Is scale the right goal? An impact measurement debate with Ubuntu Education Fund

So often when we talk about creating sustainable business models to create social impact the question "Is it scalable?" comes up - but are we asking the right questions?

Ubuntu Education Fund
In 1999, an American university student and a South African schoolteacher founded Ubuntu Education Fund, an organisation based on their belief in the immense potential of orphaned and vulnerable children living in the townships of Port Elizabeth, South Africa. Over the past 16 years, Ubuntu has grown into a professionalised grassroots service delivery model that redefines the theory of “going to scale,” focusing on the depth rather than the breadth of our impact. Ubuntu targets comprehensive household stability, health, and educational services to an entire community, providing contextualised interventions that guide 2,000 children on individualised pathways out of poverty. Ubuntu is guided by a simple, all-encompassing, yet radical mission: to help raise disadvantaged children by giving them what all children deserve—everything.

Jordan Levy, Chief External Relations Officer
Jordan Levy is one of the founding executives of Ubuntu Education Fund; he has spent the past 13 years molding the organisation into a blueprint for global sustainable development. Ubuntu brings orphaned and vulnerable children on a pathway out of poverty from cradle to career, and proves that you can professionalise the grassroots service delivery model. Jordan has launched a number of platforms to drive the development sector to break free from status quo approaches. Jordan is illuminating unheard opinions and changing the way we think about scale, impact, and sustainability: he has contributed to various publications, including The Guardian and the Stanford Social Innovation Review, and speaks regularly at events such as the Yale Global Health and Innovation and The Guardian Global Development Conferences.