wood explained that Sphaera is “designed to liberate the silos of individual project knowledge and to leverage that expertise and knowledge to create scale and collaboration across the philanthropic landscape… Or simply stated, how can a great idea in one stovepipe be shared to the benefit of all?” (More)