NEW YORK – JANUARY 21, 2025 – Echoing Green Fellows Muzalema Mwanza, Vineet Singal, and Akshay Saxena were recognized by the Schwab Foundation for Social Entrepreneurship as 2025 Social Entrepreneurs of the Year. The announcement was made at the 2025 World Economic Forum Annual Meeting at Davos on January 21, 2025.

Mwanza, Singal, and Saxena were awarded Echoing Green Fellowships in 2013, 2020, and 2012 respectively to help launch their organizations, receiving both capital investments and leadership development support.

• Co-founded by Muzalema Mwanza, Safe Motherhood Alliance provides affordable healthcare for pregnant women in underserved communities in Zambia by equipping low-resource areas with the materials and capacity to create safe, sterile spaces for birth To date, the organization has supported 102,500 mothers and newborns in partnership with 10 affiliated hospitals and clinics while also training 300 birth attendants and distributing 51,250 delivery kits.
• Co-founded by Vineet Singal, CareMessage develops the capacity of health organizations to serve poor communities across the U.S. by engaging mobile technologies to support health literacy and patient accountability, reducing the overall costs of care. The technology has been used by more than 400 providers who have experienced increased communication and engagement capacity in the care of more than 20 million patients.
• Co-founded by Akshay Saxena, Avanti Fellows levels the playing field for disadvantaged students in India by removing the economic and social barriers to attending top colleges. To date, the program has supported more than 18,000 students, assisting 385 students to gain entry to top 1 percent colleges and universities.

“Muzalema, Vineet, and Akshay’s impact demonstrates the transformative power of investing in emerging stage innovators and their bold visions for change,” said Cheryl Dorsey, president of Echoing Green and 2019 Schwab Foundation Social Innovation Thought Leader. “As a leading talent spotter in the field of social innovation, we’re proud to have been one of the first investors in their important work.”

Echoing Green also recognizes Gina Clayton and Minhaj Chowdhury who were previously named as finalists for the award.

• Founded by Gina Clayton-Johnson, Essie Justice Group is building a women-led movement to end mass incarceration by uniting, supporting, and empowering women with incarcerated loved ones.
• Founded by Minhaj Chowdhury, Drinkwell is transforming Bangladesh’s water crisis into entrepreneurial opportunity for rural areas by blending proprietary filtration technology with a franchise business model.

The Schwab Foundation’s Social Innovation Awards are awarded to social entrepreneurs, as well as social innovators within the public, corporate, and collective sectors where solutions are developed on a collaborative framework. Selection criteria include projects with an orientation toward inequality, exclusion, marginalization and vulnerable ecosystems; established and accomplished proof of concept; unique and novel approaches to solutions; equitable representation across its target population; and the solution must be developed through a systemic lens.

About Echoing Green
For 37 years, Echoing Green has been on the front lines of solving the world’s biggest problems, raising up the transformational leaders willing to speak truth to power and challenge the status quo. The organization finds emerging leaders with the best ideas for social innovation as early as possible and sets them on a path to lifelong impact. Echoing Green’s community of nearly 1,000 social innovators includes past Fellows such as First Lady Michelle Obama and the founders of Teach For America, Center for Black Innovation, GirlTrek, and One Acre Fund. Built and refined over three decades, Echoing Green discovers tomorrow’s leaders today, and then funds, connects, and supports a new generation of social impact leaders.