Replication in Small/Medium Sized Nonprofits: Finding the 80/20 Rule
March 5, 2010

Like most SVPs throughout the network, SVP Boston works with small and medium-sized nonprofit organizations that often seek to replicate their programs or services in other communities. Interested in scaling successful programs, but concerned about the risks associated with replication, SVP Boston hosted a forum at The Boston Foundation to take a closer look at the issues surrounding replication.

“We know that small and medium sized nonprofits strive to replicate programs as part of goals associated with growth and outreach,” says Marjorie Ringrose, Executive Director at SVP Boston, “however we also believe that replication is a particularly risky process – one that can threaten the existing organization and that organization’s current programs.”

Defining replication
Those in the nonprofit and funding worlds are very familiar with the term “replication,” but there isn’t widespread agreement on a definition within the sector and related literature. So, SVP Boston came up with their own working definition: the reproduction of successful, proven programs in a new setting, often involving a new physical location.

Exploring the issues
SVP Boston invited SVP partners, investees, funders, and small/medium sized nonprofit guests to take a closer look at the issues surrounding replication and address some specific questions:

• 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 specifically 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?
“We wanted to gather and consolidate advice about where nonprofits should focus their scarce resources – time, skills and money,” says Marjorie. “We also wanted to know where or when the pay-off of investing is the greatest. Or, conversely, where or when is the down-side of not investing intolerable? Essentially, we were looking for the 80/20 rule for successful small/medium sized nonprofit replication.”

“Complicating the issues,” adds Marjorie, “is the fact that much of the thinking and writing about replication in the United States has been from the perspective of large nonprofits replicating nationally. These tend to be well resourced organizations with many sites across the country and they are often replicating services or programs based on a carefully designed and in some cases, proven, replication strategy.”

To identify where small/medium sized nonprofits should invest, SVP Boston interviewed about 40 people in their community -- nonprofit leaders who had successfully replicated, nonprofit leaders who had less than successful replications, academicians and consultants – and ask these individuals what they did well in a replication and what they wished they’d done differently.

Panelists included: Andy Hahn -- Professor at the Heller School for Social Policy and Management at Brandeis and director of the Sillerman Center for the Advancement of Philanthropy; Alex Cortez -- Regional Director of Growth and Sustainability at KIPP and formerly of the Bridgespan Group; Barbara Duffy -- Co-founder and former CEO of MY TURN and Vice President of Community Relations at Brockton Area Multi-Services, Inc.; and Lindsay Hyde -- Founder and President of Strong Women, Strong Girls.

Panelists and participants dove right into the issue areas noting that small and medium-sized nonprofits are typically resource constrained with little financial ability to hire external resources to assist with replication. What staffing they do have is required to run existing programs and manage their existing organizations. As a result, there are usually few, if any, paid staff members dedicated to replication planning or implementation. In Marjorie’s words, replication is, for most of these small organizations, a moon-lighting activity.

Discussion also included the fact that smaller nonprofits often have replication as part of a strategic plan, but it can also be part of the dream of an ED or Board Chair, or, more often than not, an opportunistic invitation from a funder to come into their community. Any or all of these factors can be in play and create a compelling desire to expand.

To Replicate or Not to Replicate: Key Lessons Learned
Many issues surfaced at SVP Boston’s March research, but five came up repeatedly as the most critical. It was these five that the forum presenters and group discussion focused on.

• Information assets: What information about your organization and your program do you need to know? And how much is enough?
• True cost: How do we think about the true costs of our programs and how does that inform our decision about what to replicate and how much funding we will need to do so?
• Leadership and internal resource requirements: How, as leaders, do we motivate our people for the long-haul that is replication – and for the moonlighting that is unavoidable.
• Site selection: How do we know where to locate a new site? How do we know when to say “yes” and, equally important, how do we know when to say “no”?
• Building local community support: How do we go into a new community as a newcomer (or worse, a threat) and build local support for our work?

While each of the five focus areas is unique, they have three things in common: 1) The investment (time, resources, funds) take time to make ; 2) All require resources that many small/medium sized nonprofits are short on – they will have to be acquired or developed; 3) Addressing these five issues will not only aid in replication, but will help strengthen a nonprofit’s current programs and organization by developing better business practices overall.

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