CASE STUDY
Save the Children
Elevating innovation as a global strategic imperative
Challenge
Save the Children is one of the largest global NGOs dedicated to advancing children’s rights and well-being. Faced with a 34% year-on-year decline in traditional funding in 2024, with 20% of children globally living in areas affected by conflicts and 250 million children out of school, the organization recognized a pivotal moment to rethink growth.
This was especially challenging for Save the Children as the organization was unclear what innovation stood for and how to bring it to life in a clear, tangible, and ownable way across the organization.
Committed to delivering life-changing impact for children, Save the Children needed to:
- Inspire funders to see innovation as a credible, investable path to greater impact
- Engage staff at all levels to lean in as active participants in the innovation journey
- Secure leadership sponsorship so that innovation is embedded as a strategic imperative
Solution
Prophet partnered with Save the Children to develop a compelling innovation story—a “bridge” between its intrinsic innovation value and its investor story—to elevate innovation as a strategic imperative for the organization.
The innovation story isn’t a marketing spin, but was intricately developed through deep listening, having a clear understanding of Save the Children’s tangible and intangible assets, creative storytelling, and practical activation. The output is a single, sharp narrative that connects these assets to a clear promise that resonated internally, inspired externally, and embedded innovation into the organization’s growth strategy.
We began with deep listening to uncover critical insights from leadership, country directors, employees, and experts. A key aspect of the process was identifying the critical assets that Save the Children has that create value – its legacy of innovation, deep local networks, vast global scale, and footprint. To simplify some of the complexities of innovation in a large, federated organization into a clear, powerful thesis that brought everyone onto the same page, centered on the critical, common goal of powering lasting impact at scale for children.
To enrich the innovation story, we crafted signature beneficiary stories that credibly demonstrated what innovation looks like when it transforms lives. From Vietnam to Rwanda, these transformation stories don’t stop at one family or one village—they scale to lift millions of women and children globally. These assets are now part of the funder’s pitch toolkit, serving as proof points with a clear call to invest in Save the Children’s impactful innovation initiatives.
We went above and beyond in crafting the innovation story. We brought it to life with a visually impactful design concept that reflects creativity and innovation for children at the heart of the organization’s DNA. The compelling visual assets not only visually captivate employees’ and external funders’ attention, but also reinforce the core innovation message, inspiring hearts and minds.
Together with Save the Children’s Innovation team, we co-created activation tactics that would spark and sustain an innovation culture. These ideas informed a 90-day roadmap of high-potential engagement tactics, ensuring innovation becomes a lived experience across the organization.
“Before this work, innovation meant different things to different people across our organization. We had pockets of brilliant work happening, but no shared language, no common story, and no clear way to connect it all back to our mission. Prophet helped us cut through that complexity.”
Maggie Korde
Chief Innovation Officer, Save the Children International
Impact
This major milestone marks the beginning of a coordinated effort to embed innovation across the organization. We continue to explore partnership opportunities together to catalyze greater impact and lasting change in the lives of children worldwide.
25k
Save the Children employees conveyed the global innovation strategy and story in Q4 2025
Save the Children is poised to reach its goal of scaling
3
innovation initiatives
$15M
of innovation funding to be raised by the end of 2026