International Centre For Social Franchising In Australia

Helping successful organisations to scale up

There are numerous social and community organisations whose success has been evaluated and proven. Yet frustratingly, the wheel is constantly being reinvented. While the work of these organisations should be replicated in other areas and other countries or used to inspire copycat solutions, examples of this process happening in practice are rare.
The mission of Spring Impact is to help the most successful social impact projects replicate. In Australia, the work of the Spring Impact is conducted by Community Works.

 

The role of social franchising

The essence and power of social franchising is that a proven social change project is turned into a ‘franchise’ and then quickly replicated for maximum leverage. At its simplest, social franchising can be equated to the highly successful commercial franchising seen all over the world. The central franchise documents their processes and then franchisees adopt the approach and are given support in establishing themselves. This allows them to set up a successful business much faster, with reduced risk, whilst maintaining quality.

For the non-profit sector, the critical point is that social franchising offers a proven method for organisations to scale up successful projects and programs to achieve greater positive impact on the social and economic problems they were established to tackle. Spring Impact exists to help organisations achieve greater scale, with social franchising as a leading means of doing so.

The work of Spring Impact

Spring Impact works with organisations from the starting point of their core idea and accumulated experience as a basis for designing and delivering solutions elsewhere. It works in the following ways:

• Networking; acting as a hub for discussion and networking on replication to scale
• Building knowledge; promoting the study of social franchising in its different forms
• Providing support; acting as guides and advisors for those wanting to franchise

Spring Impact (www.springimpact.org) is the focal point for a network of partner organisations around the world each sharing similar broad ideas. To this end, Spring Impact brings together a range of partners including academic institutions, social entrepreneurs, franchising advisors, NGOs, funders and others with an interest in and a commitment to the subject.

For the non-profit sector, the critical point is that social franchising offers a proven method for organisations to scale up successful projects and programs to achieve greater positive impact on the social and economic problems they were established to tackle. Spring Impact exists to help organisations achieve greater scale, with social franchising as a leading means of doing so.

Spring Impact in Australia

Spring Impact in Australia is presently working on a number of projects, including:

• Support to organisations in Australia who ask us for assistance in planning and implementing social franchises Contributing to social franchise and scaling-up programs through BasicNeeds in El Salvador and India.
• Working with Population Services International (PSI), the largest social franchise for health in the world, to improve the performance of their social franchise networks, with the ambition of increasing health impact and financial sustainability.
• Running a social franchising course in partnership with the School for Social Entrepreneurs in Australia.
• Building a network of individuals and organisations with interests in and experience of taking their work to a larger scale through franchising and other methods.

These initiatives make up a range of approaches to support greater scaling up and impact of the work of organisations in the development, community and social enterprise sectors. More information on the resources and projects of Spring Impact can be found here:
https://toolkit.springimpact.org/Home