Systemic Impact

Series Overview

In June 2022, Bellwether published the Pragmatic Playbook which explored how organizations can employ three strategies to maximize their impact: Direct Impact, Widespread Impact, and Systemic Impact.

Over the past several years, dozens of organizations across the country have adopted this framework for strategic decision-making and used its key principles to communicate priorities in a clear, compelling external pitch to attract clients, partners, funders, and allies, and as an internal playbook to build alignment within their organization.

One of the biggest areas of need organizations frequently cite is access to more guidance and resources on how to build their capacity to pursue Systemic Impact: the ability to shift mindsets, relationships, and power in service of shifting policy, practice, and funding.

Nonprofits and philanthropies that aspire to achieve population-level impact need Systemic Impact to reach their goals. Social problems are owned by social systems, which can enact policy, direct funding, and implement and hold accountable changes in practices at scale. For nonprofits, Systemic Impact is the ultimate tool in business development. Systemic Impact is also philanthropy’s only exit strategy. Philanthropy plays a catalytic role in funding innovations, but philanthropy cannot replace social funding. 

However, Systemic Impact is complex and challenging to achieve. It requires being unapologetic about building and deploying power through partnership, persuasion, and pressure. Systemic Impact also never ends: The wheel of competing agendas is always turning.

In January 2025, Bellwether began an initiative to explore strong practices in Systemic Impact, and in June 2025, we launched a six-month community of practice composed of 10 postsecondary persistence advising organizations across the country to build their capacity to plan and execute Systemic Impact campaigns and provide feedback on draft content. Through this series of Bellwether publications, leaders can learn how to use Systemic Impact to achieve their goals.

Explore the full Systemic Impact series and download the strategy design and planning template. 

Explore the Series

The first three publications in Bellwether’s Systemic Impact series, which review the “what” and “why” of Systemic Impact; the role of systems, markets, and infrastructure; and mapping authority in postsecondary systems, were released in December 2025. Publications four through seven, which focus on Systemic Impact strategies and their design, implementation, and measurement, were released in April 2026 to complete the series.

Explore the full Systemic Impact series, including a supplemental planning tool for leaders, below.

Systemic Impact: A Path to Scale, Success, and Sustainability

Publication #1 discusses what Systemic Impact is and why it is a critical strategy for nonprofits and philanthropy to pursue to achieve population-level impact. It also answers key questions about how to design and execute a Systemic Impact strategy for organizations integrating this approach into their work.

Systemic Impact: Systems, Markets, and Infrastructure

Publication #2 examines how nonprofits can use Systemic Impact strategies to reframe their approach to their work. The authors explore how nonprofits can take advantage of Systemic Impact strategies to influence the rules of the markets they compete in so those markets operate to their advantage.

Systemic Impact: Mapping Authority in Postsecondary Systems

Publication #3 details the roles of various stakeholders in determining how postsecondary systems operate. It serves as a tool that higher education organizations can use to understand how authority operates within and across postsecondary systems and to inform their approach for pursuing Systemic Impact strategies.

Systemic Impact: Introduction to Designing Effective Strategies

Publication #4 explores how organizations can create effective Systemic Impact strategies to move their work forward, including identifying a future-state vision, the systemic barriers preventing that vision, and providing an overview of Systemic Impact campaigns to address those barriers.

Systemic Impact: Designing and Executing Effective Campaigns

Publication #5 provides guidance on how organizations can design and execute Systemic Impact campaigns, including a five-step guide. 

Systemic Impact: Using Measurement to Manage, Maximize, and Demonstrate the Value of Campaigns

Publication #6 focuses on the importance of using measurement in designing and executing a Systemic Impact campaign to manage, maximize, and demonstrate impact. It also outlines the steps that organizations can take to integrate measurement plans into this work.

Systemic Impact: The Importance of Implementation

Publication #7 explores the importance of focusing on implementation before, during, and after a Systemic Impact issue campaign “win,” and how organizations can navigate implementation challenges.

Systemic Impact: Strategy Design and Planning Template

This companion resource guides leaders pursuing Systemic Impact through a set of considerations and questions to design their strategies and campaigns, taking note of short-term next steps along the way. Download a PDF version.