Impact: Six Patterns to Spread Your Social Innovation

"Impact beautifully distills the insights and deep wisdom of one of the world's great social innovators. Etmanski's book is far more than a practical guide: it's an invitation to re-imagine possibilities for our lives and for the world we create."
- David Bornstein, author "How To Change The World"

From the Introduction:
Do you want to change the world but feel frustrated by the limited impact you and others have had? Do you feel that despite your best efforts, and indeed successes, you have hit a brick wall? You may have mounted a fierce advocacy campaign, seen your public education campaign go viral, pioneered a social program, mobilized new funds or changed a law, but the status quo has barely budged. Social and economic justice hasn’t increased. Power hasn’t shifted. The old paradigm survives. And the sharp, distinctive edges of your social innovation are in danger of being eroded, isolated or forgotten.

The paradox of short-term success versus long-term impact is the central question this book addresses. Many of us believed that by now we would have absolute poverty under control. Or pollution. Or child abuse. Or deforestation. Or any number of other social and environmental challenges. The solutions certainly exist. They just aren’t widely distributed.