How Successful Is Your Nonprofit's Social Program?

Do you have a successful program at your nonprofit organization? If so, how would you or how did you scale that program up? There has been little to no research on how nonprofits have successfully expanded social programs.

But in a recently released study from Wallace Foundation titled “Strategies to Scale Up Social Programs: Pathways, Partnerships and Fidelity,” 497 documents from 45 social programs were evaluated.

The study looked at three fundamental decisions from these social programs: which pathway to take, what partners to choose and how much fidelity to the program to demand.

Here are the key findings from the study about pathways:

• The use of pathways is dynamic.
• Initial organizing influxes pathway choice.
• Program maturity varies.
• Program characteristics vary within pathways.

Here are the key findings from the study about partnerships:

• Scaling up involves multiple partners.
• Partners play multiple roles.
• Social networks connect and enable.

Here are the key findings from the study about fidelity:

• Program fidelity can be affected both before and after scale up.
• Reinvention is common.
• Reinvention is collaborative and sometimes transformational.
• Implementation guidance is available.
• Adaptation is often expected and sometimes encouraged.
• Monitoring for control and learning varies.

To read the entire study, please click here.