What you need to scale your impact

Today we’ve published a new resource in which we share the learnings from our Volunteering Scaling Programme.

By sharing practical tools and approaches that have worked within the programme, we hope to help other organisations develop their own actionable plans to scale, which in this context means to expand their reach and create lasting impact in sport and physical activity.

The resource is called 'Tools and mindsets to scale your impact' and you can download it at the bottom of this page.

The importance of scaling

We know that some of the partners we work with have really great solutions to some of the challenges we’re trying to address together in Uniting the Movement, but perhaps don’t know where to start when planning how to scale the impact of what works.

And it was exactly to address this challenge that the Volunteering Scaling Programme was originally designed.

Not-for profit consultancy Spring Impact came on board to help, bringing with them a wealth of experience and expertise to support the cohort of organisations on the programme. 

Spring Impact work with mission-driven organisations and funders to scale their impact sustainably.

It’s all in the mind

Okay, well, that’s not exactly true, because scale also requires careful planning and an input of time and resources to work properly.

However, what we learned through the programme, and what Spring Impact have discovered in their extensive work in this field, is that having the right mindset in the approach to this work is key.

With this point at the front and centre of everything they do, Spring Impact have identified the Six Scaling Mindsets needed to achieve sustainable impact at scale.

Our aim with the resource we’re publishing today is to unpack these mindsets in more detail so you can explore what shifts you might need to see in your own thinking and approach. 

This shift wasn’t easy for anybody on the programme, so if what you read sounds challenging, it’s because it is! But it’s so worthwhile.

The resource and the learnings within it are based on the real experiences of the five organisations that took on the scaling mindsets to improve their outcomes.

It took time for them to change existing ways of thinking and for them to apply this new approach consistently when implementing their plans for scale.

However, the organisations that were part of the programme saw wider value and benefits in their learnings and how these could be applied in their wider work and decision-making. 

The value of space and time

What really stands out to me from the Volunteering Scaling Programme was how valuable Sport England’s support was to provide the capacity and in allowing space and time for organisations to do the work to plan effectively for scale. 

The expert support and guidance from Spring Impact along the way also helped to ask the right questions and to create the space to positively challenge existing ways of thinking and doing things. 

The space and time needed to focus on this would not have been possible without our support and it led to wider benefits, such as beneficial opportunities for reflection and a transformative shift in how they worked. This had an impact beyond just planning for scale.

The cohort who took part reported that their approach is now more impact-driven and focused on long-term outcomes rather than short-term project outputs. 

In practical terms, this new way of working meant:

• creating more space for careful decision-making, including improving existing processes
• implementing a more strategic approach to identifying when to say 'no' to opportunities that wouldn’t support progress towards long-term vision and goals
• using the knowledge and tools from the scaling programme to embed this behaviour and approach into other aspects of their organisation and overall work.

Wheels for All, who were part of the Volunteering Scaling Programme, said that as a result they had committed to working in a new and efficient way. 

They adopted a new mindset for the whole charity and believed this was key to them moving away from being project-led to more strategic in their approach. 

This has led to significant organisational transformation to support impact at scale.

The cohort also benefitted from the peer support of others on the journey, which helped build confidence as they embedded new skills and behaviours. 

Within this programme it felt like we were genuinely working with our partners in a different way to support them to shift their thinking and approach and that was really exciting to be part of!  

What next?

We're sharing this learning across our partners and networks; it will also influence how we think about scaling the impact of our own work at Sport England and how we can better support our partners on this journey. 

The scaling programme shows that, as funders, we can play a really important role in creating the right conditions, the right relationships and in building skills and confidence to allow organisations to succeed in scaling their impact.