The Mastercard Center for Inclusive Growth: A Playbook for Societal Impact at Scale

The Mastercard Center for Inclusive Growth (the Center) was launched in 2013 to advance equitable and sustainable economic growth by accelerating financial inclusion worldwide.

The Center seeks to move beyond traditional corporate philanthropy by pairing philanthropic capital with Mastercard’s core business assets (data, technology, expertise, and networks) to create a scalable “doing well by doing good” model.

By 2024, the Center had helped bring nearly a billion people into the formal financial system, and the Center was preparing for the next shift—from a digital economy to a data- and AI-driven economy—while keeping its focus on outcomes such as long-term financial health.

This case presents the Center’s playbook for impact at scale, including an organizational framework built around Insights, Impact, and Influence and a program development approach of Test, Iterate, and Scale to build evidence-based solutions with partners.

Examples of the Center’s global work, such as RISE, illustrate how multi-sector partnerships, measurement, iteration, and replication help convert insights into scalable programs.

The case closes by asking how the Center should adapt its model, partnerships, and priorities as new technologies and contexts reshape the inclusive growth agenda.

This case was written by Harris, Jared D.; Chinnaswamy, Trent; Caughron, Anna; Menghwar, Prem and published by Darden School of Business