In a previous collaboration, Sport England funded five organisations to take part in the Volunteering Scaling Programme. Spring Impact was proud to partner on this initiative, bringing our experience and tools to support each organisation to scale their impact meaningfully and sustainably.

The Volunteering Scaling Programme was created in response to a clear challenge: while many of the funded projects in Sport England’s Volunteering Fund (which closed in 2023) had strong results and promising solutions, the teams behind them weren’t sure where to start scaling them. 

They lacked the confidence, time, or tools to plan for scale in a way that would last. The programme set out to change that, offering participating organisations support to build the strategies, tools, and mindsets needed to take their impact further.

This learning paper, developed by Sport England in partnership with Spring Impact, distills the learnings that followed.

The biggest takeaway? While scaling impact takes careful planning and dedicated time, the real shift starts with the mindset.

We’ve supported over 700 organisations on their scale journeys – including the five in this programme – and one thing has remained true: scaling effectively and sustainably starts with the right mindsets. That’s why we’ve defined the Six Scaling Mindsets that sit at the heart of this new resource.

These mindsets reflect what it really takes to make lasting change. Changing ingrained habits and team cultures isn’t easy, but it’s where the real transformation happens. The organisations in the programme experienced this first-hand, and the insights shared in this resource are based on their experience.