How do social enterprises and the funders that support them achieve impact at scale even in times of acute crisis?
This is the question that prompted the Scaling Pathways partners—Skoll Foundation, Mercy Corps Ventures, and CASE at Duke—to launch this latest video series, Scaling Through Mass Disruption.
A global pandemic was not what most of us envisioned when we thought about our plans for this first year of the new decade. Now months into a mounting death toll, lock-downs, shelter-in-place orders, and social distancing around the world, it’s becoming difficult to remember what life was like before COVID-19.
This crisis has only sharpened the need for the work of social enterprises by laying bare the cracks in our systems, from healthcare to employment disparities, to upended education and gutted livelihoods. The question of how to keep impact on track becomes even more important.
Three cross-cutting themes stood out in this series:
During times of crisis, organizations face a myriad of new challenges and difficult decisions. This is the time to lean into the mission and values that provide a guiding framework for keeping impact at the center. Harambee’s Chief Culture Officer, Lebo Nke, illustrates this beautifully. She describes their organization’s values as its “immune system.” Living into these values is what builds an organizational culture to weather this storm.
Similarly, VisionSpring CEO, Ella Gudwin, emphasizes how her organization leans into its values around learning together and constantly adapting. This has helped them reprioritize and even re-organize to adapt and meet the needs of their customers and employees in this current crisis.
With mass disruption comes mass uncertainty. Suddenly, the future is less predictable and the risks greater. Despite the unknowns, clear communication is vital, even if its communicating “we don’t know.”
Internal communication with staff is important, because without the people to do the work, nothing gets done. Maharshi Vaishnav, Chief of Staff at Educate Girls, spoke about how soon after the lockdown in India was announced they sent out a message from the CEO to all their almost 1,800 employees. The message reassured there would be no layoffs or salary cuts in this financial year. Additionally, Educate Girls provides a 24/7 help line to all staff to access information and resources to help them navigate and stay safe at this time.
Investors and funders are also key stakeholders here. Daniel Yu, Founder and Global CEO of Sokowatch says you need to be clear with these groups about how priorities are shifting. For Sokowatch, the COVID-19 pandemic has meant that they are now optimizing for long-term survival versus short-term growth. Funders and investors should be in this with you. If they’re clear on the new priorities, they can better understand how support.
For most of us, our old ways of working are no longer possible. We’ll need to learn our way through, testing and experimenting to see what works and what doesn’t. But we don’t need to learn alone. We can learn from and with others.
Within organizations, individuals can pull on the diverse and collective knowledge of colleagues. “Our agility and responsiveness in the face of this crisis is everything,” says Lucy Lake, CAMFED CEO, who talked about the importance of activating real time learning across teams. And it doesn’t have to be fancy. For CAMFED in this moment, it means using a Google doc to capture knowledge and lessons across country teams, coupled with weekly calls between country leadership.
Mallika Raghavan, Director of Country Engagement at Last Mile Health reiterated the importance of real time, on the ground information and learning. She also talked about how helpful it is to be a part of coalitions and partnerships committed to designing, learning, and adapting together. For instance, the Community Health Impact Coalition, which already existed to advance the role of community health workers as global norm, has come together as a COVID hub where organizations can collaborate and leapfrog off the lessons of other members.
This series on Scaling Through Mass Disruption is all about learning together in real time about how to continue to pursue impact in the face of upheaval. Watch the rest of the clips and interviews here to gather even more invaluable advice and tips on topics like financing, talent, and mission balance.
