From Ideas to Impact: Insights from Leading Innovation at Rainforest Alliance
Karen Reijnen was the Senior Innovation Director at the Rainforest Alliance for the past six years. As she transitioned out of that role, Rising Solutions had the opportunity to sit down with her as she reflected on building a social sector innovation team and the lessons she learned. The following interview explores the challenges, discoveries, and growth that came out of collaborating with dedicated teams and partners to create meaningful change and drive innovative solutions to address pressing social and environmental issues.
1. Thank you so much for taking the time to do this interview. As the Innovation Director at Rainforest Alliance for the past 6 years, tell us about how you ended up in the role. What is the path to becoming a “Senior Innovation Director” at an NGO?
Before joining the Rainforest Alliance, I spent about eight years as a consultant, working in countries like the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Kenya, Tanzania, and Cambodia. During this time, I collaborated with organizations like the UN and the World Bank to foster entrepreneurship and develop social enterprises. I learned how deeply interconnected social and environmental challenges can be and developed the agility and perseverance needed to address them effectively.
In 2016, I joined the Rainforest Alliance because I wanted to shift from advising on change to directly implementing it. My early work involved collaborating with companies like Nestlé and Mars to create services that extended beyond certification—these years immersed me in the cocoa and coffee sectors, providing invaluable experience working with farmers in West Africa and sustainability teams from major corporations.
By 2018, I had the opportunity to establish the Innovation team at the Rainforest Alliance. My understanding of the challenges faced by farmers and companies, paired with my experience in designing new services, proved instrumental in building this team from the ground up.
2. Could you share some insights on the new solutions you developed, such as Future Farmers, Nature’s Bank and Portfolio Management Process? What are the key lessons you and your teams learned from these projects?
I: Ensure alignment on outcomes – especially when leadership changes (again and again)
Innovation is a broad term, and different people often have varying ideas about the purpose of an innovation team. When I launched the team at Rainforest Alliance, we held multiple sessions with leadership to align on our desired outcomes. At the time, our mandate was to develop new business models for RA—beyond certification—while still advancing our mission of “people and nature thriving in harmony.”
The Rainforest Alliance Innovation team in Kenya, 2022.
However, after a leadership change, our role shifted significantly. We were tasked with "bringing innovation to the core of RA's work." This shift required new skill sets, attitudes, and metrics for the team.
One critical lesson: continuously revisiting and refreshing agreements with leadership is essential for the team’s (and leadership’s) perception of success. Without this alignment, you risk moving in different directions and diluting impact.
II: Finding the right balance between innovation and integration
A key lesson I’ve learned is the importance of balancing the rapid exploration of new ideas with the timely integration of successful innovations into the broader organization.
In the early stages, speed is critical—you need a small, cross-functional team to act like “speedboats,” testing and validating solutions quickly. But once a solution shows promise, it’s essential to integrate it at the right time. This requires clear ownership and investment from the teams responsible for scaling the innovation.
For instance, when we developed Future Farmers, we validated business models for regenerative farming on a demo farm in Kenya. Initially, we planned to scale the models ourselves. However, as the project evolved and integration began, we realized we were heading in a more commercial direction than the organization was prepared to pursue. By iterating on the model and partnering with commercial entities, we were able to focus on our strengths while still achieving the intended impact.
III. Creating value for multiple stakeholders
In social innovation, success often depends on creating value for multiple stakeholders. This requires developing two-sided value propositions—one for the paying customer and another for the communities or individuals who benefit from the solution.
For example, with Nature’s Bank, a carbon credit program we developed, we continuously tested the concept with corporations, local NGOs, and communities. This allowed us to develop a model that delivered value to both sides: corporations received high-quality carbon credits, while local communities gained environmental and economic benefits. By ensuring that both sides of the equation benefited, we were able to create a more sustainable and impactful solution.
Karen Reijnen testing Black Soldier Fly production.
3. Reflecting on the different leadership styles and approaches, what have you learned about the qualities and skills required to successfully innovate in the social sector?
Leading innovation in the social sector requires a combination of modesty, empathy, and an experimental mindset:
Modesty to recognize that no single solution or person has all the answers. Collaboration is key.
Empathy to understand the needs of farmers, communities, and partners, ensuring solutions are relevant and sustainable.
Continuous testing and learning to adapt and refine solutions—innovation rarely emerges perfectly in its first iteration.
Above all, fostering trust and transparency across teams and stakeholders is critical to driving change.
4. In the social sector, innovation is often treated as an elective initiative. Why do you think R&D has yet to fully take root as a core business unit within nonprofits?
Innovation in the social sector often struggles because it operates at odds with traditional donor expectations. Developing truly new solutions takes time, and early stages are inherently uncertain. Donors, however, often require clear outputs, outcomes, and timelines—usually within the 3-4 years of a program cycle.
Some donors, fortunately, are beginning to recognize the value of flexible funding for innovation, but even then, most require proof of concept before investing. This creates a paradox where early-stage ideas lack the resources to develop into fundable concepts. Shifting this dynamic will require more forward-thinking funding models that value the potential of innovation over immediate results.
5. Have you found any strategies that are effective at embedding innovation within an organization’s core mission, rather than having it remain as a “pet project”?
The Innovation & Business Development team in Kenya, 2024.
At the Rainforest Alliance, one of the most transformative decisions was setting an ambitious goal: reaching 100 million farmers by 2030, compared to 4 million in 2023. This bold objective forced the organization to rethink how it operates. Incremental improvements would not suffice—innovation became a necessity rather than an option.
Embedding innovation requires aligning it with long-term organizational goals and ensuring leadership fully supports the effort. It’s also vital to demonstrate how innovation directly contributes to achieving the organization’s mission, making it inseparable from its core work.
6. Looking ahead, what do you think of the future of innovation in the social sector? What do you think it will take for innovation in the social sector to become a permanent, integral part of the nonprofit sector and how would this change the sector?
For innovation to become integral to the nonprofit sector, three key shifts are essential:
Long-term funding for R&D: Donors must adopt investment-like approaches to support early-stage ideas, understanding that not every innovation will succeed, but the ones that do can create transformational impact.
Built-in financial sustainability: While donor funding can kick-start solutions, long-term success requires identifying who will pay for these solutions at scale. Whether it’s companies, governments, or communities, embedding financial independence into the design ensures sustainability and impact over time.
Cultural change within organizations: Nonprofits must embrace calculated risk-taking, experimentation, and cross-sector collaboration to unlock innovative potential.
Thank you again for your time, Karen. It was fascinating to hear your insights and strategies. From leading with your core values to aligning leadership on your innovation team’s mandate, balancing exploration with integration, and creating value for diverse stakeholders there is a lot to learn from your time at the Rainforest Alliance. These lessons are valuable as it becomes increasingly essential to embed innovation as a core function within organizations in the social sector.
At Rising Solutions, we’ve seen firsthand how this is becoming increasingly important as the sector shifts toward more localized solutions, collaborative approaches, and empowering the voices of those directly impacted. Clients often call on us to help them foster these enabling environments—spaces where innovation can thrive, partnerships can flourish, and bold solutions can take root. Whether it’s aligning leadership on transformative goals or navigating the balance between experimentation and integration, the lessons you shared resonate deeply with the work we do to help organizations reimagine their strategies and embrace innovation as a driver of meaningful, sustainable impact.