Scaling and Innovation
If an organization doesn't know how to learn or scale, innovation isn't the answer to its struggles.
If an organization doesn't know how to learn or scale, innovation isn't the answer to its struggles.
When nonprofits try to plan for scale, systems change, and sustainability at the same time, they can find the expectations for achieving each at odds with each other. The answer is a flexible approach that focuses on the mission.
A commitment is only a start. After that, it takes strategy, performance management, data, planning, investment, and a relentless desire to improve.
An excerpt from Driving Innovation From Within: A Guide for Internal Entrepreneurs examines how employees catalyze innovation from within organizations.
Why and how donors should use donor-advised funds to invest in innovation toward achieving the UN Sustainable Development Goals.
Since 1970, more than 200,000 nonprofits have opened in the U.S., but only 144 have reached $50 million in annual revenue. They got big by doing two things: They raised the bulk of their money from a single type of funder. And just as importantly, these nonprofits created professional organizations that were tailored to the needs of their primary funding sources.
A decade of applying the collective impact approach to address social problems has taught us that equity is central to the work.
How do innovations move from the edges to the core of what an organization does? For maximum impact, innovations must cease to be innovative and become institutionalized and normalized.
Impact evaluations are an important tool for learning about effective solutions to social problems, but they are a good investment only in the right circumstances.
Scaling requires not only fidelity to core processes and programs, but also constant adjustments to local needs and resources.