Giving Compass' Take:
• The Skoll Foundation offers a pathway to scale impact for social entrepreneurs by incorporating advisory services instead of taking direct action. 

• How can philanthropists work with social entrepreneurs to help enhance their advisory services? How can advisory services become part of more nuanced community mobilization practices?

• Scaling impact for nonprofits can sometimes require a different approach than one by taken by social entrepreneurs. 

A central question for any social entrepreneur with a proven, effective innovation is how to scale its impact. For many organizations and funders, the answer to this question is elusive. There are many pathways to scale beyond simply amplifying an organization’s own direct action.

At the Skoll Foundation, we’ve been carefully documenting and analyzing the work of the organizations in our portfolio, and this has helped us spot notable trends, such as how an organization scales an innovation that works. We’ve also noticed that a number of organizations have expanded into consulting and advisory services as a means of scaling through other actors. By taking on an advising role, an organization can scale a core innovation with less demand on its resources than would be required through scaling its direct action.

Based on lessons from our portfolio, we encourage organizations that are curious about this pathway to scale to consider the following.

  • Build credibility. The path to scaling through other actors begins with proving the effectiveness and credibly of the core model.The timeframe for codifying and proving a unique solution will differ for every organization, but the key is to build credibility as a prominent player in the field with a proven and impactful model.
  • Look beyond the usual suspects. Advisory services can create new partnerships with unusual or unexplored actors.
  • Enhance sustainability through earned revenue. The shift to advisory services can generate a new earned revenue stream that supports organizational growth and sustainability.
  • Leverage your existing assets. Scaling through others enables organizations to do more with less.
  • Demonstrate model fidelity. As organizations start to expand through advisory services, it is imperative to demonstrate how the effectiveness of the model or solution persists in the absence of the organization’s direct engagement.

Read the full article about a pathway to scale for social entrepreneurs by  Sarah Miers & Zach Slobig at Stanford Social Innovation Review.