Solving social problems means scaling solutions

“Over our two-decade history, we’ve seen many brilliant solutions that make a real difference in people’s lives,” says Riddell.

“We have plenty social purpose leaders and organisations across the country. We have plenty of ideas. What’s holding us back is there isn’t a clear pathway to creating impact at scale,” she says.

SVA’s recent Impact at Scale Summit was an opportunity to road test different perspectives and concepts about creating lasting change and impact.

“To have more than 100 leaders share their thoughts was a highlight and we are better equipped as a result. We have started to develop a common way of talking about impact at scale that will help us all work more closely together,” Riddell says.

Yale Research Initiative on Innovation and Scale executive director Neela Saldana was the keynote speaker at the Impact at Scale summit. She says when talking about impact at scale, it’s vital to look beyond simply building up the organisation.

“It’s more important to scale up the solution,” says Saldana.

“We need to think differently about scale when we’re looking at big problems related to social change. It’s not a linear process.

SVA’s soon-to-be-released paper Impact at Scale focusses on the importance of working towards impact at scale in addressing complex social issues.

The paper examines what impact at scale looks like in Australia – and the factors that allow organisations to do this work effectively, says Riddell.

“We celebrate the success stories and give organisations a shared vocabulary to plan and understand the role they play working towards impact at scale,” she says.

“We have also compiled some local examples to help illustrate the ways organisations can achieve widespread impact.”

Riddell says creating impact at scale also requires different ways of thinking about funding.

Synergis is just one of many examples where SVA has been able to help drive improved outcomes for people and communities.

SVA was also one of four charities to band together to create Goodstart Early Learning, Australia’s largest not-for-profit early childhood provider.

Goodstart has since become a champion for higher quality early learning and for supporting families across Australia. And its formation was due to SVA bringing together an unlikely group of players from the corporate, government and social sectors to work collaboratively on a common goal.

These diverse networks have been a key part of SVA’s success in creating social change, having worked with hundreds of organisations across sectors to build their capabilities to gauge their impact and improve their work.

SVA also understands that when it comes to tackling social problems, governments are often the biggest player with the biggest resources.

“If we want to talk about impact at scale we have to take into account the role of governments,” says Riddell. “They are the largest funder and provider of services in the country, and they also regulate markets and set quality standards.”

“We would like to influence government policy in lots of different ways to improve the way we can create impact at scale.

Ultimately, solving social inequality problems requires a multi-faceted approach involving many stakeholders. Riddell stresses impact at scale isn’t just about getting bigger.

“There has to be an equity agenda. Impact at scale is also about how long something endures, how deep the impact is on a person or community and whether our norms as a society change over time,” says Riddell.

Be the first to receive SVA’s Impact at Scale paper – register here to receive a copy.