Getting better by getting bigger, having a greater impact on more people: Funders, social impact investors, and philanthropists will be putting their heads together June 15 and 16 to discuss these topics at the 2011 Social Impact Exchange Conference on Scaling Impact (SIEX 2011).

This is an important conference. We need new funding models to scale social impact. We need new voices in the conversation. And we need to be very aware of which models have worked, which haven’t, and why.

Scaling impact is tough. It requires standardizing evaluation and pulling in new funding sources, all of which SIEX 2011 will address. Maybe a taste of last year’s conference will fire up your interest. Check out this mashup of the 2010 conference.

As we did last year, Ventureneer will be  SIEX11 Blog/Tweet Central, with our partner Adin Miller Consulting. This site will be a one-stop shop for blogs and insights from those attending workshops at the conference. The impressions, information, take-aways, and suggestions of thought-leaders responding to the conference will be posted during the conference and followers will be able to share their own reactions.

Conference participants can contribute to Ventureneer’s SIEX11 Blog Central in three ways:

• Tweet using #siex2011.
• Bloggers or those hosting content on their websites can send the site’s link to siex2011@ventureneer.com
• Participants who can’t host their own content can send commentary to siex2011@ventureneer.com to be posted as Ventureneer guest blogs.

For nonprofits, the day to mark on your calendar is June 14, when the Social Impact Exchange will host a Symposium on Scaling Impact to learn:

• Scaling from nonprofits who are doing it;
• Developing a business plan;
• The leadership skills needed to grow an organization.

It’s an exciting opportunity, with brainstorming about leading edge initiatives, such as co-funding, scaling beyond replication, using e-platforms to aggregate capital and information … lots of good stuff.

If you need a primer on the issues of scaling,  Ventureneer has a free ebook, Scaling Impact: A Primer for Nonprofits, now ready to download. The ebook summarizes for nonprofits the issues raised and ideas put forth at last year’s conference to prepare you for the June 14 discussions. It will also refresh the memories of those funders, investors, and philanthropists who were at SIEX10.

The ebook summarizes the issues of scaling from a nonprofit perspective and provides links that can prod people’s thinking about nonprofit scaling. It’s a hit-the-ground-running resource for those who will attend the conference.

Whether or not you plan to attend the conference, take a look at the ebook and the blogs during the conference. Both will stimulate your thinking and may lead to new ventures.

What do you think is the biggest obstacle to scaling nonprofits? What topics would you like to see addressed about scaling nonprofits?