Our Philosophy
What we are, what we are for, and how we build
Everything The Sixth Wave is can be held in four ideas, arranged in a deliberate order: the Purpose, the Method, the Engine and the Promise. Read in that order, the movement makes complete sense.
- 01
The Purpose
A better world, built by the generation that will inherit it.
The Sixth Wave exists to build a fairer, more just and more sustainable world, as concrete work, measured against the Sustainable Development Goals and delivered on the ground. This is the end that everything else serves. The movement, its programmes, the league, the recognition, all of it exists so that a generation's capability is turned toward the problems that matter, at a scale a single effort could never reach.
- 02
The Method
A generation, mobilised, through four doors.
The movement pursues its purpose by mobilising young people to act, and by giving their action a structure, a stage, and a permanent home. Its flagship programme is a worldwide competition league. Within it, young people build the world they want through four doors: by starting ventures that solve real problems, by delivering direct impact through service and action, by shaping thought and culture through knowledge, research, art and writing, and by becoming the leaders who build and run the movement itself.
- 03
The Engine
A social enterprise, built to fund its own mission.
The Sixth Wave funds its own mission. It is built as a social enterprise, so it stays independent, answers only to its purpose, and always has the means a purpose this size demands. This is what keeps the movement durable and self-sustaining, and free to pursue its mission for the long term. People, planet and profit, in that order, with profit held in service of the people and the planet.
- 04
The Promise
We reach our ends justly, and keep faith with our people.
How we pursue the purpose matters as much as the purpose itself. The Sixth Wave keeps faith with the people whose energy makes it possible. Everyone who builds the movement is recognised and rewarded for what they build, and everyone who competes in it leaves stronger than they arrived. This is the movement's integrity: a better world, reached by a better road.
How the four fit together
The Purpose is the end. The Method is how we reach it. The Engine is what sustains it. The Promise is the character we hold to along the way. We exist to build a better world, we do it by mobilising a generation, we sustain it by earning our own way, and we hold to fairness while we do.
People, planet, profit, in that order. A generation, building the world it wants.