Mondo
Germany: Social franchising: do good and pass it on
Scarse resources may limit the reach of non profit projects, but also encourages alternatives. Like social franchising: replicating effective projects means cutting costs & increasing impact
di Staff
The Association of German Foundations in cooperation with the International Centre for Franchising and Cooperation have just published a comprehensive manual on the theory and practice of social franchising, Social Franchising – A Way of Systematic Replication to Increase Social Impact.
The manual explores the potential of adapting the method of franchising to the social sector and is part of the Social Franchise project, which the Association of German Foundations is carrying out in cooperation with six renowned European foundations. It ensues from the International Social Franchise Summit held in December 2007.
?Financial, human and other resources to address global challenges are becoming scarcer?, assesses Dr. Hans Fleisch, the Secretary General of the Association of German Foundations. ?While we should in general try and increase resources by creating a favourable environment in which foundations can become more involved, we must at the same time ensure that available resources are used more effectively and efficiently. Social franchising ? the replication of successful projects in order to increase social impact ? is a viable way to do that.? While the systematic replication of effective concepts has been proven very successful in the commercial sector, social franchising is still very much in its infancy.
However, existing social franchise projects show: The replication of tried and tested projects, transfer of know-how and best practice, the use of a common brand name and image, as well as network synergies lead to faster expansion, improved quality and lower failure rates of non-profit projects and thus have a number of positive effects on the social sector.
Best practices
The charity British organisation TimeBank for example uses social franchising for the national rollout of its Time Together project, which aims at facilitating the early assimilation of refugees into UK society by pairing them with mentors. It allows them to deliver the project as intended throughout the UK without having the difficult task of managing it through their London office.
The German project Dialogue in the Dark, which entails blind people guiding non-blind visitors through completely dark rooms reflecting every day scenarios in order to sensitise to their handicap, shows that social franchising is also an optimum strategy for replicating projects internationally. After the founder and manager of the project, Dr. Andreas Heinecke, opened its first exhibition in Hamburg in the late 80s, he was overwhelmed with inquiries to take the exhibition to other cities. Without the necessary funds to do so, Dr. Heinecke resolved to passing on his know-how to those wishing to replicate the project. There are now exhibitions all over the world, including North America and Japan.
Social Franchising – A Way of Systematic Replication to Increase Social Impact provides interesting and helpful insights for experts, practitioners, foundations and other non-profit organizations. Practical guidelines, case studies and checklists foster the understanding, and encourage the use, of social franchising.
To download the manual
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