Comments Off on Evaluating the 2017 scale accelerator cohort
This year, Spring Impact worked in partnership with The Social Innovation Partnership to support six organisations covering a range of issues from food poverty to rehabilitation.
Marion Brossard is a consultant for The Social Innovation Partnership who led the evaluation strand of the Scale Accelerator from April to November 2017. We invited Marion to talk about what you should look out for as you scale and the importance of Measuring and Evaluation (M&E)
Our work means we’re privileged to meet groundbreaking organisations that have effective solutions for the world’s biggest problems. Whether tackling homelessness, education or reproductive health, we guide organisations through the process of scaling their impact.
There are a number of ways this can be achieved. The simplest (in theory!) is to grow the organisation, by raising more funding and income to increase its reach. In practice, however, resources are limited and this route is very difficult.
It started with one woman, homeless in San Francisco, lamenting that she would never be clean. Lava Mae founder, Doniece Sandoval, heard her cries. Those words, a desire to help those experiencing homelessness, and a crazy obsession with the mobile food truck movement set in motion what would eventually become Lava Mae.
Lava Mae believes that access to showers and toilets shouldn’t be a luxury, and seeks to serve those who lack access to what should be basic human rights – showers and sanitation. Since June 2014 the team has delivered over 14,000 showers, welcoming them according to Lava Mae’s mantra of ‘radical hospitality.’
In light of the huge need and demand for their work, Lava Mae started thinking about how they could scale their impact. They recognised the potential to positively affect more people experiencing homelessness in other geographies by replicating their model.
At the time of engaging Spring Impact, Lava Mae had countless opportunities both in the US and around the globe, and multiple ideas for scaling up its impact. We have since helped Lava Mae to redefine their strategic direction, concentrate their expansion efforts on two scale-up strategies and are continuing to help the Lava Mae team implement them in a sustainable way.
