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How to scale social innovations: forming strategic partnerships

3 Sep 2026 18:00 – 19:15

The Line, 58 Victoria Embankment EC4Y 0DS and online

Free

Too many promising social innovations fail to scale, often stalling at the pilot stage. Successful scaling often requires collaborative networks and partnerships that can support long-term growth and impact.

On Thursday 3 September from 18:00-19:15 BST we’re exploring examples of successful strategic partnerships in social innovation. This hybrid event is part of our ongoing series on scaling innovations and will take place at The Line, 58 Victoria Embankment, London, EC4Y 0DS and online.

The event will be chaired by Mallory Durran, applied research and methods director at Nesta, who will be joined by a panel who have successfully navigated this, including:

Moria Sloan, fairer start mission director at Nesta;
Toby Eccles, executive director and co-founder at Social Finance; and
Ranjit Singh, partnerships lead at Library of Things.

Drawing insights from our scaling toolkit, the conversation will unpack the practical realities of constructing partnerships across sectors, consider how organisations can shift from isolated efforts to highly integrated partnerships, explore methods for seamless knowledge transfer and discuss strategies for keeping diverse stakeholders aligned around a singular, mission-driven focus.

Whether you are a social innovator, charity leader, funder or policymaker, you will walk away with ideas and tools to apply to your own scaling efforts.

Moria Sloan

She/Her

Moria heads up the fairer start mission, leading Nesta’s work to tackle early childhood inequalities. She also serves as an advisor at the Cabinet Office, where she previously held the role of deputy director for public sector innovation, supporting the Test, Learn and Grow programme. At Nesta, Moria has held several senior roles, including deputy director for the fairer start mission and chief of staff, where she supported organisational strategy, leadership and equity, diversity and inclusion. Before joining Nesta, Moria worked in the humanitarian sector, supporting people displaced by conflict and crisis around the world. Moria has previously lived in Washington, D.C., Nairobi, Addis Ababa and New York. She loves hiking, camping and spending time outdoors, and is always amused by dogs sitting in puddles.

Ranjit Singh

He/Him

Ranjit Singh's current role at the social enterprise Library of Things is Partnership Lead & Strategic Business Development where he has over the past five years increased the organisation's footprint by sevenfold in the UK, the Netherlands and Spain. Ranjit has over 40 years retail experience from the family corner shop to leading the expansion of The Body Shop in the UK & USA as well as setting up a consumer products venture for Virgin in Los Angeles. The journey also includes a stint on Wall Street and a failed restaurant concept in Manhattan! He has been actively involved in charities for nearly all his professional career - from community/trade not aid projects at The Body Shop, a board member of a New York school for disadvantaged young people, Girlguiding UK and the paralympic sport Goalball.

Toby Eccles

He/Him

Toby is a co-founder of Social Finance and developed the Social Impact Bond model from initial concept to the first implementation at Peterborough Prison. He also led on the first local authority Social Impact Bond – Essex Edge of Care – focused on children in care, and went on to design the Social Outcomes Fund for the Cabinet Office – the first centrally pooled fund for impact bonds. Internationally, Toby catalysed Development Impact Bonds in partnership with the Center for Global Development, and worked with the Inter-American Development Bank on impact bond strategies for Chile, Mexico and Brazil. Toby supported the development of Social Finance’s data and digital capacity whilst also working on several initiatives including a focus on community entrepreneurship, race equity and how government can more effectively manage markets. In 2017 he was given an OBE for services to social investment.

Mallory Durran

She/Her

Mallory has led public sector and start-up teams harnessing data and technology for the public good for over a decade. She brings extensive experience from the heart of UK government, including in No 10 and the Cabinet Office, and most recently as Interim Director of the Incubator for AI at the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology, leading an engineering team building AI applications for public sector improvement. With an academic background in computational neuroscience, Mallory is a badged statistician and former SCS member of the Government Statistical Service. She has contributed to significant government standard setting and reviews on data and digital infrastructure, ethics, and AI safety and opportunity and led No 10's open API framework development (project rAPId). At Nesta, Mallory oversees the applied research, methods, AI, and technology offer for the group, bringing innovative approaches to improving access to and efficacy of interventions across Nesta’s missions and the wider public sector. She remains relentlessly enthusiastic about the power of data and technology to fuel positive change.

Part of

Scaling projects to achieve social impact

3 Sep 2026 18:00 – 19:15

Free

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How to scale social innovations: forming strategic partnerships

About Nesta

How to scale social innovations: forming strategic partnerships