The Social Capitalist Awards

For the past five years, Fast Company has granted “Social Capitalist Awards” to organizations that combine social impact and organizational effectiveness. The magazine analyzes the ability to craft solutions leading to significant improvements over the status quo. They’ve identified the following five critical components. As we build spiritual movements, each component provides a grid to evaluate our own efforts at building spiritual movements.

1. Social Impact In Two Aspects:

First, Fast Company analyzes the organization’s rigor and sophistication of its approach to social change.

  • Does it understand the problem it is trying to address?
  • What is the solution it is providing?
  • Are the performance metrics tightly aligned with the problem it is addressing?

Organizations that look for the highest-leverage, root cause solutions and are committed to assessing their progress in “moving the needle” are positioned to have the most significant social impact.

Second, it measures organization’s actual social impact. This includes both its direct impact in providing necessary products or services (taking into account the degree of difficulty of their challenge, the depth of impact, and the breadth of the impact), as well as its ability to drive system-wide change in addressing the targeted social need.

The organization must demonstrate that it is having a disproportionately large impact on the problems that it addresses, relative to other organizations in their area or at their organizational age.

2. Aspiration and Growth: In addition to proving that an organization is having significant impact today, Fast Company asks the following questions:

  • Does the organizations dream big?
  • Does it aim to push their direct and systemic impact out into the world as far and as fast as they can?
  • Are their high aspirations backed by a logical, achievable growth plan that recognizes relevant organizational challenges and milestones?

An enormous vision that is not believable or achievable is very unlikely to create tremendous impact, and the organization may waste scarce resources in the attempt to scale.

3. Entrepreneurship: Fast Company defines entrepreneurship as “the ability to do a lot with a little.” For each applicant, it looks for specific evidence that the organization is able to gather and command disproportionately large resources (e.g. financial, human, partnership or intellectual assets) while thinking strategically about which resources it deploys in solving its social problem. It also seeks proof that these resources are being used to their maximum potential and efficiency. Finally, it looks for indications that the organization is truly entrepreneurial in nature: passionate, ambitious, creative, flexible, focused on constant improvement, willing to take calculated risks and willing to hold individuals accountable for meaningful results.

4. Innovation: Fast Company defines innovation as the organization’s ability to generate a game-changing or pattern breaking idea–either a new solution to an existing social problem or a new business or operational model.

  • Is there a culture of innovation within the organization?
  • Are there processes for continuously developing significant new ideas, evaluating whether or not the organization should invest in a new idea, and plans in place to carry them out?

At the highest level, a Social Capitalist winner is not a one-hit-wonder of innovation, nor does it endlessly pursue new ideas without significant results; it systematically and strategically uses innovation to maximize its social impact against its targeted problem.

5. Sustainability: Sustainability has two primary dimensions in our assessment.

  • Does the organization has a strong resource strategy to support the organization and its future growth plans? This means reliable, renewable funding sources that are strategically aligned with the mission and business model of the organization.
  • In addition to sustainability from a financial perspective, are their indications of the general strength of the management team and board and their combined ability to anticipate challenges within the organization and or its operating environment?

Take some time to review the 2008 Winners here and here. Let them challenge and inspire you as you build movements everywhere.

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