Ready to take your impact to the next level? Then you need a clear strategy, reliable tools to measure your impact, and third-party validation. These are essential for making informed decisions, improving over time, and building trust with investors and partners. A structured approach to managing impact helps you focus your resources where they matter most – and maximize your long-term results. Without it, you risk wasting time, missing opportunities, and losing credibility.
This section is for you if …
- your operational model is mature and has proven itself in practice.
- you’ve shown that your approach makes a real difference.
- you have the funding and team in place to grow.
- your organization is ready to evolve.
- your growth strategy supports your mission and the broader change you’re working toward.
Not quite there yet?
Check out the section that fits your current stage
In this section, you’ll learn how to…
- choose the right scaling strategy.
- build an advisory board that targets impact.
- train your team and develop a shared understanding of impact.
- prepare for third-party validation and scale your impact effectively.
Build your scaling strategy
There are several strategies to use for growing the impact of your solution sustainably:
Expand your capacity: Deepen your presence in your current region by building on what already works. Strengthen existing structures and processes to reach more people where you’re already active.
Branch out strategically: Enter new markets or launch new products and services. This could mean expanding into new regions, reaching different audiences, or offering new solutions to the same communities.
Contractual partnerships: Grow your reach by working with formal partners. Franchising, licensing, or similar models can help you expand faster while sharing the risks and resource load.
Spread your know-how: Grow your impact without growing your organization. Focus on sharing your methods and ideas, such as through open-source tools, training materials, or even patent-sharing to empower others to replicate or adapt your approach
Scaling social impact
In 2015, the Bertelsmann Stiftung conducted a Europe-wide study exploring what makes national and cross-border scaling strategies work. Click here to read the full report.
Once you’ve chosen a scaling strategy, the next step is identifying what will make it work: the relevant success factors. That means looking at how easy your model is to replicate, how well you can mobilize resources, and whether your team has the leadership skills to manage growth effectively. It’s also important to understand that entering a new market or targeting a new audience can change the context entirely. It’s not just about new stakeholders – it can also mean new rules, dynamics, and system-wide effects. Similar problems don’t always have the same root causes. To find out if you’re facing something different, it’s worth doing a fresh root cause analysis (see “Problem, target group and stakeholder analysis: Your first step towards launching an impact startup).
Set clear goals and milestones for scaling, map out the resources and changes your business model will need, and build in systems to regularly track your scaling progress. Keep gathering feedback from your target group and stakeholders – and be ready to adjust your approach when needed.
Scaling vs. linear growth
Linear growth means your revenue grows at the same rate as your resource input. With this type of growth, the scaling factor remains constant. This means that every additional hire or piece of equipment leads to a proportional increase in output.
True scaling, on the other hand, is about doing more with less – growing your revenue and impact faster than your costs. That’s what makes it a more efficient and sustainable path to growth.
Build the foundation for managing impact
To scale successfully, you need more than a strategy – you need the right structures and know-how. Setting up an advisory board, developing an impact handbook, and training your team are all key steps. They’ll help you manage your impact intentionally and make it a core part of your company culture.
1. Build an advisory board
The right advisory board can shape your strategy, guide your growth, and sharpen your decision-making as you scale – giving you a real competitive edge. Bringing in impact experts, data scientists, and researchers can be especially valuable:
- Strategy support: They can help you develop and execute data-driven strategies, which is crucial for staying ahead of the curve
- Network: Impact professionals bring hands-on experience and can connect you to a broader impact community.
- Deep expertise: Researchers offer up-to-date insights and technical know-how that fuel innovation.
- Data analysis: Data scientists help you turn complex data into actionable insights and forecasts.
To build an effective advisory board that includes impact experts, data scientists and researchers …
- set clear goals and expectations from the start,
- look for experts with relevant experience in your field,
- make sure your board reflects a mix of perspectives and skill sets,
- set up regular meetings and streamlined communication,
- involve the board in key decisions and high-impact moments.
2. Train your team on impact
Creating an impact handbook and offering ongoing training for your employees helps make your strategy part of your everyday operations. Here’s what that unlocks:
- Shared understanding: An impact handbook aligns everyone around your mission and impact goals.
- Greater impact: A team that understands impact can make more thoughtful, mission-aligned choices.
- Employee motivation: Communicating your impact vision boosts employee engagement.
- Clear communication: A consistent internal guide helps everyone tell your impact story with confidence.
- Competitive advantage: A well-trained team can clearly explain your impact to investors, customers, and partners.
To get started with creating an impact handbook and training your employees:
- Clearly define your impact goals and metrics. For help, check out the chapter “Growth with purpose: impact management for impact startups.”
- Use collaborationor project management tools to co-create the handbook and keep it accessible.
- Break it down into easy-to-follow sections – your mission, strategy, measurement methods, and best practices.
- Add real examples and case studies to show what impact looks like in practice.
- Develop interactive training formats like workshops or e‑learning modules to bring the content to life.
Impact-focused training
SKala-CAMPUS offers personalized learning programs on impact – featuring guides, exercises, video tutorials, and advanced training. It’s geared toward nonprofits, but many of the tools are just as useful for impact startups.
- Set up regular impact check-ins to keep impact front and center, share updates, and invite ideas from your team. Encourage employees to pitch and test their own impact initiatives. If it fits your culture, tie impact goals to performance reviews or incentive programs to show they matter.
- Include your impact handbook in your code of conduct.
Tip
If your strategy relies on partnerships or sharing your model with others, make sure your approach still delivers results in different settings. Share your impact handbook and code of conduct and stay in close touch with partners and users.
Next step: Track your KPIs
You’ve laid the groundwork – defined your scaling strategy, set up an experienced advisory board, and thought through how to validate your impact.
Now it’s time to measure your KPIs so you can make smart, data-driven decisions as you grow. That’s what we’ll tackle next.