As we reflect on another year of growth at ChangeX, we are also looking back a little further and celebrating our first decade. ChangeX turns 10 in 2025, and we’re gearing up to celebrate this milestone with our biggest year of impact yet.

The journey so far

“The problem that we set out to solve at the start was that there are all these great ideas in communities, and instead of everyone having to reinvent the wheel, we wanted to make the best ideas accessible to others and easy to adopt,” explains our chief executive, Paul O’Hara.

That concept grew into our mission to make proven ideas and grant finance accessible to everyone, everywhere. We knew that technology was key to delivering our goal, and in 2015, the ChangeX platform was born.

That year, a successful pilot campaign in Ireland resulted in more than 100 new community projects getting off the ground. The following year we made the leap outside Ireland, with a pilot project in Minnesota, supported by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. In 2017, we successfully launched our ‘Impact as a Service’ business model, which allowed us to offer both funding and proven ideas to communities. 

In the years since, we have worked with a wide range of corporations and foundations, including Microsoft, the LEGO Foundation, Amazon Web Services, ServiceNow, Paramount, Nickelodeon, PwC, Accenture and more.

To date, we’ve launched almost 250 community funds across 26 countries, and distributed more than €14 million in funding. More than 30,000 community projects have been started on the ChangeX platform, impacting more than 1.3 million people so far.

2024: a year of continued growth

2024 saw us significantly extend our global reach, with funds launched in 25 countries, including venturing into 11 new countries. We deepened our footprint in Latin America, launching in Argentina and Chile, and also broadened our reach in Europe, with new community funds in Italy, France, Finland and the Netherlands. We brought the ChangeX model to Australia, and launched in Asia for the first time, with funds in Japan, Vietnam, Indonesia and Singapore.

In total, we funded 1,486 community projects last year, directly impacting 768,829 people.

Expanding horizons: new partners, ideas and themes

As well as expanding with our existing partners, and working with them to empower more communities across the world, we also added some new funding partners in 2024, including launching funds with Paramount and PwC.

We added 50 new proven ideas to the ChangeX platform last year, and now have more than 225 ideas ready for replication by communities around the world. The new ideas added in 2024 spanned a wide range of themes, with a focus on mental health, sustainability, digital skills and play.

Working with Paramount, we launched the World Mental Health Day Community Fund in August 2024. This was our first mental health and well-being focused community fund, and a total of 96 community projects across 10 countries received funding.

Among the new mental health focused ideas we added in 2024 were Sidewalk Talk, which sees communities come together to offer a space for people to talk about mental health, and OpenSeat Mindful Meals, an initiative to support communities to build connections through food and conversation. Read more about social innovator OpenSeat and its scaling journey with ChangeX.

With funding from the World Mental Health Day Community Fund, supported by Paramount, the ‘Todos por Cerro de San Pedro’ Foundation hosted a mindful meal in the village of Cerro de San Pedro in Mexico.

“By sharing reflections and experiences, we had the opportunity to feel understood and valued on mental health issues, which we don’t normally discuss with each other. This social connection resulted in increased emotional well-being and a greater sense of belonging.”

Paloma Caballero Tella, the foundation’s director of sustainability, says that taking the time to slow down and enjoy each moment of the meal created a safe space for participants to reflect on their thoughts and feelings.

In January 2024, we launched the PwC Resilient Communities Fund, a €100,000 fund to empower individuals and teams across Ireland to spearhead local community projects that promote inclusion, equitable access to opportunities, skills development, and sustainability.

The fund supported 40 projects across Ireland, including the Curragh Pocket Forest Initiative in Kildare.

“The project has successfully transitioned from an idea into a thriving initiative making a tangible difference in our community. The funding has been instrumental in laying the foundation for the project. It allowed us to procure essential materials, tools, and infrastructure to get the project running, and recruit and train a dedicated group of volunteers and staff who are passionate about the project’s goals.”

Scaling higher impact climate ideas

In 2024, in partnership with ServiceNow, we launched community funds in 9 countries to support projects focused on decarbonisation. With an investment of $1.1 million from ServiceNow, a total of 43 projects were awarded funding, including neighbourhood recycling initiatives, a campus microforest, solar energy projects and various educational programmes.

This investment by ServiceNow builds on a 2023 pilot, which funded ten projects across Germany and Ireland. As part of our partnership with ServiceNow, we have added a number of higher impact climate ideas to our platform to empower communities to drive deeper change on climate and sustainability, and supported social innovators to bring their ideas to life in multiple countries.

Among the ideas supported by the partnership was Ecosystem Restoration Communities (ERC), a programme focused on ‘regreening’ the planet, by rebuilding soil, fixing water systems, and increasing local biodiversity on degraded land. So far, 7 ERC projects have been funded through our partnership with ServiceNow, across multiple countries, including a rainforest restoration project by non-profit organisation ReForest Now in Brunswick Heads in Australia.

Continuing to celebrate the power of play

While 2024 saw us add new themes, regions and ideas, we also maintained our focus on one of our key impact pillars, play.

In March 2024, the UN General Assembly adopted an official International Day of Play, signalling the importance of play for children. ChangeX has long been committed to creating more play opportunities for children, and was part of a global network of organisations that drove this effort forward, alongside the LEGO Group, Save the Children International, UNICEF and many others.

Through our ongoing partnership with the LEGO Foundation, we launched the International Day of Play Community Fund in May to support as many children as possible to engage in creative play on the first ever International Day of Play on June 11…and beyond. The fund supported nearly 300 projects across 6 countries, benefitting more than 40,000 children so far.

Creating play opportunities for children everywhere is crucial, but for some communities — especially those that lack safe and accessible spaces – there can be barriers along the way.

A youth organisation in Serhiivka, Ukraine received funding to install a children’s eco-playground, and local children now have “a long-awaited place for recreation, communication and development”.

“The project was difficult to implement due to constant power outages, and our craftsmen had to work day and night to adjust to the blackout schedules. But we managed to do it, which proves once again that we are strong and unbreakable. The local authorities also joined our cause by building a soft surface for the playground, as well as local businesses that donated a trampoline to the children. We will continue to work to ensure that our children have spaces where they can actively play and develop.”

The Asociación Pujula, a non-profit that supports marginalised Mayan communities, created a ‘play circuit’ in the municipality of Tixpéhual, Yucatán, Mexico. More than 30 attendees enjoyed the circuit, which featured geometric figures, Mayan numerology and lots more.

Alongside the International Day of Play focused funding, we also launched 7 other community play funds with the LEGO Foundation in 2024, including our first fund in Vietnam. Among the local groups to receive funding was a Spreading Joy Through Books project, which brought a library to the Hoa Mai PreSchool in Hoa Binh.

Overall, our partnership with the LEGO Foundation supported more than 600 community play projects in total in 2024, impacting almost 85,000 children so far.

More power to communities

Core to our work is our mission to empower communities everywhere, with the goal of impacting one billion people by 2030.  Over the past year, we’ve deepened our impact in existing communities and also broadened our reach, bringing the ChangeX model to communities across 23 countries.

We’ve revisited some communities, with repeat funds to address local needs. For example, through our ongoing partnership with Microsoft, we returned to Campinas in Brazil for a second year. Among the projects supported in the region was a Girls Power Club. The group designed an app, Athena, to support women and girls, and share innovative and inspiring stories.

“From cognitive skills to physical and emotional well-being, Athena is a space for those seeking complete development and support at every stage of their journey. It was developed by a team of women and girls who love positive social impact. The team includes high school students, programmers, pedagogues, psychologists, administrators, mothers, daughters and some boys who are allied to social causes aimed at women.”

Working alongside Microsoft, we launched our third community fund in West London, building on the success of previous community funds in 2020 and 2023.

My Mini Growing Space, one of the proven ideas on the ChangeX platform, is designed to help local community groups, such as schools, churches and libraries, to transform small, unused or derelict outdoor spaces into attractive, educational spaces, by creating a woodland garden or edible teaching garden. 

This idea has proven especially successful in London, giving children in communities across West London an opportunity to engage with nature, learn about plants and enjoy the outdoors. Read our blog to find out more.

“We want to expand, and bring this concept to other countries. ChangeX has been amazing in helping us to start that expansion journey,” said Pascale Rochefeuille from Growing Space, the social innovator behind the idea. “It’s like our lucky star, removing all the admin and approaching it all with kindness and friendliness. It took me a while to believe that a service like this really existed!”

Deepening impact 

Our continued partnership with AWS saw repeat funds in many regions, including Oregon and California in the United States, and Aragón in Spain. The year also brought an expansion of the partnership’s footprint in the United States, with new funds in Mississippi and Indiana.

In Aragón, almost 50 community projects have been supported to date, with Murals for Communities proving to be one of the most popular proven ideas. It brings communities together through the medium of mural art, and provides a way for communities, particularly those experiencing social disconnection, to connect and develop through playful, thoughtful, inclusive creativity. Local artist Gozas received funding for a public art project to support a local neighbourhood festival.

“We were very happy with the results, we managed to reach areas of the neighbourhood where activities had never been carried out before and people from all groups felt involved.”

Since 2022, ChangeX, supported by AWS, has funded more than 100 community projects across Morrow and Umatilla Counties in Eastern Oregon, impacting more than 45,000 people in the local community. And, our latest fund in that region has just launched! Watch these videos to see the impact on local groups.

Looking ahead

This year, as we embark on ChangeX’s second decade, we are looking forward to another year of huge growth, building on the success of our existing partnerships, and adding new ones, plus launching in new regions and supporting more languages.

Our first new region of 2025 – Central America – will launch very soon. With the support of IDB Lab, the innovation lab of the Inter-American Development Bank, we will soon unveil a new climate action programme for communities across 5 countries: Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, and Panama.

We’re excited for the year ahead, and the chance to provide more people across the world with access to the great ideas and funding they need to drive positive change in their communities.

If you have any questions for us or would like to get involved (either to start an impactful project in your community, scale your idea or fund community projects), please get in touch: [email protected]