Education Forum on Replication

March 5, 2010  |  9:30am-11:30am

The Boston Foundation
75 Arlington Street
Boston,

As engaged philanthropists, SVP Parthers help our Investees work through some of the most interesting (and often challenging) business opportunities they face. Replication is one of these.

We will gather as a group, along with experts and practitioners, to discuss the particularly important decisions small-medium sized nonprofits have to make as they consider whether to replicate, as they lay the groundwork for replication, and as they replicate.

Why a forum on replication? It is one of our Investees' major business opportunities
Most SVP Investees are small-medium sized, but most are thinking about or beginning to replicate (mostly locally or regionally). This is one of their key business opportunities.

Much has been studied and written about replication, but it is primarily from the lense of a large, well established nonprofit looking to grow nationally. While that work is tremendously valuable to nonprofits (and funders), it often does not take into account the facts that:
- Much replication is done by relatively small or medium-sized nonprofits expanding locally or regionally
- Many of the nonprofits replicating do not have the resources (time, financial, skills) to dedicate to replication that the larger nonprofits do
- The services of skilled consultants are often out of reach

Thus, it may be fair to say that replication for a small or medium-sized nonprofit is somewhat unique and particularly risky -- one expert we interviewed put it in a nutshell: "It threatens the entire organization." But there isn't much out there to help guide them.

Our focus: key issues
We have spent the past four months interviewing 30 or so experts -- academics, consultants, and nonprofit leaders -- asking what the biggest challenges of replication are for small-medium sized nonprofits, how to address them, and what advice they would offer to our Investees as they go down this road. We will hear the stories and advice directly from the folks who experienced them and worked through them.

There are countless issues a nonprofit faces with replication. But, there are limited resources to address them and some are more significant than others. In this forum, we will identify and provide guidance on those key issues.

We will ask:
- What changes can we make now to our organization or our operations that will prepare us for replication? Where will work now pay off hugely in the future?
- Given that we have limited resources, where should we assign them for most leverage?
- What are the areas/activities that similar organizations have failed to identify as being important, then under resourced, leading to missed opportunities or undo risk?

This forum is for SVP Partners, SVP Investees, and their guests. If you would like more information, contact mringrose@svpboston.org.

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