A significant number of nonprofit leaders strive to achieve much more than they currently do—contributing meaningfully to solving social problems at a population-level scale, while keeping their own organizations at a sustainable size and budget. Some call it “scaling impact" to distinguish the ambition from scaling an organization.
In 2014, Bridgespan Group authors, Jeffrey Bradach and Abe Grindle, explored this topic in “Transformative Scale: The Future of Growing What Works.” Since then, Bridgespan has had the privilege of working with and learning from dozens of leaders in the United States, Africa, and Asia who have pursued different pathways to solving social problems at scale. This article discusses some highlights of what they—and we—have learned from this work. It is intended for nonprofit leaders seeking practical guidance for their own journeys toward solving social problems at scale. (For more information, data, and examples about the most commonly used pathways for this work, see our research covering 80 organizations’ strategies in “A New Look at Strategic Pathways for Solving Social Problems at Scale.”)
Solving social problems at scale isn’t about growing vital direct service programs to reach more people and communities. Rather, it means fundamentally altering policies, norms, behaviors, and power structures—in order to remake the entrenched systems that perpetuated the inequitable outcomes in the first place. To be sure, direct service providers, as well as other organizations, can still contribute powerfully toward solving social problems by effectively deploying their unique skill sets, experiences, leadership, and partnerships to address critical components of that problem.
In doing this kind of work, leaders must navigate three big questions:
In this article, we reflect on these three questions and the ways organizations have approached them, drawing on Bridgespan’s advisory experience as well as in-depth interviews with 11 nonprofits and nongovernmental organizations (NGOs).
