As we continue to scale Exygy’s impact, it’s important that we all clearly understand the types of projects we will take on, and those we won’t. Our shared vision is about creating an impact, which means that a clear guideline around opportunity selection is closely linked to our ability to become the company we aspire to be. Taking on high-impact opportunities will fuel our growth, while lack of clarity in opportunity selection will ultimately hinder it.

So, how do we evaluate whether opportunities are high-impact/mission aligned? We look at them on two axes: client impact, and project impact.

Client Impact

High

An organization with a clear social mission. Indicators that an org is high-impact might include:

• Business Model: Organization who operates within a social sector (e.g., education, health, environment, women and children, social justice, etc.) as a part of its business model.
  • **Note: Companies whose sole social value comes from donating a percentage of profits do not qualify as social enterprises.
• Legal Status or Certification: Benefit Corporation, Certified B Corp, or 501c3.
  • **Note: 501c3 status is an indicator, but not necessarily a guarantee of mission alignment. It should be considered in conjunction with the organization’s business model.

Low

An organization whose business model is outside the social sector, and/or lacks legal status or certification.

Project Impact

High

A project whose completion enables meaningful action to towards an organization’s fulfillment of its mission. E.g.,

Environmental Working Group’s FoodScores App

• Organizational Mission: To empower people to live healthier lives in a healthier environment.
• Project: Create an app that allows consumers to understand the health concerns of their food purchases.

REDF’s Workshop

• Organizational Mission: To create jobs and employment opportunities for people facing the greatest barriers to work.
• Project: Create a web platform that helps social entrepreneurs more effectively start and grow job-creating organizations by providing them with tools and resources.

Low

A project whose completion does not directly enable meaningful action towards the fulfillment of an organizations’ mission. E.g.,

• A marketing website with no additional functionality
• Marketing collateral and logo design

The diagram below visually represents the selection criteria. A project must fall into quadrant I, II, or III. Quadrant IV projects are disqualified.

see image here:

Challenges of Mission Alignment

Taking on non-mission aligned opportunities will be tempting because of several benefits:

Brand Recognition: As we grow, larger companies will want to work with Exygy. It will be tempting to close deals with large, established brands in order to leverage their credibility for ourselves. E.g., “Large Fortune 500 company becomes Exygy client!”

Revenue: Larger companies have larger budgets. It will be tempting to build Exygy on these non mission-aligned dollars.

However, we believe these opportunities will provide only short-lived value, and will damage the business in the long run. The table below explains why.

 

	Non Mission Aligned	Mission Aligned
Impact	Negligible social impact	High social impact
Credibility and Brand	Dilutes our credibility with our core market Dilutes our credibility with mission aligned employees Confuses our brand	Builds credibility with core market Builds credibility with mission aligned staff Clarifies and focuses our brand
Morale and Retention	Lowers morale: “I’m unenthusiastic about my work because it’s not meaningful.” Lowers retention: “I’m thinking about leaving Exygy to work somewhere impactful.”	Boosts morale: “This is awesome. I feel good about how I’m using my skills.” Increases retention: “I want to stay at Exygy because my work matters.”

We recently decided to turn down the opportunity to pursue a seven figure lead because it wasn’t mission-aligned. Could we have pursued it, and potentially closed a big deal? Yes. But that would have been a Pyrrhic victory, as it would have damaged the business in the long run.

Current Status versus the Future

However, we recognize that our revenue stream flows from all of these quadrants. Our goal for 2015 is to increase the percentage of Exygy’s revenue coming from quadrants I and II. We aim to do this by closing more mission-aligned projects, while continuing to support our long-time clients who are not as aligned. Over time, the latter will become a very small piece of the business.

Low Impact Clients with High Impact Projects

Internally, we operate with a sense of possibility about our own future. One meaning of this is that we can see ourselves doing things beyond our current capabilities. We have the same perspective on our clients. Regardless of your current focus as an organization, if you’re interested in using design and technology to move to a place of higher impact, we welcome a conversation.