This is the question we as the Innovation@WWF team asked ourselves in June 2024.
We realised that innovative solutions are maturing and what comes beyond piloting is unclear.
This webpage acts as a repository of our findings as we explore this question.
After the great interest shown and positive feedback from last year we’re thrilled to to
announce the return of the Demystifying Scaling Series, starting March 11th!
Each element is optional - choose the pieces that are most valuable to you
WORKSHOPS
First workshop on March 11, 2025
(2 sessions = 2 timezones)
Final workshop on April 9, 2025
(2 sessions = 2 timezones)
Workshops will share key scaling concepts, draw inspiration from other INGO approaches to scaling and include live case studies from some of our most successfully scaled projects at WWF.
NEWSLETTERS
5-part newsletter
dedicated to scaling
A limited edition newsletter series that builds your knowledge of scaling terminology, key concepts, playbooks and inspiration.
You’ll receive 1 newsletter per week for 5 weeks
COURSE
1 self-paced course
on scaling
New and improved self-paced online course that you can take to further your knowledge of scaling and see how this can become part of your skills toolkit.
Choose to join the newsletters, workshops, the self-paced course,
or all three options (our personal favorite!).
Scaling is crucial for achieving significant social and environmental impact, especially in a world with limited resources. It’s more than just growth—scaling ensures that effective solutions can reach a broader audience or context, increasing their impact. Understanding the difference between growth and scale, along with the strategies and approaches, is essential for expanding the reach and effectiveness of conservation efforts.
As the world faces complex crises like climate change and biodiversity loss, achieving scale is about leveraging all available tools to ensure solutions can address these challenges at their true magnitude. We are all learning what it means to scale impact in the conservation space, and that’s why it’s important to learn by doing, collaborate across sectors, and share our insights openly.
“Scale isn’t just another word for growth. Scale is about busting out of a linear trajectory into an ever-steepening – exponential, even – curve of impact over time. A scalable solution is one that has the potential to make a big dent in a big social problem, maybe even solve the whole thing.”
– Kevin Starr, Managing Director of the Mulago foundation
Scale is about realising the full potential of a solution and extending its impact in a way that addresses the size of the problem.
At Innovation@WWF, we’ve spent over six years supporting conservation teams across the WWF network as they develop and pilot new ideas...
At Innovation@WWF, we’ve spent over six years supporting conservation teams across the WWF network as they develop and pilot new ideas. Throughout this journey, we’ve seen countless projects in their early stages—embracing the necessary pivots, learning from successes and setbacks, and continuously adapting based on insights gained.
As these projects mature and show promising results, many teams naturally ask: What’s next? How do we scale this innovation? This recurring question prompted us to investigate how best to support teams ready to embark on the scaling journey. What we discovered was a lack of structured support and only fragmented discussions about scaling within the organisation.
For the past few months, we’ve been diving into the current state of scaling within WWF, as well as looking at how the broader INGO and social and environmental impact sectors are addressing this challenge. This investigation aims to create a shared understanding of key concepts, surface areas of leverage for scaling efforts, and identify gaps that need more focused attention.
While commercial sectors may define scaling as the widespread adoption of a product or service for increased profit, the mission for INGOs is different: scaling is about achieving significant, sustained impact relative to the magnitude of the issues we face.
In the conservation sector, scaling involves multiple pathways, and each approach depends on the context and needs of the environment or community involved. There is no one-size-fits-all formula for scale, but there are common methods that can guide our work, including:
Policy Change (Scaling Up): Advocating for shifts in governance structures, laws, and systems that support sustainable change on a national or global level. This is key when addressing issues that need systemic transformation, like climate change or biodiversity loss.
Replication (Scaling Out): Expanding proven interventions to new geographies or contexts. This form of scale involves transferring successful models or innovations to new locations, ensuring they are adapted for local conditions while maintaining their core effectiveness.
Behaviour Change (Scaling Deep): Embedding long-lasting shifts in social norms, attitudes, and behaviours to drive sustainable impact. For many projects, scaling deep is just as critical as scaling up or out because it ensures that change becomes part of the cultural fabric.
Each organisation may define and approach scale differently. What matters most is that the pathway chosen leads to real-world impact, whether it’s on a local, national, or global level. Achieving scale means being flexible, collaborative, and adaptive, recognizing that different strategies will work in different contexts.
Summary_ Leadership Conversations on Scale_ Thematic Findings.pdfHere is the 4-page summary of the findings from these conversations if you want to dig deeper than the key 8 findings shared above.
We’ve consulted with 20+ WWF leaders, analysed scaling approaches from other INGOs, and produced detailed case studies of successful scaling initiatives. Here you find these resources—designed to help guide offices across our network as they discuss and navigate the complexities of scaling impact.
We went out to speak with other INGOs that have dedicated scaling teams to learn how they understand scaling, their model, implementation, results, and more!
And we prepared study cases on them for you to get a quick understanding of how other INGOs, who are further along in their scaling journey, are approaching the challenge.
More approaches coming soon!
Dive into detailed case studies of projects that have successfully scaled. These examples walk through the step-by-step approaches teams used to achieve impact at scale.
A collection of original articles from Innovation@WWF, offering insights into the complexities and opportunities in scaling conservation efforts.
We spoke with 18 WWF Leaders about their experience and opinions on scaling within the organisations. Our key findings are:
Organisations involved in scaling efforts can take on various roles, depending on their expertise, resources, and strategic positioning. These roles are complementary, and an organisation may shift between them or combine multiple roles depending on the needs of the project, context, and partnerships involved. Here are some key roles that organisations can play to drive impactful scaling:
As a systems-orchestrator, an organisation acts as a facilitator rather than a direct implementer. This role involves coordinating diverse actors—governments, businesses, and NGOs—to align around a common scaling vision. In this role, the organisation creates the enabling conditions for others to lead or contribute to the scaling process, positioning itself as a convener and connector of key stakeholders.
An organisation in the innovator role is responsible for designing, developing, and piloting new interventions, products, or services. Innovators lead the early stages of an idea, ensuring it is rigorously tested and refined before scaling. Once the solution is validated, the organisation may scale it directly or collaborate with external partners to expand its impact.
In the doer/implementer role, the organisation takes full responsibility for the delivery and scaling of a solution. This role involves managing the day-to-day operations required to bring an innovation to scale, including producing, delivering, and adapting the solution for different contexts. The doer/implementer role is highly operational and requires significant resources, expertise, and capacity to bring a solution to full-scale implementation.
The payer role involves providing the financial resources necessary to support the scaling of a solution. Payers may include governments, external donors, private foundations, or the organisation itself. Payers play a crucial role in making scaling efforts possible by covering the costs associated with expanding reach and impact.
In the de-risker role, an organisation takes on the risk of piloting and refining solutions before they are scaled by larger or more resource-rich actors, such as governments, businesses, or NGOs. The de-risker ensures that the solution is proven and tested, making it easier for others to adopt and scale. By reducing risks, the de-risker builds confidence in the solution and lays the groundwork for broader scaling.
Projects included in this case study series have been selected based on their proven breadth, depth, systemic impact, sustainability, and replicability, as measured against specific criteria such as geographical expansion, policy influence, cultural change, impact, and long-term sustainability.
We’ve curated some of the best reads on scaling. Explore these three standout articles from fellow INGO scaling explorers to deepen your understanding:
Save the Children’s Draft Scaling Methodology: A guide to how they scale innovations
Unearthodox’s Scaling Conservation Innovation Report: Exploring the role of incubators and accelerators in supporting scale in conservation
CARE’s Anita Akella article: Not Invented, But Scaled Here: What big international NGOs—BINGOs—need to learn about growing external social enterprise solutions.
