ABSTRACT
The response to the crisis of the Santa Casa da Misericórdia de Lisboa (SCML) 1 has been not just social innovation but also a creative design of solutions, an attitude which made it possible to incorporate the complexity of the context and respond to concrete situations at a time of financial crisis and recession in Portugal. Innovation is not the answer for the third sector in a time of crisis. What really matters is not innovation but designing solutions tailored to our surrounding reality and which allow us to respond to concrete problems. It was thus possible to create over a period of 600 years one of the most relevant institutions in the social sector, an example replicated throughout the world, first as an expression of solidarity of the Portuguese maritime empire and today as a Lusophone identity – the Santa Casa da Misericórdia de Lisboa.
