10 Inspiring Social Impact Leadership Examples For You To Love

Social impact leaders are people who have created an inspiring example that have inspired many others to follow. These individuals have helped to generate significant positive changes within their communities and places. They have all address pressing social issues. Many of which were unthought about. What do they have in common? What can we learn from them?

Key Takeaways: Social Impact Leadership Examples.

Social impact leaders prioritise positive societal change through strategic thinking, ethical leadership, and deeply held commitment.

They come from diverse backgrounds, whilst sharing traits like resilience, innovation, and unwavering dedication to their causes.

Many social impact leaders challenge the status quo and inspire others to make a difference.

Positive social impact can address a wide range of issues from education to healthcare to environmental conservation.

Even small, everyday actions can contribute to creating positive social change.

How can you take inspiration from these great examples of social impact leadership?

What is Social Impact?

“Social impact is a visible, emergent pattern of enduring change within a social system, sparked by intentional actions. This shift marks a clear departure from past societal norms, affecting the health and wellbeing of the members of the social system.”

J-P Crofton

Social impact refers to how the health and wellbeing of people, community or a society are effected by it’s participants and actors. It is emergent in that it results from the multiple interactions and relationships within society. Therefore social impact is about creating the conditions for change.

Examples of Social Impact

There are two types of social impact: positive and negative. Positive social impact refers to actions that led to the improvement of the health and wellbeing of people within society. Whereas negative refers to the declines in people’s health and wellbeing.

Examples of Positive Social Impact.

1. University of Northampton’s Impact: The University of Northampton has demonstrated how it creates positive social impact through its programs and initiatives. Their efforts include areas such as education, community engagement, and sustainability. Demonstrating how social impact is not one thing. It can be multifaceted.
2. Gamification for Social Good: Gamification, when applied thoughtfully, can create positive social impact. By incorporating game elements into educational programs or health campaigns, organisations can engage and motivate people to take positive actions. We have long seen how gambling disrupts society, encouraging people into unhealthy behaviours. This is about turning that force into good.
3. Audley Group’s Social Value: The Audley Group focuses on creating social value. Their initiatives include providing access to clean drinking water, building schools, and offering job training to people who are unemployed. Countering inequalities that are often magnified by a lack of access to resources.

Examples of Negative Social Impact.

1. Long-Term Refugees: Prolonged displacement of refugees due to conflicts or natural disasters can have severe social and economic impacts. It disrupts communities, strains resources, and affects mental well-being. As well creating problems that are passed on between generations.
2. Social Isolation Due to Mental Illness: Mental health conditions often lead to social isolation. Stigma, lack of understanding, and limited support networks can exacerbate the negative impact on individuals and their communities. This is exasperated by stigma and a relative lack of investment in mental health despites it’s significant effect on society.
3. Paying Workers Less Than a Living Wage: Exploitative labour practices harm workers and perpetuate inequality. When companies prioritise profits over fair wages, it negatively affects families and communities, Exasperating poverty, health and happy gaps across society.

What Does Social Impact Leadership Mean?

Social impact leadership entails guiding organisations, teams, or movements in a way that prioritises and achieves significant positive changes in society. It combines strategic thinking, ethical leadership, and a deep commitment to making a difference in the lives of others.

Great Social Impact Leadership Examples

Here are 10 social impact leadership examples. I’ve found the example they set inspiring and helping me to think and act differently. These are specific examples of individuals known for their contributions to social impact across a range of fields:

Muhammad Yunus

Founder of the Grameen Bank and pioneer of the microfinance model, Yunus has empowered millions of people, especially women in developing countries, by providing them with small loans to start their own businesses, thereby lifting them out of poverty. The Grameen Foundation has lent out $6.5 billon to the poorest of the poor.

Social impact leadership example: Empowering people to do it themselves and not getting in the way

Malala Yousafzai

An advocate for girls’ education and the youngest Nobel Prize laureate, Malala has worked tirelessly to promote the right to education for girls worldwide, despite facing life-threatening challenges.

Social impact leadership example: inspiring for almost being killed for her social impact and carrying on anyway.

Wangari Maathai

Environmentalist and Nobel Peace Prize laureate, Maathai founded the Green Belt Movement in Kenya, which focuses on tree planting, environmental conservation, and women’s rights. Her work has contributed to the planting of over 51 million trees and a campaign that has resulted in the planting of 11 billion trees worldwide.

Social impact leadership example:  inspiring so many people with communicating her vision with her words

Kailash Satyarthi

A children’s rights activist who has been at the forefront of the global movement to end child labor and ensure education for all children. His efforts, through initiatives like the Bachpan Bachao Andolan, have led to the rescue of over 83,000 children from child labour, slavery, and trafficking.

Social impact leadership example: For giving it all up to make a difference for those in need.

Ellen Johnson Sirleaf

As the first elected female head of state in Africa, Sirleaf has been instrumental in leading Liberia through reconciliation and recovery following years of civil war, focusing on social and economic development.

Social impact leadership example: For surviving rejection and exile and charges of treason and changing long embedded cultural stereotypes..

Paul Farmer

Co-founder of Partners In Health, Farmer dedicated his life to improving healthcare for the world’s poorest populations, emphasising the importance of a preferential option for the poor in healthcare. He pioneer community based treatment strategies in the most impoverished places. Paul Farmer focused not just the diseases patients had but treating the systems environments that patients existed in..

 “The idea that some lives matter less is the root of all that is wrong with the world,” Paul Farmer

Social impact leadership example: Challenging assumptions seeing the bigger picture and flipping beliefs on their head. Overcoming ideas of it can’t be done.

Van Jones

A social entrepreneur and author, Jones has worked extensively in various social initiatives, including promoting green jobs and environmental justice, and more recently, reforming the criminal justice system in the United States. Van has started 4 social enterprises is also a CNN host, an Emmy Award-winning producer and a 3X New York Times best-selling author

Social impact leadership example: Showing you can create social impact across completely different areas. You don’t have to specialise. You just have to be organised.

Nadia Murad

A Yazidi human rights activist and Nobel Peace Prize laureate, Murad survived genocide and sexual slavery by ISIS in Iraq and has since been a leading voice in advocating for the rights of survivors of sexual violence and the Yazidi community.

Social impact leadership example: Recovering from personal trauma and using that to change the world

Jamie Oliver

Celebrity chef and advocate for healthier diets, Oliver has led various campaigns against the use of processed foods in schools and has advocated for improved nutritional education, influencing food policy in the UK and beyond.

Social Impact leadership example: Not scared to fight political battles without being a politician

Mindy Scheier

A fashion designer who founded the Runway of Dreams Foundation, Scheier works towards making fashion accessible for people with disabilities, advocating for the inclusion of adaptive clothing in the fashion industry.

Social Impact leadership example: For breaking out of her bubble and looking focus on people who otherwise wouldnt have been thought about.

What Can We Learn From These Social Impact Leadership Examples

The individuals, despite their diverse fields, share a common approach and attitude towards creating impactful change. They embody the spirit of resilience, innovation, and unwavering commitment to their causes, much like a lighthouse guiding ships through treacherous waters. Their stories offer a rich tapestry of lessons on how to effect social change, each thread representing a unique strategy or insight.

Social impact leaders frequently set the example to us by acting as role models and sources of inspiration. They typically challenge and overcome ‘common sense’ thinking and the status quo. They adapt and change the world around them. Acting as a guiding light helping others change the world.

Great Examples of Social Impact Leaders Don’t Have to Be Famous.

However, these are famous examples, all around us are organisations like charities non-profits, social enterprises, and even sociably minded businesses adopting corporate social responsibility practices full of people you have never heard, but nonetheless changing the world and setting an inspiring every day example for others in creating a positive social impact. At the end of the day we set the best examples for one another.

Learn The Knowledge And Skills To Become a Better Social Impact Leader

I’ve created a helpful guide covering everything from strategy to measurement showing how social impact leaders can motivate their teams. With helpful tips and insights i have from years of experience and insights from complexity science, ecology, psychology.

Please visit my guide to learn more.

Now it’s Your Turn to Inspire Others

Now You Have Been Inspired learn how we can make a difference and inspire the people around us. Visit my complete guide to creating a social impact project. I also offer free help and advice through my consultancy service.