Over the past decade social innovators have demonstrated how to build and replicate effective programs, achieving a level of success far beyond what almost any of us might have imagined. But, as Abe Grindle and I chronicled in "Transformative Scale: The Future of Growing What Works," even the most celebrated social programs struggle to crack the code of creating population-level change.

This challenge inspired us to team with Harvard Business School to launch the Transformative Impact Collaborative—a group of 26 nonprofits and funders that are building transformative scale strategies. Bridgespan also continues to consult with several other organizations in this vein. Out of this work, a number of important themes and issues have emerged:

  • The leadership challenge of 2x versus 100x impact
  • The shift from organization-based to field-based strategies
  • Weak demand for effective programs
  • Heightened focus on a model's cost
  • The need for new thinking on funding models
  • Implementation can make or break impact

Read the full article about transformative scale by Jeff Bradach at The Bridgespan Group.