The Schwab Foundation for Social Entrepreneurship has shortlisted SINA (Social Innovation Academy) and its founder, Etienne Salborn, as finalists in the Collective Social Innovation category of the 2026 Social Innovation Awards. The Foundation received more than 400 nominations this year. The winners will be announced at the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting in January 2026. […]
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SINA Wins the 2025 ZeroDX Award—back-to-back recognition for a Framework removing distance from impact
SINA (Social Innovation Academy) has been awarded the ZeroDX (Zero Distance Excellence) Award for 2025, marking the organisation’s second consecutive win in the category of “Benchmark Innovators”. Etienne Salborn was invited to Beijing, China to present SINA and to accept the award in person at the RenDanHeYi Forum & Second Zero Distance Excellence Award Ceremony. […]
SINA Acceleration (Cohort 11) Applications are Open
Are you ready to take your SINA social enterprise to another level? The SINA Acceleration program is open for its 11th cohort. It is a 5 months program uniquely designed to support SINA social enterprises to scale their impact and become self-sustainable. The program is done through two physical bootcamps (each one week long), weekly […]
Case Study on the SINA Purpose Pool and its Innovative Revenue Based Financing (RBF) Model
SINA is a movement of changemaker-makers: youth from challenging backgrounds who learn by leading, take on real roles in self-organized communities, and build social enterprises that solve real-world problems. Scholars shape their own path, gain practical skills, and turn challenges into opportunities inside regenerative, freesponsible learning spaces. This MBA research from Makerere University by David […]
We are hiring a Senior Monitoring, Evaluation & Learning (MEL) Steward
Organization: SINA (Social Innovation Academy)Location: Uganda; frequent travel to refugee settlements & SINA communitiesContract: Full-time, 12-month renewable | Start: ASAP | Deadline: Rolling pdf version here About SINASINA empowers marginalized and refugee youth to become social entrepreneurs in regenerative, self-organized communities guided by “freesponsibility” (freedom held together with responsibility) and the SINA Framework. More than […]
SINA Nominated for the 2025 ZeroDX Awards
We’re happy to share that SINA has been nominated again for the 2025 ZeroDX (ZeroDistance Excellence) Awards, a global recognition for organizations that remove the “distance” between teams, operations and the people they serve. The awards are led by the Business Ecosystem Alliance in partnership with the Haier Model Institute and Gary Hamel’s Management Lab, […]
SINA Replication in Nigeria Enters the Locally Led Phase
Our SINA Community in Nigeria, called “Dikko Social Innovation Academy” in Katsina State has crossed its first milestone. The pioneer cohort completed the opening phase of the SINA Framework—the Confusion Stage, also known as Applied Social Innovation—and now moves into professional development where learning translates into lived practice and early ventures. This community took root […]
Celebrating Two Years of Partnership With the Contentment Foundation: A New Chapter in Our Wellbeing Journey
At SINA, we have long seen the power of personal transformation. Young people from deeply challenging backgrounds grow into confident changemakers, ready to lead their own lives, communities and social enterprises. Many come from difficult and traumatic backgrounds, and even as empowerment blossomed on the outside, many were still silently struggling inside. Occasional breakdowns, depressions, […]
Challenges into Opportunities—the Relocation of SENTA from the DRC to Uganda
When conflict erupts, dreams are often the first casualties. Since February 16, 2025, the city of Bukavu in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) has been under the control of the M23 militia. The resulting collapse of essential services, ongoing insecurity, and economic stranglehold has turned daily life into a constant struggle for survival. […]
“Creating 100,000 change-makers” – The Impact Multiplier CEO Podcast, Episode with Etienne Salborn
If you’re interested in decentralization, entrepreneurship, scaling systems without scaling control, or just want to hear how we plan to enable 100,000 social enterprises in the next decade through SINA, this conversation will offer new insights. Richard Medcalf of xquadrant spoke with Etienne Salborn about the journey from a simple sponsorship program in Uganda to […]