The Courage to Create: Why the Service Charity Sector Must Champion Its Innovators

In every sector, there are two kinds of people: those who follow the map, and those who draw it. In the service charity world, where lives, not profits, hang in the balance, the mapmakers are not just important, they’re vital.They are the innovators, the ones who dare to ask uncomfortable questions, challenge outdated systems, and design programmes not because they’re popular, but because they’re necessary. They’re the first to notice the silent suffering, the unseen communities, and the systemic blind spots that traditional service delivery often overlooks. They build bridges where others build silos. They trade safety for significance. Yet, paradoxically, these pioneers are often the least supported. Why? Because innovation, by its nature, is messy. It doesn’t come in polished proposals or safe metrics. It disrupts, questions, tests boundaries. But here's the twist: when innovation succeeds when a radical new idea proves its worth, it doesn't just change lives. It changes the entire sector. Here’s where the imitators come in. Once a bold new intervention is shown to work, be it a trauma-informed programme for veterans with Military Sexual Trauma, a peer-led therapeutic retreat, or a social enterprise that empowers through cooking or mutual support groups, others replicate it. And they should. Scaling impact is part of progress. But it’s the original thinkers, the doers who dare, who shoulder the initial risk, who navigate the resistance, and who light the path for others. Yet,we forget this at our peril. In today’s service charity sector, where funding streams are tight and results must be immediate, there is a dangerous drift toward safety. Organisations chase “good ideas,” but too few ask “who made it work in the first place?” The pioneers, ironically, are often left behind, outpaced in visibility by larger charities who adopt their models but never credit the source. This isn’t just unjust. It’s unsustainable. Without sustained support, encouragement, and recognition, our innovators eventually move onto other opportunities. Their ideas, their programmes, and their deeply personal missions wither on the vine, just as others begin to harvest the fruit. The cost? Stagnation. Repetition. A sector too busy replicating yesterday’s successes to meet tomorrow’s challenges. If we want to see real change; effective, adaptive, human-centred service delivery we must nurture the ones who dare to go first. We must fund the bold ideas before the data is perfect. We must listen to the outliers, the rule-breakers, the voices from the margins. We must honour the value of lived experience and the power of people who don’t just serve communities, but come from them. To support innovation is to invest in the future of the service charity sector. It’s to admit that while not every experiment will succeed, no progress happens without experimentation. It’s to build an ecosystem where the first follower is as important as the first leader,but never more so.than during an time of austerity. So here’s the call: if you're a funder, support the ones who haven’t yet made the headlines. If you're a policymaker, give the innovators a seat at the table. And if you're an imitator,borrow wisely, build respectfully, and credit always. Innovation isn’t just the lifeblood of progress. In the charity sector, it’s often the difference between surviving and truly living. Let’s stop celebrating impact without acknowledging the courage it took to imagine it.

Tony Wright CEO Forward Assist