How sustainable it is for small-sized social venture?

Most founders of social ventures are determined to make a difference for people and the world. They have dreams, passion and talent. Their ideas are innovative and most of them could make impacts on their targeted beneficiary. However, many newly founded organizations cannot last long, especially for those who are so-called “grass root”. In China, grass root organizations do not have stable fund source, governmental support, professional staffing, or cozy work place.

One of the solutions for these social ventures could be collaborating with big organizations that have passion and interest in the certain field. As Paul Bloom wrote in How to Take a Social Venture to Scale, partnering with other entities could help social ventures to grow impact without a large organization. Building the alliance is beneficial not only for the social venture but also for the big partner.

Big corporations have growing demand of building their public image through series of social responsibility events, such as bringing solar power to rural Kenya that Coke Cola did. As long as the social venture has effective solution to tackle with social issues, big corporations would not lose the opportunity to work with them and expand the social impact. As for a large corporation, probably one of the Fortune 500, sponsoring a small project or innovative idea is cost-efficient. For example, Ford China awards good practices in the field of environmental protection annually. They provide million dollars grants to sponsor the awarded non-profit organizations, social ventures or individuals. It might be a small amount of money as for Ford, but it indeed is a huge funding for small organizations. Seeking for assistance from a large partner could help social ventures to optimize their limited resources.

However, the alliance relationship should ensure independence and purity of social venture. While scaling the social impact with the help of large partners, some social venture could lose their initial intention. It is possible that social venture is only helping the corporation with their marketing promotion instead of solving social issues. As a small-sized social venture, it is less powerful than its big partner, how can it maintain independency?

Large size is not necessarily important for social ventures comparing with impact scale, but how to measure social impact? It seems that size of an organization is easier to measure and evaluate. Measuring social impact needs a set of mixed data and analysis. Where is the balancing point whether a social venture needs to grow its size or scale its impact without larger size?

Reference:

1. How to Take a Social Venture to Scale, http://blogs.hbr.org/2012/06/how-to-take-a-social-venture-t/

2. Why Coke Is Bringing Solar Power To Rural Kenya, http://www.fastcoexist.com/1682126/why-coke-is-bringing-solar-power-to-rural-kenya