Program Notes for March 2025 Podcast Titled“Humanitarian Crowd-Solving, Part 1”
- harry2180
- Mar 18
- 4 min read
Updated: Mar 21
On 18 March 2025, Wazoku’s “The Total Innovation Podcast”, hosted by Simon Hill, released a 46-minute interview with Harry Sangree, the Founder of SeaFreight Labs. The podcast is available as Episode 18 on all of the major podcast platforms, as listed below.
Overview of the Content
1. Part 1: Moving from Success to Significance (1:11 – 7:57)
a. Harry’s Background – His professional journey before humanitarian crowdsolving.
b. The COVID Pivot – How the pandemic disrupted his plans and led to a new purpose.
c. The 1% Pledge – The role of committing time, profit, or expertise to social good.
d. The “Aha” Moment – Realizing humanitarian crowdsolving is more than a temporary solution—it’s a scalable and impactful innovation model.
2. Part 2: How Humanitarian Crowd-solving Works (7:58 – 14:34)
a. What is Humanitarian Crowd-solving? – Connecting problem solvers with real-world humanitarian challenges.
b. Breaking Down the Process – How organizations submit challenges, how solvers engage, and what happens after solutions are found.
c. Success Stories –
a. World Vision’s Piped Water System in Kenya – Field-testing a new way to measure chlorine levels in rural water systems.
b. Habitat for Humanity’s Home Retrofitting in the Philippines – Lessons from applying disaster-resistant building techniques.
d. Overcoming Skepticism – How humanitarian organizations initially doubted the approach and what changed their minds.
3. Part 3: Lessons Learned & Key Takeaways (14:35 – 28:36)
a. Solutions to help people
b. Process is an excellent fit for INGO: The “Win-Win-Win” Model
a. Beneficiary
b. Seeker
c. Solver
4. Part 4: Final Reflections & Call to Action (28:37 – 42:39)
a. The Bigger Picture – How humanitarian crowd-solving can scale to impact millions.
b. Applying the “Success to Significance” Mindset – Encouraging professionals to contribute their skills to meaningful causes.
5. Final Thoughts & Takeaways – (42:40 – 45:52)
a. A closing message about the power of humanitarian crowd-solving.
b. Encouraging organizations to explore open innovation models.
Links to Learn More About Topics Referenced in the Podcast
Harry talked in passing about a number of topics that may be of interest to listeners. Links are provided below.
Definition of “Humanitarian Crowd-Solving”. Harry discusses this topic in more detail in a blog post you can read HERE.
The “Pledge 1%” movement. SeaFreight Labs is an active participant in this movement. Read our press release HERE. Check out our webpage on our support of humanitarian non-profits HERE. A number of our blog posts talk about how this pledge has transformed our company. You can browse just the Pledge-1%-related ones HERE.
World Vision’s challenge seeking ways to measure free-chlorine levels for US$500/sensor. The winner of this challenge was announced on 31 January 2022 by World Vision. Click HERE to learn about the winner and his winning design. Since the winners were announced, World Vision engaged with the winning solver to build four prototypes. A field test of the prototypes began in July 2024. See videos of the units HERE. A user's manual for the units is available HERE.
Habitat for Humanity’s challenge seeking ways to make homes with no foundations more resilient in typhoons and earthquakes for US$300/home. The winner of this challenge was announced on 29 September 2021 by Habitat for Humanity at a virtual awards ceremony. Click HERE to watch a video summary of the 4 finalists and ultimate winner.
Habitat-Philippines decided to retrofit 10 homes in the Philippines with the winning design to learn more about community acceptance of the design, commercial cost for implementing the design and the ideal target market for the design.
After completing retrofits on the first 6 houses, HFH-Philippines decided to change their targeting strategy and their delivery strategy. They produced two reports with their findings (February and December 2023).
In the fall of 2024, Habitat presented the "Column Footing Grade Beam Monolith Technology (Beam Monolith)" to the National Economic Development Authority (NEDA) in Region 7, Philippines as part of their efforts to scale the technology for the benefits of lower-income households with non-existent or inadequate foundations. The Regional Development and Research Council received the technology positively and endorsed it for presentation to the Social Development Committee as there is particular interest in the technology's adoption by the Department of Human Settlements and Urban Development (DHSUD) and Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR) within the year. Click HERE to read the presentation. The last page of the report has links to research on "Foundationless Homes in Cebu" and "Beam Monolith's Proof of Concept".
“Halftime: Moving From Success to Significance”. This is a book by Bob Buford that had a major influence on Harry Sangree’s life trajectory. It is available at major booksellers including Amazon (Click HERE).
General information on the 13 successful humanitarian challenges where SeaFreight Labs served as “Project Advisor”. The following webpages are useful resources:
Challenge Showcases (for World Vision, Habitat for Humanity, International Rescue Committee)
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