On Campus Discover strategies for expanding, adapting, and sustaining a successful venture to achieve greater impact.
Overview
Some of the most significant innovations in education over the past 20 years have come from visionary entrepreneurs, but while the field is dotted with small successes, there are few examples of long-standing, widespread implementation. Too often, promising products and services never become available at scale.
Scaling For Impact is designed for nonprofit education organizations that are ready to expand and extend their impact. Participants will explore barriers to growth, including increased demands on leadership teams, difficulties in accessing funds, and threats to quality and sustainability. They will look at the pros and cons of different paths to scale, such as brick-and-mortar versus online options, replication versus adaptation, collective impact models, and more. The program provides a rare opportunity for education entrepreneurs to connect with each other as they share successes and challenges and build a network for ongoing support.
Program Details
This three-day program is designed for education entrepreneurs with a proven program, product, or service. Harvard faculty will introduce different approaches to achieving impact at scale, drawing on case studies and experts from the field to illustrate successful scaling strategies. You will explore opportunities for assessing impact, organizing to execute, and sustaining a culture of success.
Teams selected to participate will be expected to identify a problem of practice that they intend to work on during the program. Your team will have dedicated time to work with an experienced facilitator as you define your theory of social impact and develop an action plan that applies what you have learned to the practical challenges facing your organization.
Learning Goals
- Explore effective strategies and leadership skills for scaling for impact and acquire tools and frameworks to help you determine if and how you will scale
- Understand the tensions and trade-offs associated with various scaling decisions
- Learn lessons from the field, including tripwires to avoid and opportunities to seize
- Refine your own theory of social impact and apply research and best practices to diagnose your scaling challenges
- Develop specific next steps and clarify respective roles in this work
- Build useful professional connections
Who Should Attend
This program is designed for leadership teams of 3–5 from nonprofit education organizations that demonstrate the following:
- Proven track record of success in target market
- Initial plan for impact at scale
- Strong leadership team
