THE EASY WAY TO UNDERSTAND SUSTAINED SUCCESS

Sustainability: A Process Not A Destination

What is Sustainability?

Why am I here Talking About Sustainability?

My goal is to help as many founders and thought leaders as possible. One of the biggest barriers to creating a lasting legacy in the social impact space is the lack of sustainable funding.

I realized the funding can’t be the entirety of the equation. I dug into my experience guiding multi-sector partners to create sustainable social change initiatives.

Multi-dimensional sustainability

I created the Multi-dimensional Sustainability model to make the steps in my sustainability technical assistance available to the field.

Sustainability baked into your recipe

Sustainability is often described as a destination to reach. “When our programs are sustained” or “Sustainable lifestyles”.

For the people creating impact and social change, sustainability is a lifestyle indeed. But not in the drink paper straws kinda way.

Sustainability is the process that you use to ensure your efforts continue to build
a legacy through their natural lifespan to reach the outcomes you want to achieve.


Our Generation’s Mission- Sustainable Social Change

Sustainable change takes a few key ingredients, including inspiration. Despite having ideas, it’s difficult to step out and truly say you’re going to make “social change”. People will likely look at you and laugh, expecting the status quo. 

However, so many adults are doing self-development work and healing generational wounds. As a collective, we have to do that healing too. To learn from the things we’ve done in the past to move forward in our journey with a sound foundation. Like the African proverb the Sankofa infers “to go back and get”, we will need to go back and get the knowledge that will help us move forward.

It’s our responsibility to step up and create the social impact that we want to see. In that expectation lies the necessity to take action. But action is worthless if it doesn’t actually create change and that change isn’t sustained. 

The resources on this page are here for you to be inspired on your journey to create a legacy of social change.

Multi-Dimensional Sustainability Model

Sustainability is the process that you use to ensure your efforts continue to build
a legacy through their natural lifespan to reach the outcomes you want to achieve.

Click on the dimensions below to learn more.

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01.

Leading with Passion

Now is the time to turn local vision and inspired action into social change.

02.

Investment/Divestment Strategy

When you choose to invest in strategies that show efficacy and effectiveness, you are focusing your resources on the places and spaces where the most impact can take place.

03.

Partnerships & Capacity

Strong partnerships are the foundation of social impact work. Nothing gets done in a vacuum when you’re trying to inspire change. 

04.

Communications & Marketing

Communications and marketing are the most underutilized strategies when it comes to building sustainable social impact ventures.

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05.

Long-term Change Strategy

When sustaining efforts, going one level beyond yourself and thinking about long-term change for others is the next iteration of sustainability.

06.

Shared Risk & Protective Factors

Addressing root causes by building assets to help people thrive and live fulfilling happy lives is a sustainable strategy.

07.

Equity

Unlike generations before, we have the data and information to help us successfully create equitable systems that guide our society.

08.

Coordinated & Complementary Funding Streams

Leveraging a braided funding approach can help you identify multiple funding sources that can be used together in harmony to ensure you have the entirety of your budget covered.

Read More About Sustainable Practices & Techniques for Your Toolbelt

Listen and Learn

Social Impact Level Up Podcast

Why Our Generation Should Care About Sustainable Ventures

Season 1 Episode 13: In this episode, Wendie Veloz shares her sustainability framework for the first time on the Wisdom app. Wendie focuses on how social change efforts and social impact ventures can create sustainable infrastructure. Sustainability takes all of us to commit to play an active or supportive role in making social change if we want to create the world our generation deserves.

Resources & Tools

Keep learning more with my related resources and courses.

Download the Sustainability Questions PDF or take a course to help your organization with sustainability right now.