The Melton Foundation Joins MIT D-Lab Practical Impact Alliance

The Melton Foundation is proud to announce our membership in the Practical Impact Alliance (PIA), a new initiative based at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), led by MIT's D-Lab Scale-Ups Program.

PIA was created to foster shared learning and collaborative action among corporations, non-governmental organizations and social enterprises who have demonstrated a true commitment to scaling solutions to global poverty. Other members include multinational corporations Ajinomoto, Danone, Greif, Johnson & Johnson, and Unilever; nongovernmental organizations the Grameen Foundation and World Vision International; and the social enterprises Community Enterprise Solutions and Greenlight Planet.

”The Melton Foundation's mission is to collaborate across boundaries to address our global challenges," says Winthrop Carty, Executive Director at the Melton Foundation. "The Practical Impact Alliance at MIT's D-Lab, is a collaboration among businesses, non-profits, and higher education to create innovative solutions to global poverty. This speaks to the core of our mission. We can't wait to contribute to and draw from the ideas and actions generated by the PIA in the months and years ahead."

Through PIA membership, the Melton Foundation has the opportunity to collaborate with a network of leaders working across both industries and geography to find market-driven solutions to poverty, as well as to engage with experts at MIT and other institutions who are advancing thinking in fields such as appropriate design, market and user research, technology evaluation, and business models for the developing world. Through a variety of activities organized throughout the year, PIA will inspire shared learning and collaborative action among its members.

“The idea of PIA emerged when D-Lab started engaging large organizations in scaling up MIT innovations against poverty,” explained D-Lab Scale-Ups program director Saida Benhayoune. “We saw the opportunity for much greater impact if those organizations were to share and collaborate not just with institutions like MIT, but with each other.”

Learn more about the Practical Impact Alliance.

Learn more about MIT D-Lab.