Putting mission
at the heart
of work

In studying how the future of work is changing, Microsoft hypothesized that technology companies will need to start to think differently about the tools and resources that organizations need to thrive and scale. 

In an increasingly interconnected world, mission-driven organizations are already operating in resource-constrained environments within large, complex ecosystems (e.g. education, healthcare, and housing) and are succeeding — even when the odds are stacked against them.

Microsoft asked NationSwell to give them access to mission-driven organizations and inspire their leadership with insights into how the factors that enable success within Nonprofits and Social Enterprises are broadly applicable to the development of future technology.

NationSwell co-designed the research with the Microsoft team using design thinking approaches and workshop facilitation, and dug deep into the topic through interviews with a unique set of innovative founders, executive directors, and other social impact leaders recruited from the NationSwell Council community.

We created an in-depth insights report on success factors and recommendations on actions for the Microsoft team to consider. We also produced two videos featuring mission-driven organizations that served as case studies for this work, to inspire and guide the Microsoft team now and in the future.

The research project culminated in a one-day salon attended by 60+ stakeholders, including Microsoft executives — we designed, curated and facilitated the session, to bring diverse perspectives together to help solve common challenges facing the community when scaling their work while giving executives the opportunity to learn directly from inspiring mission-driven leaders.