Project/Consultancy Title:
Project Location(s):
Lessons on Scaling Social Impact – 3 Case Studies of Social Enterprises
Location is Flexible
Background:
Mercy Corps is a leading global organization powered by the belief that a better world is possible. In more than 40 countries around the world, we partner to put bold solutions into action—helping people triumph over adversity and build stronger communities from within. In support of its mission, Mercy Corps is focused on new approaches and partnerships to strengthen social enterprises in local communities. Through various methods, we invest in pioneering companies and organizations, create new opportunities for our programs to partner directly with social enterprises, and strengthen the ecosystems within which entrepreneurs and social ventures can grow and thrive.
The Innovation Investment Alliance (IIA) is one such approach to support the development of social enterprises. The IIA is a unique partnership between the Skoll Foundation and USAID, supported by Mercy Corps, to invest over $40 million (mostly in the form of grants) in proven, transformative, and innovative social enterprises that help to solve entrenched development challenges. It was founded on the shared belief that collaboration among public, private, and non-profit sectors can combine skills and resources to find scalable solutions to widespread, seemingly intractable problems, such as poverty, climate change and conflict. To date, the IIA has provided grant funding to six social enterprises; details on these investments can be found at www.mercycorps.org/innovation-investment-alliance.
While the primary goal of the IIA is to identify and co-invest in proven ventures led by social entrepreneurs that have scalable solutions to widespread problems, the IIA partners also aim to capture lessons learned about how to scale up impact and share this knowledge with the broader social enterprise community. The IIA-funded work of the first three social enterprises supported by this partnership (Imazon, VisionSpring, and Evidence Action) has generated lessons learned about scaling impact that the IIA partners would now like to capture through case studies and share with external audiences.
Purpose / Project Description:
The purpose of this project is to contribute to the growing body of knowledge on how to scale social impact. As organizations with innovative solutions and/or business models gain experience in how to expand their impact, it is important to tell their stories and highlight the challenges they have addressed and the lessons they have learned. Sharing this information will continue paving the way for other needed innovations to take hold and have an impact at scale. This project will do just that by creating case studies about three of the social enterprises supported by the IIA and their paths to scale.
The case studies should be written with social enterprise practitioners in mind and ideally with a view to linking the case studies to the broader literature on social entrepreneurship and scale, although care should be taken to still make them accessible to general audiences without specific knowledge of the sectors the organizations are working in. The objective for each case study is to tell the story of each organization’s pathway to scaling up its impact, why that pathway was chosen and what critical lessons were learned along the way. Unlike case studies designed to be taught in a classroom setting that do not necessarily provide answers, outcomes, alternatives, or resolution to the problems encountered by the managers depicted in the story, these case studies should highlight the resolutions and results so that other social entrepreneurs can easily glean lessons and apply them to their own ventures. The exact topic of each case study will be determined through consultations with the consultant, the IIA partners, and the three social enterprises that will be the subjects of the case studies.
Consultant Activities:
The consultant will work in collaboration with Mercy Corps staff on three phases of work for this project. Phase 1 – Set Up: participate in meetings with Mercy Corps, its IIA partners, and the social enterprises to discuss each organization, learnings to date that have been documented through quarterly reporting by the social enterprises, and possible areas to highlight in each case study. Interview partners individually as needed to gather further information about the IIA and/or organizations that have received funding. Work with Mercy Corps to finalize the topics to be addressed in each case study, the process for developing and reviewing them (including timelines and any required travel), the format of the finished product, and how each case study will be disseminated. This phase will culminate in the creation of a work plan to be used by Mercy Corps and the consultant during the reminder of this contract. Phase 2 – Implementation: conduct interviews, potentially on-site, with relevant personnel of each of the three social enterprises and write case studies using the agreed upon process from Phase 1. Distribute at least one draft of each case study to Mercy Corps and its partners for review and comments. Hold regular calls with Mercy Corps to check in on progress against the work plan and/or discuss questions, new findings that may change the direction of a case study, and comments on draft case studies. Phase 3 – Debrief: lead a meeting with Mercy Corps and its partners to debrief on learnings from the case studies and any cross-cutting themes. Prepare a brief presentation highlighting some key findings that can be distributed to Mercy Corps and its partners prior to the meeting. Attend an additional meeting to discuss opportunities for follow-on communications as well as dissemination opportunities including panels, blogs and other materials that might arise out of the findings from the case studies.
Consultant Deliverables:
The Consultant will: Provide a work plan detailing the process and timeline for writing the case studies. Produce one case study of 15-25 pages in length for each of three (3) organizations (for a total of three case studies under this contract) detailing one or more aspects of how each organization sought to scale up its impact and highlighting specific challenges it faced, lessons learned, operational best practices that enabled scale, etc. Debrief IIA partners on each case study in person, over the phone/Skype or through another method agreed upon in the work plan, and create a presentation to accompany the material.
Timeframe / Schedule:
The consultant should be able to start work immediately and should plan to complete all three case studies before September 15, 2016. An exact timeline, including timeline for delivering draft case studies for review, will be finalized during Phase 1.
The Consultant will report to:
Social Innovations Director
The Consultant will work closely with:
The Innovation Investment Alliance team at Mercy Corps and with staff at each of the three social enterprises that are the subjects of the case studies. The consultant may also interact with Mercy Corps’ partners at USAID and the Skoll Foundation.
Travel:
The three subjects of the case studies have IIA-funded operations in Brazil, Uganda and Bangladesh and two have their global headquarters in the US (New York City and Washington, DC). Mercy Corps anticipates that travel to one site for each organization will likely be necessary to gather the information needed for the case studies. A travel plan will be developed with the consultant during Phase 1 and the consultant should be available to travel as needed in accordance with this plan.
To Apply:
Please submit the following materials by June 10, 2016: CVs for project leader and key team members; A summary of why you believe your experience is relevant to this assignment; List of relevant case studies or other research, ideally covering issues in the social enterprise sector, drafted by the consultant/project team (with links if possible); Short write-up of the process you propose to use to develop these case studies; Description of how you propose distributing the case studies through your own channels; and Budget detailing your costs to develop the case studies including your estimated level of effort and any relevant costs from your proposed distribution strategy. Any required travel will be determined during Phase 1 of the project, so travel costs need not be included in your proposal budget.
Basis of Award:
To be considered for this contract, the consultant must: Have knowledge of the social enterprise sector and experience writing about topics relating to this space including: social enterprise business models, best practices in implementation, start up acceleration and/or scaling up impact; Be able to write clearly and concisely, and present findings and recommendations in a structured and coherent manner; and Have the capacity to engage intensively with this assignment with a view of substantively completing the work within the proposed timeframe.
Apply Here: http://www.Click2Apply.net/2vbywhk7p7
PI94284977
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