To attack an empty whiteboard with a fistful of markers is to experience the dawn of creation, and a wall festooned with Post-Its pretty much guarantees a break-though. Rapid prototyping sounds cool even if you don’t know what it is, and who wouldn’t want to be the subject of a breathless article in Fast Company? Someday, if you play your cards just right, you could even be summoned to the TED stage. Wow!
Everybody’s doing it: Even the big international NGOs—the BINGOs—are getting in on the action with a wave of innovation labs and rejiggered mission statements. Whee!
I hate to be the skunk at the party, but look: The most urgent challenge in the social sector is not innovation, but replication. No idea will drive big impact at scale unless organizations—a lot of them—replicate it. And there are plenty of high-impact ideas awaiting high-quality replication. More than a few of them are backed by randomized controlled trial (RCT) results and all that stuff. It turns out that replication matters even more than innovation when it comes to impact at scale…”
Comments Off on Spring Impact relaunches its flagship Scale Accelerator
Scale Accelerator will provide four cohorts of non-profits and social enterprises, drawn from all over the UK, with intensive support to scale their impact. In addition, Spring Impact will be supporting innovative funders to learn what really works in supporting organisations to scale, and how they can embed these practices within their organisations.
The programme has been made possible by the Big Lottery Fund, the largest funder of community activity in the UK, which distributes money raised by National Lottery players.
Joe Kallarackal Spring Impact Director said, “We know that we have fantastic organisations across the UK with incredibly impactful projects supporting our communities. Many desire to increase their impact, but need support to explore how to make this a reality. Whilst there are a range of resources focused on supporting innovation, developing new ideas, or assisting organisational growth, Spring Impact’s Scale Accelerator is uniquely focused on scaling social impact.
Not only are we excited about the potential to accelerate each participants’ impact, but also the opportunity to engage funders on how they can change their own practices to support scaling impact.”
Participating organisations will receive 9 months of consultancy support to define a clear plan for scaling their impact sustainably alongside access to expertise to tackle their biggest barriers to scale.
Derek Bardowell, Senior Head of UK Portfolio at the Big Lottery Fund, said: “We’re delighted that National Lottery funding is supporting this programme, which helps organisations to grow and increase their impact. Ambitious projects across the UK will be able to scale up their effects, enabling more people and communities to thrive.”
If you’re interested in taking part or know an organisation with a great proven social innovation click here to register your interest.
For more information about Spring Impact and how they help nonprofits and social enterprises scale up their social impact please contact [email protected].
Notes to Editor
To date, 17 organisations from across the country have taken part in the Scale Accelerator.
The first ever Scale Accelerator was launched in 2015.
Over the past three years with the support from a range of funders, Spring Impact have worked with promising social innovations that deal with a range of issues from homelessness to youth leadership.
Originally called The International Centre for Social Franchising, today Spring Impact has offices in the UK and US and maintains a presence in Australia.
Since launching they have worked with over 120 organizations across over 30 countries impacting the lives of tens of thousands of people
They have worked in partnership with well-known institutions including The Bill & Melinda Gates foundation, The National Lottery Fund, Save The Children, The NSPCC, Nesta, The Rockefeller Foundation and the J.P. Morgan Foundation
Spring Impact has updated their impact goal and aims to help 30 social innovations scale by 2024. In a bid to transform the lives of hundreds of thousands, if not, millions of people.
About the Big Lottery Fund:
We are the largest community funder in the UK – we’re proud to award money raised by National Lottery players to communities across England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. Since June 2004, we have made over 200,000 grants and awarded over £9 billion to projects that have benefited millions of people.
We are passionate about funding great ideas that matter to communities and make a difference to people’s lives. At the heart of everything we do is the belief that when people are in the lead, communities thrive. Thanks to the support of National Lottery players, our funding is open to everyone. We’re privileged to be able to work with the smallest of local groups right up to UK-wide charities, enabling people and communities to bring their ambitions to life.
Comments Off on When replication beats innovation – DEVEX
SAN FRANCISCO — While several people had suggested that Dianne Calvi, chief executive officer of Village Enterprise, connect with the International Center for Social Franchising, she found that she could never remember the name.
When Calvi took over Village Enterprise, a nonprofit that supports people living in extreme poverty in rural Africa to start businesses and savings groups, it was known as VEF, the Village Enterprise Fund, so she could relate to the branding challenge, she said at a recent rebranding event.
Now, ICSF has unveiled a new name, too.
As of Wednesday, the International Center for Social Franchising will be known as Spring Impact. The organization took Devex behind the scenes of its rebrand. Under the new name, the nonprofit hopes to influence not only individual organizations, but also the social sector as a whole, to consider replication as a pathway to scale.
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.
Comments Off on Innovation & The Power of Old Ideas
This research aims to encourage people in the social sector to learn from commercial franchising, and to help them significantly increase their impact by adopting an appropriate replication strategy. The findings aim to encourage social organisations to consider replication as a viable approach both to scaling sustainably and to increasing their social impact. The research offers new frameworks that make social franchising more accessible to the busy CEO.
*In 2017 The International Centre for Social Franchising (ICSF) became Spring Impact. This report was created under our old branding and name.
