
ENHANCE KNOWLEDGE
Expand understanding of for-benefits and their ecosystem, and monitor their development.
Enhance Knowledge
Building a robust knowledge base for the sector is an essential. A tremendous amount of information must be developed, organized, and disseminated to clarify what for-benefit enterprises are – from how they operate to how they are governed. Leadership and governance theory must be developed that is consistent with the for-benefit model.
It is necessary to identify the barriers for-benefits face, the social and economic impacts they make, and the ways in which they promote innovation and entrepreneurship. Additionally, the need to understand how for-benefits can be employed in specific industries and issue areas, such as healthcare, utilities, energy, education, and banking is key to successful implementation.
Knowledge empowers all of the actors in the fourth sector to understand how to apply the for-benefit model in their unique areas, resulting in more effective decisions and more impact within the ecosystem.
Enhance Knowledge
Advance Policy
Raise Awareness
Connect Stakeholders
Educate & Train
Mobilize Resources
Initiatives Enhancing Knowledge on the 4SG Platform:

Global Alliance for Life Economies Research and Innovation (GALERI)
Catalyzing knowledge, innovation, and coordinated action to scale Life Economy solutions worldwide.
First envisioned in 2022 during the G20 Indonesia and formally launched in 2023 under the G20 India, the Global Alliance for Life Economies Research and Innovation (GALERI) fosters engagement, coordination, and collaboration among governments, think tanks, academia, international organizations, philanthropy, business, civil society, and other actors to accelerate the growth of inclusive and sustainable economies. GALERI aims to create a wide space for collaborations to effectively support policymaking in G20 countries, guide global processes in developing norms, and create global public goods, particularly in research and innovation.
Contributes to:
Advancing Policy, Connecting Stakeholders, Enhancing Knowledge, Raising Awareness, Mobilizing Resources, Educating & Training

Scaling Philanthropy’s Role in Transforming Economic Systems (SPRITES)
Building a global collaborative platform that helps philanthropic leaders coordinate capital, learning, and strategic action to upgrade economic systems and support purpose-driven enterprises and ecosystem infrastructure to scale.
The SPRITES initiative is a global, multi-stakeholder collaboration designed to strengthen philanthropy’s contribution to systemic economic transformation. It provides a coordinated platform where funders, practitioners, policymakers, and ecosystem partners work together to accelerate investment, knowledge, and action toward economic systems that deliver equitable, regenerative, and sustainable outcomes for people and planet.
Contributes to:
Advancing Policy, Enhancing Knowledge, Mobilizing Resources, Connecting Stakeholders

The Fourth Sector in Ibero-America Project
Fostering social & sustainable economy in Ibero-America
The Fourth Sector in Ibero-America Project is a multi-stakeholder initiative led by the Ibero-American General Secretariat (SEGIB) and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), that seeks to facilitate the creation of a more prosperous, socially fair and environmentally sustainable economy in the 22 countries of Latin America and the Iberian Peninsula, by advancing the development of a new ecosystem for benefit-driven enterprises.
Contributes to:
Advancing Policy, Raising Awareness, Connecting Stakeholders, Enhancing Knowledge

COVID-19 Fourth Sector Response
Building Better: Social and economic recovery through fourth sector development
COVID-19 Fourth Sector Response is a collaborative, multi-stakeholder effort to rise to the challenge of the COVID-19 crisis by harnessing the fourth sector of the economy to build a more resilient, inclusive and sustainable future.
Contributes to:
Enhancing Knowledge, Educating & Training, Advancing Policy, Raising Awareness, Connecting Stakeholders, Mobilizing Resources

Fourth Sector Development Initiative
Global Future Council on International Governance, Public-Private Cooperation and Sustainable Development
The Fourth Sector Development Initiative (FSDI) is a collaboration of public, private, and philanthropic institutions committed to accelerating sustainable, inclusive development by catalysing trillions of dollars of fourth sector growth globally by 2030.
Contributes to:
Enhancing Knowledge, Advancing Policy, Raising Awareness, Connecting Stakeholders, Educating & Training, Mobilizing Resources

B4B Coalition
The Buy For-Benefit Coalition, which aims to leverage the trillion spent in procurement dollars to transform global value chains and advance an economy that benefits all stakeholders, launched at the World Economic Forum 2020 Annual Meeting in Davos, Switzerland.
The rules for business are changing rapidly. Leading any organization today is more complex and uncertain than ever. Corporate managers are increasingly asked to do more than deliver financial results or quality goods and services; they are being tasked with tackling massive environmental and societal challenges, operationalizing purpose, and meeting the demands of multiple stakeholders, while navigating an environment of rapid change.
Contributes to:
Enhancing Knowledge, Raising Awareness, Connecting Stakeholders, Educating & Training, Mobilizing Resources, Advancing Policy

Fourth Sector Mapping Initiative (FSMI)
The Fourth Sector Mapping Initiative is a global, multi-stakeholder collaborative effort to shed light on the emerging fourth sector of the economy.
Led by a 180+ member Advisory Council of diverse experts, FSMI is developing a rigorous taxonomy of for-benefit organizations and conducting a global census of these entities and their supportive ecosystems.
Contributes to:
Raising Awareness, Connecting Stakeholders, Advancing Policy, Enhancing Knowledge

Fourth Sector 2030
FS 2030 aims to accelerate the development of an enabling ecosystem for purpose-driven, for-benefit businesses — the emerging fourth sector of the economy.
In collaboration with a range of partners, and with support from the UK Department for International Development (DFID), we are engaging stakeholders from the private sector, governments, inter-governmental organizations, communities, academia, civil society, philanthropy, and the fourth sector to establish a growing reservoir of knowledge, tools, and approaches for releasing the potential of for-benefit enterprise to deliver solutions across the entire range of SDGs.
Contributes to:
Educating & Training, Enhancing Knowledge, Advancing Policy, Connecting Stakeholders, Raising Awareness

OXFAM - Future of Business Initiative
Promoting equitable businesses and fourth sector development
Oxfam's Future of Business Initiative advances a portfolio of projects supporting for-benefit enterprises—businesses that prioritize social aims and put the interests of workers, farmers, communities and consumers alongside those of investors. Oxfam will help for-benefit businesses to access finance, work with global companies on how they can include such businesses in their supply chains, and investigate how for-benefit businesses can contribute towards tackling global inequality.
Contributes to:
Raising Awareness, Mobilizing Resources, Connecting Stakeholders, Enhancing Knowledge

CARE Enterprises Growth Fund
A $30 million, 10-year Growth Fund focused on scaling for-benefit enterprises in frontier markets, being structured by CARE Enterprises.
CARE Enterprises Announces Plans to Deploy $30 Million through Investment Structures and Collaboration with World Economic Forum’s Fourth Sector Development Initiative
Contributes to:
Mobilizing Resources, Connecting Stakeholders, Raising Awareness, Enhancing Knowledge

Fourth Sector Data Commons
An open, freely accessible, interactive online database of for-benefit organizations and fourth sector support organizations.
To meet the global demand for better data and understanding about for-benefit organizations, the goal of the Fourth Sector Data Commons is to create a comprehensive, worldwide source of information on the scale, scope and performance of for-benefit organizations, their supporting ecosystem, and other closely aligned organizations. It will be an open, freely accessible, participatory, cloud-based platform that enables users to pool and access existing sources of relevant data; gather, update, expand, and deepen data on ongoing basis; and perform business, impact, and policy analysis and research.
A component of the Fourth Sector Mapping Initiative, the Data Commons will be developed and stewarded for the benefit of public agencies, practitioners, researchers, consumers, economic developers and other members of the fourth sector community.
Contributes to:
Raising Awareness, Advancing Policy, Educating & Training, Connecting Stakeholders, Enhancing Knowledge

Fourth Sector Policy Initiative
A comprehensive fourth sector policy framework
A global, multi-stakeholder collaboration to develop and promulgate a comprehensive fourth sector policy framework, including model laws that could be adopted at the national, state and local levels around the world. To inform the work, the Fourth Sector Policy Initiative is undertaking a research effort in collaboration with DLA Piper and other partners to examine recent legal and regulatory reforms which have been adopted around the world to recognize and support for-benefit organizations.
Contributes to:
Advancing Policy, Raising Awareness, Enhancing Knowledge
