Scaling Social Impact: Strategies for Spreading Social Innovations

By J. Gregory Dees and Beth Battle Anderson

This presentation provides guidance for addressing the challenge of “scaling out” – spreading social sector innovations into new geographic locations in order to achieve greater impact.  In addition to offering a four-stage strategic decision making process, this document provides guidance on what and how to scale out, and outlines the “Four R’s” criteria for making scaling decisions: readiness, resources, receptivity, risks, and returns.

Presentation_Dees_ScalingforSocialImpactExploringStrategiesforSpreadingSocialInnovations_2003