Akshaya Patra, an Indian NGO, had set an ambitious goal of serving 5 million free meals daily to India's schoolchildren. Founded in 2000, Akshaya Patra had thus far opened 25 high-capacity kitchens in 10 different States to provide a midday meal to nearly 1.65 million school children every day. With 110 million children in 1 million schools eligible for a mandatory midday meal, there was room to grow. Shridhar Venkat, its CEO, had to devise a plan to get it there.

A case on scaling social impact for nonprofits. Founded in 1995, KaBOOM! quickly became a nationally recognized nonprofit in building playgrounds with strong corporate partnerships and volunteer-organizing capabilities. Over the years, KaBOOM! developed new programs, including a new web platform to enable individuals and communities to do build-it-yourself playgrounds which increased KaBOOM!'s total annual number of playgrounds built by as much as a factor of 10. The case explores how KaBOOM! evaluated its goals and determined a strategy to achieve the scale required to meet its social mission and vision of every child having a place to play.

Explores strategies to achieve system-level impact for a nonprofit focused on addressing patients' basic social needs through healthcare institutions. Founded in 1996 with a volunteer-staffed help desk at Boston Medical Center connecting low-income patients with basic resources like heating assistance, job training, and childcare programs, by 2013 the nonprofit had grown to 6 cities and 1,000 volunteers serving over 11,000 patients annually. At the end of a successful "proof plan" period, Health Leads Co-Founder and CEO Rebecca Onie and her team faced the question of how to make meeting patients' social needs a standard part of health care in the U.S.: replicate Health Leads' proven model or instigate a social care movement?

The B case documents the development of a strategy to achieve system-level impact in a rapidly changing healthcare landscape for a nonprofit focused on addressing patients' basic social needs through healthcare institutions. Founded in 1996 with a volunteer-staffed help desk at Boston Medical Center connecting low-income patients with basic resources like heating assistance, job training, and childcare programs, by 2013 the nonprofit had grown to 6 cities and 1,000 volunteers serving over 11,000 patients annually. At the end of a successful "proof plan" period, Health Leads Co-Founder and CEO Rebecca Onie and her team faced the question of how to make meeting patients' social needs a standard part of health care in the U.S.: replicate Health Leads' proven model or instigate a social care movement?

A nonprofit in the healthcare arena explores strategies to achieve system-level impact. Founded in 1996 with a volunteer-staffed help desk at Boston Medical Center connecting low-income patients with basic resources like heating assistance, job training, and childcare programs, by 2013 the nonprofit had grown to 6 cities and 1,000 volunteers serving over 11,000 patients annually. At the end of a successful "proof plan" period, Health Leads Co-Founder and CEO Rebecca Onie and her team faced the question of how to make meeting patients' social needs a standard part of health care in the U.S.: replicate Health Leads' proven model or instigate a social care movement?

A case on scaling social impact for nonprofits. Founded in 1995, KaBOOM! quickly became a nationally recognized nonprofit in building playgrounds with strong corporate partnerships and volunteer-organizing capabilities. Over the years, KaBOOM! developed new programs, including a new web platform to enable individuals and communities to do build-it-yourself playgrounds which increased KaBOOM!'s total annual number of playgrounds built by as much as a factor of 10. The case explores how KaBOOM! evaluated its goals and determined a strategy to achieve the scale required to meet its social mission and vision of every child having a place to play.

Bridges Ventures, a UK-based impact investor with double-digit returns on its investments, is reflecting on its social impact and pondering its future course.

This note explores the current state of venture philanthropy in the U.S. and its future. Based on interviews with 28 practitioners in the field of philanthropy and a review of the literature since the publication of the article introducing the concept of venture philanthropy (Virtuous Capital: What Foundations Can Learn from Venture Capitalists) sixteen years ago, the note discusses the signifiant impact venture philanthropy has had on the nonprofit sector despite its small size relative to total philanthropic giving. Venture philanthropists make large, multi-year, unrestricted grants coupled with significant non-financial capacity building support and rigorous performance measurement with the goal of increasing a nonprofit's ability to serve more people more effectively. This note discusses the full set of venture philanthropy practices and their impact on grantees. It also explores what could be done to increase this type of results-driven philanthropy in the U.S. and poses questions regarding the future trajectory of the field, including venture philanthropy's role in driving societal-level scaling of impact. This note is aimed at both the philanthropic sector overall as well as venture philanthropy practitioners.

This note provides an overview of the impact investing industry, a new and burgeoning field of investments seeking to create social and environmental benefits while also generating a financial return. Recent reports have estimated a global market of at least $500 billion in the next decade. The note discusses the role of the various players such as impact investors, intermediary organizations, and program implementors in the development of the industry, as well as the emergence of new corporate structures for social enterprises and the creation of innovative financial instruments such as the Social Impact Bond.