In grant-speak the word “scaling” has gotten some serious traction. But to bring something to scale, or to scale something means different things to different people. In general, scaling means expansion and moving from a smaller to a larger level of impact.
“As always, you’ll have to study the grant application guidelines to understand what a funder means by the word. And if you can’t figure it out, you’ll need to contact the funder (if possible) to seek guidance,” said Barbara Floersch, grants expert and author of You Have a Hammer: Building Grant Proposals for Social Change.
Here are a few definitions of scaling that have similarities and differences.
- Seeking to have more impact on more people. (Ford Foundation, 2006)
- Bringing more benefits to more people over a wider geographic area, more equitably, and with more sustainability. (International Institute of Rural Reconstruction, 2000)
- Deliberate efforts to increase the impact of successfully tested pilot or experimental projects so as to benefit more people and to foster policy and program development on a lasting basis. (World Health Organization, 2005)
“Functional scaling” generally means doing more of what your organization is already doing, or adding a needed intervention to an existing package of services. “Horizontal scaling” generally means disseminating your organization’s impact by replicating services in different sites, or with different populations.
Application guidelines often use the word “significant” in relation to “scaling” without defining what degree of increase in services or impact meets that mark. If you can’t get definitive information from the funder, Floersch suggests including specific information about the degree of increase you plan to achieve, why that increase is significant, and how it more fully meets community needs.
To scale a service, you may decide to raise more resources to support expansion or teach other organizations how to do what you do so that they can implement the service or collaborate with other organizations to spread the impact.
“When confronted with the question of scaling in a grant proposal, remember the primary concepts relate to increased impact and sustainability,” said Floersch.
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