Pioneers Post is the independent news network for the global impact community. Over two decades, we have established ourselves as the essential source of intelligence and insight for pioneers across the impact economy, from social entrepreneurs and impact investors, to changemakers working across business, civil society, philanthropy, government and public services.
As an independent media platform committed to 'solutions-led' journalism – and as a social enterprise ourselves – we aim to explore, explain, connect, challenge and inspire this new wave of changemakers around the globe, whose pioneering approaches seek to build a better future for people and planet.
About Pioneers Post
• What we do
• Who we do it for
• Why we do it
• More than a magazine: partnerships, events, awards and training
• How we organise our content
• Our history
• We need your support
What we do
Pioneers Post publishes multimedia news, features, expert insight and social media updates on a daily basis, produced by our team of experienced and dedicated journalists.
Our popular weekly newsletter provides a regular digest of the latest news, views and good practice for thousands working in the social enterprise and impact investment industry.
In addition, our regular videos, podcasts, guides and special series provide opportunities for in-depth exploration and discussion. Often we co-produce these with our partners – including many of the key organisations in the global impact space.
Who we do it for
Our readers and stakeholders work across sectors and geographies to build a world in which profit and purpose are balanced in a new equilibrium – the ‘impact economy’ – that delivers positive, purposeful and sustainable solutions for people and planet.
As a media organisation working in this field for more than 20 years, we believe a successful impact economy relies on forging engaging and authentic communications between a diverse range of people and organisations – from entrepreneurs and enterprises, investors and business leaders, to foundations and philanthropists, charities and NGOs, advisors, researchers, policymakers, intermediaries and market builders.
As journalists, we bring these ‘impact pioneers’ together through our website, online and offline events, and social media channels, and by forging powerful partnerships with leading impact networks across the globe.
Why we do it
Social entrepreneurship and investing for good are making an undisputed and accelerating impact around the world.
The pioneers leading this movement understand that the solutions to our biggest social and environmental challenges are not to be found in upholding the status quo. The global financial crisis, our experience of climate change and the Covid-19 pandemic show that doing the same as we have always done is simply not an option.
Given focus and direction by the Sustainable Development Goals, and energised by the shared experiences of thousands of changemakers around the world, these pioneers are developing innovative approaches to business, investment, policy and practice that are driven not by profit or philanthropy alone. They know that to build back better, we must balance profit and purpose differently, in a new equilibrium that many describe as the ‘impact economy’.
Whether they work inside big corporates, in government, charity or in social enterprise, and wherever they are in the world, Pioneers Post aims to be there alongside these ‘impact pioneers’ to offer solutions, guidance, argument, encouragement and good humour through their journey.
Through our stories, videos, podcasts, events and partnerships – and as a social enterprise ourselves – we are committed to sustaining this growing movement with independent, honest and insightful journalism, through good times and bad.
We are committed to sustaining this growing movement with independent, honest and insightful journalism, through good times and bad
More than a magazine: partnerships, events, awards and training
Partnership and collaboration play an important role in how we work, how we create a positive impact and how we sustain ourselves financially. We like to build partnerships that are long-term; we co-create a content Collection over at least 12 months, although many of our content partnerships have been ongoing for several years.
Through these collaborations, each partner benefits. At Pioneers Post, we can broaden our readership, deepen our understanding, gain different perspectives and source a wider range of stories both from experts and from the frontline. For our partners, we help them tell their stories with journalistic creativity, authenticity and rigour across written, film, podcast and social media; we also boost their reach and their ability to tell their stories to a global, cross-sector audience. In commissioning a content partnership with us, our partners are also 'buying social' and helping to sustain our impact journalism.
We have built partnerships with leading organisations across sectors and geographies, including the British Council, EVPA, GSG, Social Value International and Amsterdam Impact.
Our partners also play an important role in supporting two other key areas of activity: events and training.
- Read more about our Partnerships and how you can create your own content stream with us
We have developed a strong reputation for producing thoughtfully-curated and well-run events, large and small, both online and in-person.
We founded the UK's foremost annual impact investing conference, Good Deals, and we also created the long-running SE100 and WISE100 initiatives – in partnership with NatWest Social & Community Capital. These include annual awards and a learning and networking programme for the UK's top 100 social enterprises and leading Women in Social Enterprise. We also worked with the UK's leading impact investment organisations to produce two editions of The Gathering, and delivered a conference on impact marketing and communications, Good Stories.
Internationally, we have supported as a media partner for many major events in the impact investing and social enterprise calendar, including the EVPA Annual Conference and C-Summit, Social Enterprise World Forum, Ashoka Summit, Social Value Matters, GIIN, AVPN and Skoll World Forum.
Training in 'impact storytelling' and 'solutions journalism' is also an important part of our remit – and a key area where we can deliver added value. As experienced journalists and editors, we run events, seminars and training programmes to help social entrepreneurs and impact investors develop a strong story and tell it in the most impactful way. We also extend this work to training other media professionals across the world – from young journalists just starting out, to old hands excited by the emerging wave of stories from the impact movement – to help them explore and understand the key facts and statistics from social entrepreneurship and impact investing, the people and angles they could follow, as well as the growing interest in solutions journalism, in which stories are based not only on the 'What', 'Where', 'When' and 'Who' but focus on the 'How', the 'Why', the 'What's missing – and how can we solve it?'.
- Read more about our events and awards and about our training offer
How we organise our content
Pioneers Post divides its content into the following sections, which you'll see in our navigation menu:
News & Views – what happened when and what people think about it
Business School – how did it happen and how to do it better
Collections – thematic and partner-curated series
Publications – reports, guides and multimedia features
Videos and Podcasts – audio and visual content, from 60-second video clips to 40-minute podcast discussions
About – more details about our team, aims, history and values, plus important policies covering our editorial practice, privacy and diversity issues
Impact Library – stories and resources accessible for our paying subscribers (log in to your Pioneers Post account or subscribe to get access)
As part of our social mission all our stories are open and accessible to all for an initial one-month period. Partner-funded content remains open access after this, while our other stories go behind the paywall, as part of the Pioneers Post Impact Library, a rich resource including hundreds of real-world insights from leading social entrepreneurs and impact investors around the world, and detailed analysis from our own reporters.
By taking out a subscription, not only will you be getting access to premium content that helps you do good business better, you'll also be joining our worldwide community of mission-driven entrepreneurs. Plus, you'll be supporting our social enterprise: all contributions are being ploughed back into our independent news and storytelling platform, dedicated to cover social enterprise, impact investing and purpose-led business around the globe.
Our history
Pioneers Post is built on more than two decades of commitment to news, knowledge and inspiration delivered first through our predecessor Social Enterprise magazine – launched in February 2002 as the world’s first magazine dedicated to social business – and then through Pioneers Post, our new name from 2011.
Both brands were co-founded by Tim West, our CEO and founding editor. Both were also produced both online and – for a while – in printed format, with Pioneers Post Quarterly running for four years from 2015-2019.
Our orignal formation at the beginning of the new millennium took shape at the same time as the UK Government launched its innovative, cross-cutting Social Enterprise Unit – and Sir Ronald Cohen launched the first Social Investment Task Force. Our launch preceded the formation of Social Enterprise UK (the UK’s national membership body) in April 2002, and of Jeff Skoll's inaugural Skoll World Forum on Social Entrepreneurship in 2004.
As the movement of social entrepreneurs and impact investors grew across the world during the early years of the millennium, we recognised that social enterprise was both a mindset and a movement, about people as well as organisations and ecosystems. And despite attempts by many to box in what 'social enterprise' meant according to strict definitions, we have always believed that it is less of a a noun ('a social enterprise' – that is, what you are) and more of a verb ('to social enterprise' – what you do).
Indeed, social enterprise and impact investing make sense because of what entrepreneurs and investors do, how they do it, the impact they create, and the transparency with which they are willing to be scrutinised and held to account. During the 1990s, 2000s and in the years that have followed, this continues to be pioneering – because it is led by people and organisations who see the need to do things differently, to find ways to make profits work for purpose in order to solve the persistent social and environmental challenges that the world faces.
During the first two decades of the 21st century, the notion of combining business ideas and social mission has emerged as a win-win solution; what began, perhaps, as an eccentric outlier is now an opportunity – even, many argue, a necessity – for public sector services, charities, fundraising, investing, philanthropy, government, social responsibility and traditional business. All must now consider both impact and financial sustainability together as they seek to survive and thrive.
It is exciting – but also a frustratingly difficult concept to get your head around. But that is where the role of journalists and storytellers is so important.
Our job at Pioneers Post as an independent, journalistic media platform has always been to explore, explain and share the possibilities and achievements of this new model, to celebrate what works, to call out and challenge what doesn’t, to give people the tools to do better, and to campaign for greater support from those in power who can make a difference.
Over two decades, our website, weekly newsletter and social media channels have developed a loyal readership of more than 200,000 individuals and organisations committed to doing business that creates positive social and environmental change in every continent and country around the world – who trust and support our work to tell their stories and support their pioneering work.
We need your support
Quality journalism doesn’t come for free – and we need your support to maintain our impact journalism.
Our subscribers and partners are central to our success. By sharing your insights, collaborating with us and ‘buying social’, you are supporting both our financial sustainability and our mission to help our growing community of readers 'do good business, better'.
By becoming a fully paid-up Pioneers Post subscriber, you will be supporting our work to connect a growing global network of impact pioneers, on a mission to change the world for good. You will also gain access to our Pioneers Post Impact Library (see above) – with hundreds of stories, videos and podcasts to support your work.
Pioneers Post is itself a social enterprise, with clear social aims – and profits ploughed back to support our community of positive changemakers. Our work is supported by our sister company Fable Bureau, a creative agency committed to storytelling with a social purpose.
