Approach

"We have learned to create the small exceptions that can change the lives of hundreds. But we have not learned how to make the exceptions the rule to change the lives of millions."— Lisbeth Schorr, Social Analyst

Market Need

The Growth Opportunity

If the highest performing non profit organizations consistently achieved scale, as they do in the for-profit sector, they could improve the lives of millions of people and help create enduring social change. For example:

Tutoring programs that substantially raise reading levels, could spread to hundreds of cities and thousands of schools Successful early childhood programs could dramatically reduce teen incarceration rates and increase education achievement in communities across the country High-quality home ownership, asset creation and job training programs could enable millions of families to escape poverty Affordable health coverage and services could be provided to millions of uninsured individuals

The Growth Challenge

Unfortunately, most high-performing nonprofits have great difficulty achieving scale. Their successful innovations often remain isolated and the promise of the social progress they hold is unfulfilled.

• 600,000 new NPOs were started between 1982-2003
• 71 NPOs grew from between $1-$2 million to $20 million between 1989-2001*
  

The Capital Challenge

Only a small percentage of philanthropic capital is devoted to expansion initiatives. The few funders who do support growth, find the magnitude of capital required outstrips their funding capacity. Thus mid-size organizations seeking to significantly grow or replicate suffer from lack of access to capital.

Absence of a Market System

Systematic application of capital, management expertise and technical support is required to widely replicate proven social programs. For businesses in the for-profit sector there exists a mature system to vet, select and support growth of high performing corporations. Yet, no such system exists to support national expansion of top-performing social programs.

In response, GPN is building a permanent, self-perpetuating marketplace in which successful, expansion-ready NPOs can access the capital and resources they need to spread their programs on a mass scale to communities that need and want them. Through this marketplace, GPN attracts collaborative financing (syndicated via multiple funders) for second stage growth of top-performing social programs.

*Non-hospital and higher education.
*National Center for Charitable Statistic

Continue to Marketplace Approach