Social Franchise Learning

With 4 growing social enterprise sites, we’re still working our way down the path of “social franchise” in Ontario. We’re learning as we go! A few months ago, I corralled Tim Day, often referred to as one of the key strategic thinkers behind the growth of The Meeting House (A Church for People Who Are Not Into Church) into having a phone call about the processes of replication.. The Meeting House is a multi-site church with a regular weekly attendance of over 5,000 people and 18 sites in Ontario. I wanted to ask Tim about the multi-site growth and some of the key points to consider along the journey of replication. He was so gracious to provide some amazing tips! The one that I really came away with was the comment that there is a big difference between growing 1 site, and then another learning point to expand to 3 sites, and then 7 and then 14. At various “levels’ of growth, there is new learning and re-visioning that needs to happen. Being 5 years into the world of Social Enterprise and at 4 sites, I think that The Raw Carrot is at that point. Expansion beyond requires more. More resources, more work on operational design and mare targeted strategy. We’re working on it! It’s tough, but exciting.