The SoCap Way

5. Sustainability: Sustainability has two primary dimensions in our assessment. The first establishes that 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. We are purposefully agnostic on the subject of earned revenue. If an organization earns revenue in a way that is fully integrated with its model for creating social impact, that organization gets high marks; if the earned income seems to be an unrelated add-on business, a distraction from the social mission, we're not impressed. In addition to sustainability from a financial perspective, we also look for 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.

Customized Approach: One of the most challenging aspects of our assessment methodology is the need to understand and take into account the unique context and choices of each individual organization and their social mission. There are not standardized, universally applicable metrics for any of our criteria that would allow an apples-to-apples comparison across all applicants. Instead, we invest significant effort to develop a sound understanding of each organization and the environment in which it operates. The unique challenges and influences of the problem it is tackling, its chosen business model and organizational form, and its relative age or life stage all influence how we define strong performance for that organization.

Executing A Thorough and Fair Process: Our process balances the need to collect a robust, detailed set of data from each organization with a desire to make the process as open and straightforward for applicants as possible. Any non-profit organization can register for the Social Capitalist Awards online at the Fast Company website. We also accepted outside nominations. The application itself is a one-step written application that consists of a focused, personal essay from the CEO or Executive Director, a 30-question survey about strategic and organizational specifics, copies of the organization's mission statement and board of directors list, key leadership bios, organizational charts, and copies of the last two years' audited financial statements and 990 tax forms. Monitor Group consultants then spent months analyzing and evaluating the applications. The assessments on the organizations were then presented to our Selection Advisory Board for decisions, resulting in a list of 45 winners. Our Selection Advisory Board comprised of a group of carefully identified external experts in the field of social entrepreneurship.

Monitor Group has a long-standing strategic partnership with New Profit Inc., a venture philanthropy organization that supports several Social Capitalist applicants and winners. Monitor also has client relationships with some of the applicants and winners. A strict conflict of interest policy has been put in place in order to ensure that these relationships do not influence the outcome of the process.

As a final check on our transparency, Monitor offers private feedback conversations to any applicant who requests one. This helps us to refine our understanding and approach, as well as helping the organization maximize its learning from the time invested in its application.

Tammy Hobbs Miracky, Amy Lieb, and Mia Kulla lead the Social Capitalist Awards assessment process. They are consultants with Monitor Institute, a member of Monitor Group dedicated to customizing and innovating strategies for solving complex social challenges.