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Lean Impact How to Innovate for

Radically Greater Social Good Ann Mei


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More Advance Acclaim for Lean Impact

“Ann Mei Chang understands what it takes to create social impact on


a massive scale. In this book, she lays out a clear course for devel-
oping more effective solutions to our greatest human challenges,
including the persistence of extreme poverty, and most importantly
ensuring they are able to reach millions.”
—Sir Fazle Hasan Abed, Founder and Chairperson, BRAC

“Run, don’t walk, to buy this book if you are interested in innovation
or simply in finding solutions to our world’s current problems. Lean
Impact is smart and thoughtful, a mix of head and heart, practical
and yet full of hope. Ann Mei Chang’s wisdom will provide a useful
guide for how to think, and more important, how to act.”
—Jacqueline Novogratz, CEO, Acumen

“Lean Impact helps us all see a brighter future in fighting global


poverty – by bringing lessons from innovation successes in the tech,
NGO, and business worlds to bear on the world’s biggest problems.
It’s a book anyone who cares about making change in the world
should read and take to heart. I believe innovation and learning fast
from mistakes is what will ultimately save the lives of at least 10 mil-
lion children in the next decade and hopefully more.”
—Carolyn Miles, President and CEO, Save the Children

“Innovation and scale are two of the hottest topics in the social sector
today – yet that attention has not yet led to nearly enough break-
through ideas achieving widespread impact. Ann Mei Chang’s book
Lean Impact explains why current approaches limit our impact and
what we can do to fix that. Based on deep work across sectors, Chang
offers fresh insights into how leaders can chart a path from innova-
tion to impact at scale. An important read for all those seeking
change – in the United States and around the world.”
—Jeffrey L. Bradach, Managing Partner
and Cofounder, Bridgespan Group

“Ann Mei Chang’s new book Lean Impact is a must‐read for


development professionals, policy‐makers, and indeed anyone inter-
ested in ensuring more effective programs to lift people out of
poverty. Chang brings a ‘disruptive’ sensibility garnered from her
many years in Silicon Valley to the challenges of international
development and poverty alleviation more generally. The development
field has long needed fresh breezes of radically creative ideas. Chang
delivers them in this immensely readable and practical volume.”
—David Gordon, Senior Advisor and former Chairman,
Eurasia Group and former Director of Policy Planning,
US Department of State

“The most successful social enterprises continually iterate in pursuit


of transformational change. Lean Impact demystifies the process of
social innovation and makes it accessible to entrepreneurs and grant
makers alike.”
—Christy Chin, Managing Partner,
Draper Richards Kaplan Foundation

“Lean Impact distills the essence of social innovation into an acces-


sible book, packed with practical examples. These approaches to
design, test, iterate, and scale will accelerate our collective ability to
bring breakthrough solutions to those who need them most.”
—Michelle Nunn, President and CEO, CARE USA

“Lean Impact is indispensable. Ann Mei Chang challenges us to ask


ourselves hard questions: Do you know how well your efforts
are working? What improvements have you made in response to
feedback? As the urgency for transformational impact grows for our
planet and people, today’s social entrepreneurs, nonprofits, philan-
thropies, and governments must embrace user‐focused, hypothesis‐
driven experimentation. Ann Mei does a masterful job of sharing
compelling and inspiring stories of what we can achieve when we
put aside our biases and assumptions to design solutions that meet
real needs.”
—Victor Reinoso, COO, Independent Sector

“Lean Impact is going to be an essential reference for this generation


of development workers. The book’s many case studies provide both
inspiring examples and cautionary tales that help explain in clear,
actionable language how the independent sector can adapt Silicon
Valley’s playbook for growing and scaling innovation to build agile
twenty‐first‐century social enterprises dedicated to creating more
just, inclusive, and prosperous communities.”
—Patrick Fine, CEO, FHI 360

“To tackle the intractable problems that our world faces today, we
need effective methodologies for innovation. Lean Impact provides
compelling tools and techniques for developing solutions with
positive social impact that are highly complementary to human‐­
centered design.”
—Jocelyn Wyatt, CEO, IDEO.org

“From Silicon Valley to bureaucratic Washington DC to the poverty‐


stricken villages of the developing world, Ann Mei Chang chronicles
an adventurous journey as she attempts to apply the innovative tech-
niques learned in the high‐tech world to the challenges of development
cooperation. This book is a must‐read for aspiring development pro-
fessionals and any citizen who cares about the effort to support those
trying to escape the shackles of poverty.”
—Brian Atwood, Senior Fellow, Watson Institute,
Brown University and former Administrator, USAID
“This book is a must‐read for anyone seeking to have real impact in
their communities and the world. It provides practical advice on how
to define outcomes, measure impact, and demonstrate change. Ann
Mei inspires leaders to deliver outcomes.”
—Sonal Shah, Executive Director, Beeck Center for Social
Impact & Innovation at Georgetown University

“For years innovation has lagged in the social change sector. This is
starting to change but not nearly fast enough. Lean Impact is a timely
wake‐up call and a practical approach for social entrepreneurs and
change makers everywhere. It should be required reading for funders
and practitioners who are committed to bigger, better impact and
smart solutions for our toughest challenges.”
—Neal Keny‐Guyer, CEO, Mercy Corps

“Innovation and smart risk‐taking are the norm in Silicon Valley, but
less so in the social sector. That’s because of how we fund, account
for costs, and tell stories. Ann Mei Chang, with a foot in both of
these worlds, has given us a blueprint for how to do things differ-
ently. The result is required reading for philanthropists and leaders of
nonprofits and a recipe for better conversations all around.”
—Alix Zwane, CEO, Global Innovation Fund
LEAN
IMPACT
LEAN
IMPACT
How to Innovate for Radically
Greater Social Good

ANN MEI CHANG


Copyright © 2019 by Ann Mei Chang. All rights reserved.

Published by John Wiley & Sons, Inc., Hoboken, New Jersey.


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Library of Congress Cataloging‐in‐Publication Data:

Names: Chang, Ann Mei, author.


Title: Lean impact : how to innovate for radically greater social good / Ann Mei Chang.
Description: Hoboken, New Jersey : John Wiley & Sons, Inc., [2019] | Includes index. |
Identifiers: LCCN 2018031109 (print) | LCCN 2018033310 (ebook) | ISBN 9781119506645 (ePub) |
ISBN 9781119506591 (Adobe PDF) | ISBN 9781119506607 (hardcover)
Subjects: LCSH: Social entrepreneurship. | Social responsibility of business.
Classification: LCC HD60 (ebook) | LCC HD60 .C4429 2019 (print) | DDC 658.4/063–dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2018031109

Cover image: © lmnoom / Getty Images


Cover design: Wiley

Printed in the United States of America

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
For the women who have been
my role models, mentors, and inspiration on this journey

Florence, Elizabeth, Anne‐Marie, Melanne, Sonal, Henrietta, Lona


Contents

Foreword  xiii
Introduction  1

Part I INSPIRE
One Innovation Is the Path, Impact Is the
Destination  13
Two What Is Your Audacious Goal?   27
Three Love the Problem, Not Your Solution   39
Four Finding the “Big Idea”   53
Five Lessons from The Lean Startup  61

Part II VALIDATE
Six Start Small, Iterate Fast   85
Seven Value  105
Eight Growth  129
Nine Impact  155

Part III TRANSFORM


Ten Systems Change   181
Eleven Financing Innovation   191
Twelve A Message to Funders   209
Thirteen Making It Stick   229
Fourteen A World of Impact   243

Disclosures  261
Acknowledgments  263
About the Author   269
Index  271
Foreword

A s the twenty‐first century winds up its second decade, it’s become


more and more obvious – nearly to the point of becoming that
rarely achieved thing, utter clarity – that innovation is no longer just
a Silicon Valley buzzword. It’s not even just a technology buzzword
any more. Organizations of all kinds – business, political, educational,
cultural, charitable – know the choice they face is to innovate or to
die out. Groups that have social good at the center of their missions,
which do so much critical work in the world and are always striving
to do more, and do it better, have also realized that this kind of evo-
lution is the key to fulfilling their goals. I’ve spoken to countless
organizations of this kind over the years that are eager and ready to
embrace innovation. They know it will make their urgent work more
focused, efficient, and better directed towards problems that truly
need solving. They also know that following a Lean Startup–style
process of experimentation will lead them to uncover areas of con-
cern that they might otherwise not discover – an invaluable tool
when we’re talking about poverty, hunger, health, safety, and so many
other issues that need serious attention. There’s no shortage of good
to be done in the world, and no one knows that better than the
people who are invested in making social impact.
What they haven’t known, for the most part, is how to start
innovating. That’s why Lean Impact is such an important book. Most
writing on innovation is aimed at the business world, in which differ-
ent rules and politics are at play. Lean Impact dives headfirst into the
work of social good and walks through its challenges and opportu-
nities to explain how to innovate within them. It’s comprehensive,
xiv Foreword

totally straightforward, and illustrated with great stories about people


who are already working in this way. Ann Mei Chang, whom I’ve
known for many years, is the perfect person to write such a book. She
learned all about innovation in Silicon Valley over the course of a
twenty‐year career and then made a truly inspiring pivot into non-
profits and government. As the chief innovation officer and executive
director of the US Global Development Lab at USAID, she had the
awesome job of overseeing the Lab’s work identifying the kinds of
breakthrough innovations that have meaningful impact on peoples’
lives, and also bringing in modern approaches and tools, including
technology, to help transform the way development work is done
around the world. As she says, she knew she had a lot to learn when
she made the switch. She learned it well, and now, she’s sharing that
knowledge and experience with everyone who picks up this book.
Lean Impact is full of inspiring stories of organizations pivoting
to meet the true needs of the people they serve. They’re set all over
the world – Indonesia, Liberia, Uganda, Kenya, El Salvador, India,
Bangladesh, the United Kingdom, and right here in the United
States. They range from a company that helps immigrants learn
English based on data from customers about what they really wanted,
to one that has so far provided 12 million solar lights to 62 countries
and is aiming for more. There’s a story about how a passion for pro-
tecting orangutans led to the building of a local health clinic in
Indonesia – a solution that would never have been arrived at without
using Lean Impact techniques to discover that the real problem was
a lack of local medical services. The list goes on and on: an innova-
tion story that begins with something as simple as a soccer game; the
evolution of a company that was founded to provide free eyeglasses
into a force for political advocacy and policy change; a story about
combating youth unemployment in South Africa; one about easier
access to food stamps in California; and another about a housing and
services network for the chronically homeless.
Along with all these real‐life examples comes a ton of practical
information about methods for working in the current system, new
Foreword xv

funding models, and even ways to start encouraging change from


within. Lean Impact discusses the ways organizations can serve their
two very different, but equally important, customers – funders and
users – a crucial skill set for success in the world of social good. It also
pays close attention to funders themselves – foundations, government
agencies, philanthropists, impact investors, and donors – offering
tools that will help them direct their aid in ways that best support the
projects they’re involved in. A book that explains this clearly and
compellingly is a hugely important contribution.
I’ve had many conversations with funders who want to know
how they can be more useful. More often than not, when I tell them
they need to change the way they give grants and donations by fund-
ing actual outcomes rather than giving groups a large sum of money
and waiting to see what happens at the end of a year (or two years, or
more) they rarely call me again. Until now, this idea, and change of
any kind, has simply seemed too radical a departure from the way
things have always been done. Lean Impact will make it seem not
only possible, but preferable. I’m thrilled to see the ideas in The Lean
Startup used in these new, incredibly valuable ways, and to see how
Ann Mei has developed and customized them to meet the particular
needs of social innovation. Value and growth are the main dimen-
sions of Lean Startup, and now a third one has been added: impact.
Impact is a critically important concept when it comes to social
innovation, generally used in the context of measuring whether
social interventions do or don’t work. But conceptually, it’s very sim-
ilar to the problem of measuring success in a business before you
have profits. That’s why lean methods are so perfectly suited to this
kind of work. The only real difference is that instead of talking about
maximizing shareholder value, Lean Impact talks about maximizing
social impact. An advance party of pioneers, some of whom you’ll
read about here, is already doing this, but we need more. This book
is a way to help add to their numbers.
Lean Impact is not only transformational for the social sector,
though. My hope is that people in other kinds of businesses and
xvi Foreword

organizations will also pick it up and, after reading about the dedi-
cated people and clear strategies whose stories Ann Mei has gathered,
think about how the products and institutions they build affect the
world. All of us have more to learn about how we make impact so we
can move together into this new era.
—Eric Ries, author of The Lean Startup and The Startup Way
Introduction

A s I lie on the roof of a small boat puttering down the Ywe River,
drifting past lush vegetation punctuated by the occasional flash of
bright gold from the stupa of a Buddhist shrine, my mind turns over a
jumble of insights from an eye‐opening day. I had arrived in the
Irrawaddy Delta region of Myanmar the night before, after flying
halfway around the world and bumping along for eight hours on largely
unpaved roads. Following a restless night in the best local guesthouse
listening to my neighbor’s hacking cough through thin walls that rose
a foot short of the ceiling, I had eagerly embarked on one of my first
field visits to witness the noble work being done to fight global poverty.
Myanmar was at a critical juncture. Life was gradually returning
to normal after the 2008 devastation of Cyclone Nargis, which had
killed almost 100,000 people. Hope for a brighter future was swell-
ing, following the release of pro‐democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi
from house arrest and the first open parliamentary elections in
decades. Yet, many people remained desperately poor, toiled on small
family farms, and eked out an average income of less than two dollars
a day. The program I was here to visit worked with some of these

Lean Impact: How to Innovate for Radically Greater Social Good, First Edition. Ann Mei Chang.
© 2019 Ann Mei Chang. Published 2019 by John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
2 Lean Impact

smallholder farmers in the delta region to improve their agricultural


yields, and thereby their incomes.
My day started with an early three‐hour boat ride to one of these
villages. As I walked among the thatched huts and surrounding
fields, the women and men proudly showed me their thriving crops
of rice and vegetables. I also visited the cramped shack where local
staff slept during the week so they could provide training on modern
farming techniques, supply improved seeds, and help form farming
collectives to achieve better economies of scale. The dedication of
both the farmers and the staff was inspiring. Everyone was working
tirelessly to make life better.
Back in town, the leadership team explained how the program
was managed. On one wall of the office hung a large chalkboard,
with a grid listing each of the villages down one side and all the
planned activities, along with their associated targets, across the top.
At the end of each week, the local staff would convene to review
progress and tally the number of people that had been reached. It was
a well‐oiled machine.
But, breaking the cycle of poverty is incredibly complex, and we
are far from having all the answers. So, I asked, how well were these
efforts working? What improvements had been made to the program
during the first two years? And, how could we help many more
farmers? I got back a lot of blank stares.
I quickly learned that this isn’t how it works. As with many
global development programs, the entire design had been laid out
years before in the original grant proposal, largely by staff at head-
quarters back in the United States. The job of the staff working in
the delta was to execute on this plan and hit their quarterly targets,
not to learn and improve. To make matters worse, the total number
of farmers being reached by the multimillion‐dollar program – per-
haps several thousand – was tiny in a region of over six million peo-
ple, roughly a third of whom were living below the poverty line.1 Was
1
“Ayeyarwaddy Region: A Snapshot of Child Wellbeing,” UNICEF, n.d., accessed
April 25, 2018, https://www.unicef.org/myanmar/Ayeyarwaddy_Region_Profile_
Final.pdf.
Introduction 3

it possible to do better? After the allotted four years, the program was
slated to end whether it was working or not. Never mind if more
help was needed there or in a neighboring area. The team could keep
their fingers crossed for a new grant or another donor to take interest.
Otherwise, it would be time to pack up and go home.
Back on the boat, as I soaked in the warm January sunshine, I
thought that there had to be a better way. People are working so hard
to make a difference, and yet their hands are tied. Executing a rigid,
one‐off program is no way to deliver the most impact for the most
people. We could do so much more. Over the course of my subsequent
travels to countries as far afield as Liberia, Uganda, Zimbabwe,
Guatemala, India, and Mongolia, I saw a similar scenario repeated
over and over again.
I decided to devote the second half of my career to understanding
these perverse dynamics and finding a way to improve the system.

TWO WORLDS COLLIDE

This may seem like an unusual reaction. Most people return from
field visits with a burning passion to help the people or habitats
they have seen, not grapple with the bureaucratic processes and
management philosophy behind the work. But, I’m an engineer.
Seven years ago, after over 20 years in the tech industry, I made
a long‐planned transition to spend the second half of my career try-
ing to make the world a better place. That may sound trite, but it
really was that simple. As much as I loved the challenges of building
software, I knew I wanted to do something more meaningful in my
life. The question was what. I certainly wasn’t an expert in poverty
alleviation, healthcare, education, conservation, human rights, or
anything else that seemed to matter. And, having long ago moved
from software engineering into management roles, I wasn’t even par-
ticularly qualified to write code. Nevertheless, I plunged in with the
sincere hope of finding a worthwhile way to contribute beyond
merely stuffing envelopes.
4 Lean Impact

This visit to Myanmar was one of the early steps in my learning


process. If I would have any hope of making a difference, I knew I
first had to understand the work being done on the front lines. I have
been fortunate to have the opportunity to learn from some of the
industry’s best through my work in US government, at a top interna-
tional nonprofit, and with the numerous partners of both.
Coming off eight years at Google, some of the Silicon Valley
hubris had certainly rubbed off on me, for better or worse. Anything
seemed possible. While I was leading the mobile engineering team in
the late 2000s, turn‐by‐turn navigation was the number one feature
request of mobile users of Google Maps. However, our path to
market was stymied by a duopoly of map‐data providers, who offered
licenses for a flat fee but required an annual per user charge for nav-
igation services. Not something we could afford for a free product.
When we brought this dilemma to Google’s cofounders, Larry and
Sergey, they authorized an extraordinary effort: to drive all the streets
in the world to build our own mapping database. The satnav industry,
accustomed to charging users $5–10 a month for its services, was
turned on its head.
Not only did I learn to think big, I also grew to appreciate the
value of experimentation. Despite being an industry leader, Google
doesn’t rest on its laurels. Each day it runs hundreds of experiments
to test both major and minor enhancements to its services. Although
Google didn’t invent web search, it out‐innovated its competitors by
testing, learning, and iterating faster. As a result, Google products are
appreciably better today than they were last year or the year before.
It was this perspective that I brought with me to the Irrawaddy
Delta. I couldn’t help but ask, Is this working? Can we do better?
Can we reach more people? And, is it possible to permanently trans-
form the system?
Okay, I admit I was a bit naive. My boundless enthusiasm soon
crashed squarely into cold reality. I quickly learned that social innova-
tion – the development of better solutions to social and environ-
mental challenges – is much harder than tech innovation. Funding
constraints can severely limit experimentation. The needs of
Introduction 5

beneficiaries and the priorities of donors don’t always align. Short‐


term wins are rewarded over long‐term growth. Measuring social out-
comes is much harder than counting clicks. And, taking risks has far
greater implications when it involves real lives.
Yet I firmly believe that the same techniques for innovation that
have fueled dramatic progress in Silicon Valley can be the basis for
creating radically greater social good. Since my trip to Myanmar, I
have found more and more pioneering organizations that are taking
this approach and showing compelling results. Innovation doesn’t
have to be time consuming or expensive. In fact, by recognizing
problems early we can save time and money.
Just as companies have a responsibility to maximize shareholder
value, mission‐driven organizations have a responsibility to maxi-
mize social benefit to society. After living in both spheres, I was
inspired to write Lean Impact to share my belief that innovation can
transform the world in the ways that truly matter.

THE LEAN STARTUP MOVEMENT

In almost every industry, companies have sought to emulate the


dynamism of Silicon Valley that has made it a hotbed of innovation.
Not only have technology advances upended almost every aspect of
our lives, but year after year solutions to problems both large and
small improve by leaps and bounds. Emblematic of this unrelenting
pace of progress is Moore’s law, which for more than 50 years has
accurately predicted that the number of transistors on a chip would
double every two years, delivering exponentially greater computing
power. Why shouldn’t we seek the same pace of progress when it
comes to the world’s toughest problems?
A burst of innovation in the software sector was unleashed in part
by the transition from shipping software in shrink‐wrapped boxes to
releasing in the cloud. Time between updates has gone from a year or
more to days or even hours. And, by virtue of being online, companies
can immediately see how users respond. Software development has
6 Lean Impact

been transformed. Eric Ries popularized this new approach to contin-


uous innovation in his 2011 bestselling book, The Lean Startup.2
Eric’s goal was “to improve the success rate of new innovative
products worldwide.” With The Lean Startup, he succeeded in
launching a global movement. Today, thousands converge at related
conferences and summits, an industry of consulting and training ser-
vices has arisen, and self‐organized Meetups provide peer support
and learning around the world. Eric’s second book, The Startup Way,3
squarely addressed the growing recognition that larger corporations
must become more entrepreneurial or fall behind. And, increasingly,
mission‐driven organizations are being drawn to these same best
practices to further their work.

INNOVATING FOR GOOD

Perhaps not surprisingly, a number of barriers make it more difficult


to innovate for purpose rather than for profit. But if anything, accel-
erating our ability to deliver solutions that work better and faster, and
reach scale, is even more important when it comes to social challenges.
We’re talking about improving and saving lives, not just releasing
another app or making more bucks. It’s time for us to reinvent our
approach to social good for the twenty‐first century.
What will people want and embrace? Can we make a more trans-
formative impact? Is it possible to reach the scale of the enormous
need? While we certainly don’t have all the answers today, we have a
responsibility do everything in our power to find them. To maximize
our chance of success amid such complex challenges, we need a
methodology to manage risk and accelerate learning.

2
Eric Ries, The Lean Startup: How Today’s Entrepreneurs Use Continuous Innovation
to Create Radically Successful Businesses (New York: Crown Business, 2011).
3
Eric Ries, The Startup Way: How Modern Companies Use Entrepreneurial
Management to Transform Culture & Drive Long-Term Growth (New York: Currency,
2017).
Introduction 7

The demand for social innovation is real. In a 2017 survey of


145 nonprofit leaders, the Bridgespan Group found that 80% con-
sidered innovation to be an “urgent imperative,” but that only 40%
believed that their organizations were set up for it.4
Lean Impact will challenge you to think bigger, by expanding
your vision of the potential for change. Perhaps counterintuitively, it
will also encourage you to start smaller and to accelerate learning by
validating your assumptions before making larger investments.
Above all, it will urge you to keep a laser focus on your mission,
which may lead you beyond your initial solution or even institution.
I hope you’ll join me on this journey to blaze a path to greater impact
and scale.

HOW THIS BOOK IS ORGANIZED

This book is divided into three parts: “Inspire,” “Validate,” and


“Transform.”
Part I, “Inspire,” makes the case that audacious goals and a
relentless drive to maximize impact are as important as, if not more
important than, altruism in our pursuit of social change. When our
current interventions fall well short of the problems we aim to tackle,
we must look further for better solutions. New paths inevitably entail
greater uncertainty, thus a scientific approach to iterative learning is
needed to reduce risk and help us determine what works. We have a
responsibility to society to do more.
Part II, “Validate,” dives into the core of the Lean Impact meth-
odology, detailing the process of continuous validation through a
social innovation lens. Real‐life examples from around the world
will demonstrate how to increase the value you deliver to benefi-
ciaries, identify engines that can accelerate growth, and maximize

4
Nidhi Sahni, Laura Lanzerotti, Amira Bliss, and Daniel Pike, “Is Your Nonprofit
Built for Sustained Innovation?” Stanford Social Innovation Review, August 1, 2017,
https://ssir.org/articles/entry/is_your_nonprofit_built_for_sustained_innovation.
8 Lean Impact

your resulting social impact. We’ll also explore techniques to test


assumptions and speed up your feedback loop using minimum
viable products (MVPs).
Part III, “Transform,” tackles the broader ecosystem that must be
engaged for social good. Many intractable problems require a systems
approach to address market and policy failures. One of the biggest
barriers to social innovation is the nature of funding, which has the
power to facilitate, but more often undermines, experimentation.
And, for Lean Impact to take hold, organizations need a culture that
embraces risk and rewards ambition. The book ends by considering
how social purpose has become increasingly interwoven into business
practices, investment options, career choices, and consumer pur-
chasing. More and more real solutions will cross conventional
boundaries.

WHO SHOULD READ THIS BOOK?

Whether you are a funder, service provider, entrepreneur, policy


maker, academic, or champion of social good, you are here because
you care about long‐term sustainable impact. At the same time, we
all face enormous pressure to help people who are suffering today, to
generate immediate results and positive stories, or to simply keep the
lights on. We are running so fast with so little that it’s hard to ima-
gine how we can possibly do more. Yet we must.
No meaningful social change happens in isolation. We work in
complex systems that extend far beyond any one organization. In
order for impact to stick, we must deploy interventions, raise funds,
engage communities, reshape markets, change policies, and more.
Thus, this book is intended for the full spectrum of people who seek
to deliver greater social good through their professions, time, or money.
Note that innovation is not just for startups. While we often associate
the term innovation with scrappy social enterprises and disruptive
technologies, it is equally essential for the continuous renewal and
enhanced performance of existing programs and larger institutions.
Introduction 9

Lean Impact will help those working to build and scale social
interventions – from nonprofit staff to social entrepreneurs to corpo-
rate project managers – deliver dramatically better results. It will help
those funding social good – from foundations to government
agencies to philanthropists to impact investors – create the incentives
that enable social innovation to thrive. It will help local, state,
national, and international governments support measured risk tak-
ing and adopt more effective interventions for public good. And,
amidst a rising tide of citizens inspired to contribute to society
through their time, work, and money, it will help the broader public
recognize the pathways that can maximize their own impact.
I don’t claim to have all the answers. Rather, I hope to help us all
ask the crucial questions that will steer us towards a more promising
path forward. This book draws on my interviews and visits with over
200 organizations across the United States and around the world,
with diverse roles and structures, tackling a wide range of social chal-
lenges. I have learned from and been inspired by their practical expe-
riences, successes, and failures, and hope you will be as well.
For this journey, all you need is genuine curiosity and a readiness
to take action. Even small steps can make a huge difference. If you’re
not sure where to start, turn to the next page.
Part I
Inspire
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A. D. 1897 (Zanzibar).
Abolition of slavery.

Under pressure from the British government, the Sultan of


Zanzibar issued a decree, on the 6th or April, 1897,
terminating the legal status of slavery, with compensation to
be awarded on proof of consequent loss.

AFRICA: A. D. 1897 (Zululand).


Annexation to Natal.

By act of the Natal Parliament in December, 1897, Zululand


(with Amatongaland already joined to it) was annexed to Natal
Colony, and Dinizulu, son of the last Zulu king, was brought
from captivity in St. Helena and reinstated.

AFRICA: A. D. 1897-1898 (Sudan).


Completion of the Anglo-Egyptian conquest.

See (in this volume)


EGYPT: A. D. 1897-1898.

AFRICA: A. D. 1897-1898 (Uganda).


Native insurrections and mutiny of Sudanese troops in Uganda.

See (in this volume)


UGANDA: A. D. 1897-1898.

AFRICA: A. D. 1898 (Abyssinia).


Treaty of King Menelek with Great Britain.

See (in this volume)


ABYSSINIA: A. D. 1898.

AFRICA: A. D. 1898 (British South Africa Company).


Reorganization.

See (in this volume)


SOUTH AFRICA (RHODESIA):
A. D. 1898 (FEBRUARY).

AFRICA: A. D. 1898 (Egypt).


The Nile question between England and France.
Marchand's expedition at Fashoda.

See (in this volume)


EGYPT: A. D. 1898 (SEPTEMBER-NOVEMBER).

AFRICA: A. D. 1898 (Nigeria and the French Sudan).


Definition of French and English possessions in
West and North Africa.

See (in this volume)


NIGERIA: A. D. 1882-1899.
AFRICA: A. D. 1898 (Rhodesia).
Reorganization of the British South Africa Company and
the administration of its territories.

See (in this volume)


SOUTH AFRICA
(RHODESIA AND THE BRITISH SOUTH AFRICA COMPANY):
A. D. 1898 (FEBRUARY).

AFRICA: A. D. 1898 (Tunis).


Results of the French Protectorate.

See (in this volume)


TUNIS: A. D. 1881-1898.

AFRICA: A. D. 1899.
Railway development.

"Railroad development in Africa has been rapid in the past few


years and seems but the beginning of a great system which must
contribute to the rapid development, civilization, and
enlightenment of the Dark Continent. Already railroads run
northwardly from Cape Colony about 1,400 miles, and
southwardly from Cairo about 1,100 miles, thus making 2,500
miles of the 'Cape to Cairo' railroad complete, while the
intermediate distance is about 3,000 miles. Mr. Rhodes, whose
recent visit to England and Germany in the interest of the
proposed through line from the Cape to Cairo is a matter of
record, and whose visit to Germany was made necessary by the
fact that in order to pass from the southern chain of British
territory to the northern chain he must cross German or
Belgian territory, is reported as confident that the through
line will be completed by the year 1910. Certainly it may
reasonably be assumed that a continuous railway line will be
in operation from the southern to the northern end of Africa
in the early years of the twentieth century. Toward this line,
present and prospective, which is to stretch through the
eastern part of the continent, lateral lines from either coast
are beginning to make their way. A line has already been
constructed from Natal on the southeast coast: another from
Lourenço Marquez in Portuguese territory and the gold and
diamond fields: another from Beira, also in Portuguese
territory, but considerably farther north, and destined to
extend to Salisbury in Rhodesia, where it will form a junction
with the 'Cape to Cairo' road; still another is projected from
Zanzibar to Lake Victoria Nyanza, to connect, probably, at
Tabora, with the transcontinental line; another line is under
actual construction westward from Pangani just north of
Zanzibar, both of these being in German East Africa; another
line is being constructed northwestwardly from Mombasa, in
British territory, toward Lake Victoria Nyanza, and is
completed more than half the distance, while at the entrance
to the Red Sea a road is projected westwardly into Abyssinia,
and is expected to pass farther toward the west and connect
with the main line. At Suakim, fronting on the Red Sea, a road
is projected to Berber, the present terminus of the line
running southwardly from Cairo. On the west of Africa lines
have begun to penetrate inward, a short line in the French
Sudan running from the head of navigation on the Senegal
eastwardly toward the head of navigation on the Niger, with
the ultimate purpose of connecting navigation on these two
streams. In the Kongo Free State a railway connects the Upper
Kongo with the Lower Kongo around Livingstone Falls; in
Portuguese Angola a road extends eastwardly from Loanda, the
capital, a considerable distance, and others are projected
from Benguela and Mossamedes with the ultimate purpose of
connecting with the 'Cape to Cairo' road and joining with the
lines from Portuguese East Africa, which also touch that road,
thus making a transcontinental line from east to west, with
Portuguese territory at either terminus. Farther south on the
western coast the Germans have projected a road from Walfisch
Bay to Windhoek, the capital of German Southwest Africa, and
this will probably be extended eastwardly until it connects
with the great transcontinental line from 'Cape to Cairo,'
which is to form the great nerve center of the system, to be
contributed to and supported by these branches connecting it
with either coast. Another magnificent railway project, which
was some years ago suggested by M. Leroy Beaulieu, has been
recently revived, being no less than an east and west
transcontinental line through the Sudan region, connecting the
Senegal and Niger countries on the west with the Nile Valley
and Red Sea on the east and penetrating a densely populated
and extremely productive region of which less is now known,
perhaps, than of any other part of Africa. At the north
numerous lines skirt the Mediterranean coast, especially in
the French territory of Algeria and in Tunis, where the length
of railway is, in round numbers, 2,250 miles, while the
Egyptian railroads are, including those now under
construction, about 1,500 miles in length.
{4}
Those of Cape Colony and Natal are nearly 3,000 miles, and
those of Portuguese East Africa and the South African Republic
another thousand. Taking into consideration all of the roads
now constructed, or under actual construction, their total
length reaches nearly 10,000 miles, while there seems every
reason to believe that the great through system connecting the
rapidly developing mining regions of South Africa with the
north of the continent and with Europe will soon be pushed to
completion. A large proportion of the railways thus far
constructed are owned by the several colonies or States which
they traverse, about 2,000 miles of the Cape Colony system
belonging to the Government, while nearly all that of Egypt is
owned and operated by the State."

United States Bureau of Statistics,


Monthly Summary, August, 1899.

See, also, (in this volume),


RAILWAY, CAPE TO CAIRO.

AFRICA: A. D. 1899 (June).


International Convention respecting the liquor traffic.
Representatives of the governments of Great Britain, Germany,
Belgium, Spain, the Congo State, France, Italy, the
Netherlands, Portugal, Russia, Sweden and Norway, and Turkey,
assembled at Brussels, in June, 1899, with due authorization,
and there concluded an international convention respecting the
liquor traffic in Africa. Subsequently the governments of
Austria-Hungary, the United States of America, Liberia and
Persia, gave their adhesion to the Convention, and
ratifications were deposited at Brussels in June, 1900. The
Convention is, in a measure, supplemental to what is known as
"the General Act of Brussels," relative to the African slave
trade, which was framed at a conference of the representatives
of European, American, African, and Asiatic states, at
Brussels. The treaty known as the General Act of Brussels was
signed July 2, 1890, but did not come into force until April
2, 1894. The text of it may be found in (United States) House
Doc. Number 276, 56th Congress, 3d Session. The Convention of
1899 provides:

"Article I.
From the coming into force of the present Convention, the
import duty on spirituous liquors, as that duty is regulated
by the General Act of Brussels, shall be raised throughout the
zone where there does not exist the system of total
prohibition provided by Article XCI, of the said General Act,
to the rate of 70 fr. the hectolitre at 50 degrees centigrade,
for a period of six years. It may, exceptionally, be at the
rate of 60 fr. only the hectolitre at 50 degrees centigrade in
the Colony of Togo and in that of Dahomey. The import duty
shall be augmented proportionally for each degree above 50
degrees centigrade; It may be diminished proportionally for
each degree below 50 degrees centigrade. At the end of the
above-mentioned period of six years, the import duty shall be
submitted to revision, taking as a basis the results produced
by the preceding rate. The Powers retain the right of
maintaining and increasing the duty beyond the minimum fixed
by the present Article in the regions where they now possess
that right.

Article II.
In accordance with Article XCIII of the General Act of
Brussels, distilled drinks made in the regions mentioned in
Article XCII of the said General Act, and intended for
consumption, shall pay an excise duty. This excise duty, the
collection of which the Powers undertake to insure as far as
possible, shall not be lower than the minimum import duty
fixed by Article I. of the present Convention.

Article III.
It is understood that the Powers who signed the General Act of
Brussels, or who have acceded to it, and who are not
represented at the present Conference, preserve the right of
acceding to the present Convention."

Great Britain, Parliamentary Publication.


(Papers by Command: Treaty Series, Number 13, 1900).

AFRICA: A. D. 1899.
Progress of the Telegraph line from the Cape to Cairo.

See (in this volume)


TELEGRAPH, CAPE TO CAIRO.

AFRICA: A. D. 1899 (German Colonies).


Cost to Germany, trade, etc.

See (in this volume)


GERMANY: A. D. 1899 (JUNE).

AFRICA: A. D. 1899 (Nigeria).


Transfer of territory to the British Crown.

See (in this volume)


NIGERIA: A. D. 1899.

AFRICA: A. D. 1899 (Orange Free State).


Treaty of alliance with the Transvaal.
Making common cause.

See (in this volume)


SOUTH AFRICA (ORANGE FREE STATE):
A. D. 1897 (APRIL); and 1899 (SEPTEMBER-OCTOBER).

AFRICA: A. D. 1899 (The Sudan).


Anglo-Egyptian Condominium established.

See (in this volume)


EGYPT: A. D. 1899 (JANUARY).

AFRICA: A. D. 1899 (Transvaal and Orange Free State).


Outbreak of war with Great Britain.

See (in this volume)


SOUTH AFRICA (TRANSVAAL AND ORANGE FREE STATE):
A. D. 1899 (SEPTEMBER-OCTOBER).

AFRICA: A. D. 1899 (West Africa).


Definition of British and German frontiers.

See (in this volume)


SAMOAN ISLANDS.

AFRICA: A. D. 1899 (Zanzibar).


Renunciation of rights of extra-territoriality by Germany.

See (in this volume)


SAMOAN ISLANDS.

AFRICA: A. D. 1899-1900.
Summary of the partition of the Continent.
"Seven European nations, as before remarked, now control
territories in Africa, two of them having areas equal in each
case to about the entire land area of the United States, while
a few small territories remain as independent States.
Beginning at the northeast, Egypt and Tripoli are nominally at
least tributaries of Turkey, though the Egyptian Government,
which was given large latitude by that of Turkey, has of late
years formed such relations with Great Britain that, in
financial matters at least, her guidance is recognized; next
west, Algeria, French; then Morocco on the extreme northwest,
an independent Government and an absolute despotism; next on
the south, Spain's territory of Rio de Oro; then the Senegal
territories, belonging to the French, and connecting through
the desert of Sahara with her Algeria; then a group of small
divisions controlled by England, along the Gulf of Guinea;
then Liberia, the black Republic; Togoland, controlled by the
Germans; Dahomey, a French protectorate; the Niger territory,
one-third the size of the United States, controlled by
England; Kamerun, controlled by Germany; French Kongo; then
the Kongo Free State, under the auspices of the King of
Belgium, and occupying the very heart of equatorial Africa;
then Portuguese Angola; next, German South west Africa; and
finally in the march down the Atlantic side, Cape Colony,
British.
{5}
Following up the eastern side comes the British colony of
Natal; then just inland from this the two Boer Republics, the
Orange Free State and the South African Republic, both of
which are entirely in the interior, without ocean frontage;
next, Portuguese Africa, and west of this the great territory
known as 'Rhodesia'; then German Africa, which extends almost
to the equator; north of these, British East Africa, fronting
on the Indian Ocean, and merging northwardly with the Egyptian
Sudan, which was recently recovered from the Mahdi by the joint
operation of British and Egyptian troops, and the British flag
placed side by side with that of Egypt; next north, upon the
coast, Italian territory and a small tract opposite the
entrance to the Red Sea controlled by England; and a few
hundred miles west of the entrance to the Red Sea, the
independent Kingdom of Abyssinia. This division of African
territory, nearly all of it made within the memory of the
present generation, forms the present political map of Africa.
With England and France controlling an area equal in each case
to that of the United States; Germany, a territory one-third
the size of the United States; Portugal, with an area somewhat
less; the Kongo Free State in the great equatorial basin, but
having a frontage upon the Atlantic with an area nearly
one-third that of the United States; Italy and Spain, each
with a comparatively small area of territory; Egypt, with
relations quite as much British as Turkish; Tripoli, Turkish,
and the five independent States of Morocco, Liberia,
Abyssinia, and the two Boer Republics—nothing remains
unclaimed, even in the desert wastes, while in the high
altitudes and subtropical climate of southeast Africa
civilization and progress are making rapid advancement."
United States Bureau of Statistics,
Monthly Summary, August, 1899.

The following table, given in an article in "The Forum,"


December, 1899, by Mr. O. P. Austin, Chief of the United
States Bureau of Statistics, shows the area, total population,
foreign population, and imports and exports of the territory
in Africa held by each European Government and by the
independent States of that continent, at the time of its
compilation so far as could be ascertained; but the statistics
of area and population, especially the latter, are in many
cases necessarily estimates:

POP.
TOTAL FOREIGN PER SQ.
AREA. POPULATION. POPULATION MILE IMPORTS.
EXPORTS.
French Africa. 3,028,000 28,155,000 922,000 9.3
$70,116,000 $69,354,000
British Africa. 2,761,000 35,160,000 455,000 12.8
131,398,000 131,835,000
Turkish Africa. 1,760,000 21,300,000 113,000 12.2
54,091,000 62,548,000
German Africa. 944,000 11,270,000 4,000 12.0
4,993,000 2,349,000
Belgian Africa. 900,000 30,000,000 2,000 33.3
4,522,000 3,309,000
Portuguese Africa. 790,000 8,059,000 3,000 10.2
11,863,000 6,730,000
Spanish Africa. 243,000 36,000 … 0.5
… …
Italian Africa. 188,000 850,000 … 4.5
… …

Independent States.

Morocco. 219,000 5,000,000 … 22.8


6,402,000 6,261,000
Abyssinia. 150,000 3,500,000 … 23.3
… …
South African Republic. 120,000 1,096,000 346,000 9.2
104,703,000 53,532,000
Orange Free State. 48,500 208,000 78,000 4.3
5,994,000 8,712,000
Liberia. 48,000 1,500,000 25,000 31.3
1,217,000 1,034,000

Total. 11,189,500 146,133,000 1,948,000 …


$395,299,000 $345,714,000
According to a statistical table in the twentieth volume of
Meyer's Konversations-Lexicon (third annual supplement), based
upon the latest data furnished by the boundary treaties
between the Powers, it would appear that all but about
one-seventh of the African continent is now (A. D. 1900)
included in some "protectorate" or "sphere of influence." The
French sphere is the largest, comprising about 3,700,000
square miles (about the extent of Europe) out of a total area
of 11,600,000. England comes next with 2,400,000 (including
the Boer territories). Then follow in order Germany, Belgium
(Congo Free State), and Portugal, each with somewhat less than
a million square miles. The Egyptian sphere (about 400,000
square miles) may properly be regarded as part of the British.
The extent of the French sphere will appear less imposing on
consulting the map of Africa here given, which shows that it
takes in the greater part of the sands of the Sahara. The
British sphere (including Egypt and her dependencies) is
estimated to contain in round numbers about 50,000,000 souls;
the French, 35,000,000; the Belgian, 17,000,000; the German,
9,000,000; the Portuguese, 8,000,000.

AFRICA: A. D. 1900 (Ashanti).


Revolt of the tribes.
Siege and relief of Kumasai.

See (in this volume)


ASHANTI.

AFRICA: A. D. 1900 (Togoland and Gold Coast).


Demarcation of the Hinterland.

Late in November it was announced from Berlin that conferences


regarding the British and German boundaries in West Africa
were then in progress in the Colonial Department of the German
Foreign Office, their principal object being the demarcation
of the Hinterland of Togoland and of the Gold Coast, and in
particular the partition of the neutral zone of Salaga as
arranged in Article 5 of the Samoa Agreement between Great
Britain and Germany.

See (in this volume)


SAMOAN ISLANDS.

AFRIDIS, British Indian war with the.

See (in this volume)


INDIA: A. D. 1897-1898.

AFRIKANDER BUND, The.

See (in this volume)


SOUTH AFRICA (CAPE, COLONY):
A. D. 1881-1888; 1898; and 1898 (MARCH-OCTOBER).

AFRIKANDER CONGRESS.
See (in this volume)
SOUTH AFRICA (Cape Colony): A. D. 1900 (DECEMBER).

AFRIKANDERS:
Joining the invading Boers.

See (in this volume)


SOUTH AFRICA (THE FIELD OF WAR):
A. D. 1899 (OCTOBER-NOVEMBER.).

AFRIKANDERS:
Opposition to the annexation of the Boer Republics.

See (in this volume)


SOUTH AFRICA (CAPE COLONY): A. D. 1900 (MAY).

{6}

AGRARIAN PROTECTIONISTS, The German.

See (in this volume)


GERMANY: A. D. 1895-1898; 1899 (AUGUST); and 1901 (FEBRUARY).

AGRICULTURAL LAND BILL, The.

See (in this volume)


ENGLAND: A. D. 1896.

AGUINALDO y FAMY, Emilio.


First appearance in the Filipino insurrection.
His treaty with the Spaniards and departure from the Islands.

See (in this volume)


PHILIPPINE ISLANDS: A. D. 1896-1898.

AGUINALDO y FAMY, Emilio.


Circumstances in which he went to Manila to co-operate with
American forces.

See (in this volume)


UNITED STATES OF AMERICA:
A. D. 1898 (APRIL-MAY: PHILIPPINES).

AGUINALDO y FAMY, Emilio.


Arrival at Manila, May 19, 1898.
His organization of insurgent forces.
His relations with Admiral Dewey.

See (in this volume)


UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1898 (APRIL-JULY).

AGUINALDO y FAMY, Emilio.


Correspondence with General Anderson.

See (in this volume)


UNITED STATES OF AMERICA:
A. D. 1898 (JULY-AUGUST: PHILIPPINES).

AGUINALDO y FAMY, Emilio.


Relations with American commander at Manila.
Declared President of the Philippine Republic.

See (in this volume)


UNITED STATES OF AMERICA:
A. D. 1898 (JULY-SEPTEMBER).

AGUINALDO y FAMY, Emilio.


Conflict of his army with American forces.

See (in this volume)


PHILIPPINE ISLANDS:
A. D. 1898 (AUGUST-DECEMBER), and after.

ALABAMA: A. D. 1899.
Dispensary Laws.

Acts applying the South Carolina "dispensary" system of


regulation for the liquor traffic to seventeen counties, but
not to the State at large, were passed by the Legislature.

See, in this volume,


SOUTH CAROLINA: A. D. 1892-1899.

ALASKA: A. D. 1898-1899.
Discovery of the Cape Nome gold mining region.

"The Cape Nome mining region lies on the western coast of


Alaska, just beyond the military reservation of St. Michael
and about 120 miles south of the Arctic Circle. It can be
reached by an ocean voyage of ten or twelve days from Seattle.
It has long been known that gold exists in the general vicinity
of Cape Nome, and during the last five or six years a few
adventurous miners have done more or less prospecting and
claim staking throughout the district lying between Norton and
Kotzebue sounds. During the winter of 1898-99, a large number
of miners entered the Kotzebue country, while others spent the
season in the vicinity of Golofnin Bay." On the 15th of
October, 1898, a party of seven men reached Snake River in a
schooner. "Between that date and the 18th a miners' meeting
was held, the boundaries of a district 25 miles square were
established, local mining regulations were formulated, and Dr.
Kittleson was elected recorder for a term of two years. After
organizing the district natives were hired to do the necessary
packing, and a camp was established on Anvil Creek. The
prospecting outfits were quickly brought into service. In one
afternoon $76 was panned out on Snow Creek. Encouraged by this
showing lumber was carried up from the schooner and two
rockers were constructed. … In four or five days over $1,800
was cleaned up with these two rockers. … The weather turned
cold and the water was frozen up. As it was impossible to do
any more work with the rockers the party broke camp on the 3d
of November and returned to the schooner, which they found
frozen solid in 2 feet of ice. They then made their way in a
small boat to an Indian village, near Cape Nome, where they
obtained dogs and sleds, and a little farther on they were met
by reindeer from the Swedish Mission, with which they returned
to Golofnin Bay.

"The lucky miners had agreed among themselves that their


discovery should be held secret, but the news was too good to
keep, and soon leaked out. A general stampede commenced at
once and continued all winter. Every available dog and
reindeer was pressed into the service, and they were soon
racing with each other for the valuable claims which had been
left unstaked in the vicinity of Anvil Creek. As soon as that
creek had been all taken up the stampede extended to the
neighboring streams and gulches, and Glacier and Dexter
creeks, as well as many others which have not proved equally
valuable, were quickly staked and recorded. By the 25th of
December a large party armed with numerous powers of attorney
had entered the district, and as the local regulations allowed
every man to stake on each creek one claim of the full legal
dimensions (660 by 1,320 feet), it was not long until the
whole district had been thoroughly covered, and nearly every
stream had been staked with claims, which in some cases were
'jumped' and the right of possession disputed.

"The news of a rich strike at Nome worked its way up the Yukon
River during the winter, and as soon as the ice broke in June
a large crowd came down from Rampart City, followed by a
larger crowd from Dawson. The 'Yukoners,' as these people were
called, were already disgusted with the hardships,
disappointments, and Canadian misgovernment which they had met
with on the upper river. … Those to whom enough faith had been
given to go over to Cape Nome were disgusted and angered to
find that pretty much the whole district was already staked,
and that the claims taken were two or three times as large as
those commonly allowed on the upper river. Another grievance
was the great abuse of the power of attorney, by means of
which an immense number of claims had been taken up, so that
in many cases (according to common report) single individuals
held or controlled from 50 to 100 claims apiece. …

"A miners' meeting was called by the newcomers to remedy their


grievances. Resolutions were prepared, in which it was
represented that the district had been illegally organized by
men who were not citizens of the United States and who had not
conformed with the law in properly defining the boundaries of
the district with reference to natural objects, in enacting
suitable and sufficient mining regulations, and in complying
with any of the details of organization required by law. It
was intended by the promoters of this meeting to reorganize
the district in such a way as would enable them to share the
benefits of the discovery of a new gold field with the men who
had entered it the previous winter, and, as they expressed it,
'gobbled up the whole country.' It is, of course, impossible
to say what would have been the result if their attempt had
not been interfered with. … On the 28th of June Lieutenant
Spaulding and a detachment of 10 men from the Third Artillery
had been ordered to the vicinity of Snake River, and on the
7th of July their numbers were increased by the addition of 15
more.
{7}
As soon as it was proposed to throw open for restaking a large
amount of land already staked and recorded an appeal was made
to the United States troops to prevent this action by
prohibiting the intended meeting, which was called to assemble
July 10. It was represented to them that if the newcomers
should attempt, under the quasi-legal guise of a miners'
meeting, to take forcible possession of lands already claimed
by others, the inevitable consequence would be a reign of
disorder and violence, with the possibility of considerable
bloodshed. On the strength of this representation and appeal
the army officers decided to prevent the adoption of the
proposed resolutions. The miners were allowed to call their
meeting to order, but as soon as the resolutions were read
Lieutenant Spaulding requested that they be withdrawn. He
allowed two minutes for compliance with his request, the
alternative being that he would clear the hall. The
resolutions were not withdrawn, the troops were ordered to fix
bayonets, and the hall was cleared quietly, without a
conflict. Such meetings as were subsequently attempted were
quickly broken up by virtue of the same authority. The light
in which this action is regarded by the people at Nome
depends, of course, upon the way in which their personal
interests were affected. …

"The great discontent which actually did exist at this time


found sudden and unexpected relief in the discovery of the
beach diggings. It had long been known that there was more or
less gold on the seashore, and before the middle of July it
was discovered that good wages could be taken out of the sand
with a rocker. Even those who were on the ground could hardly
believe the story at first, but its truth was quickly and
easily demonstrated. Before the month was over a great army of
the unemployed was engaged in throwing up irregular
intrenchments along the edge of the sea, and those who had
just been driven nearly to the point of desperation by the
exhaustion of all their resources were soon contentedly
rocking out from $10 to $50 each per day and even more than
that. This discovery came like a godsend to many destitute
men, and was a most fortunate development in the history of
the camp.

"Meantime the men who were in possession of claims on Anvil


and Snow creeks were beginning to sluice their ground and
getting good returns for their work, while others were
actively making preparations to take out the gold which they
knew they had discovered. More sluice boxes were constructed
and put into operation as rapidly as possible. A town site was
laid off at the mouth of Snake River, and on the 4th of July a
post-office was established. The town which has sprung so
suddenly into existence is called 'Nome' by the Post-Office
Department, but at a miners' meeting held February 28, it was
decided to call it 'Anvil City,' and this is generally done by
the residents of the district, as well as in all official
records. At a meeting held in September, however, the name was
again changed to 'Nome.'"

United States, 56th Congress, 1st session,


Senate Document Number 357, pages. 1-4.

"A year ago [that is, in the winter of 1898-1899] a few Eskimo
huts and one or two sod houses of white men were the only
human habitations along 60 miles of the present Nome coast.
Last June [1899] a dozen or score of tents contained the whole
population. By October a town of 5,000 inhabitants fronting
the ocean was crowded for a mile or more along the beach.
Hundreds of galvanized-iron and wooden buildings were
irregularly scattered along two or three thoroughfares,
running parallel with the coast line. There is every
description of building, from the dens of the poor
prospectors, built of driftwood, canvas, and sod, to the large
companies' warehouses, stores, and the army barracks—a city,
as it were, sprung up in the night, built under the most
adverse circumstances on the barren seacoast, a coast without
harbor, all the supplies being landed through the surf. … The
country contributes nothing toward the support of the
population except a few fish and a limited supply of
driftwood.

"The city is of the most cosmopolitan type and contains


representatives of almost every nationality on the globe:
Germans, Canadians, Frenchmen, Englishmen, Russians, Swedes,
Norwegians, Poles, Chinese, negroes, Italians, Spaniards,
Greeks, Jews, and Americans. The dominant type is the
American, through whose efforts, with that inherent talent of
the Anglo-Saxon race for self-government, this isolated
community at once organized a city government. Before the
close of the summer Nome had a mayor, councilmen, a police
force, a deputy United States marshal, a United States
post-office, a fire department with town well, a board of
health, a hospital corps, and charitable organizations. A
majority of the people consists of the shifting population of
the Yukon country, which, upon hearing the news of the
discovery of gold, poured itself into Nome. … Along with the
shifting population of the Yukon from Dawson and other camps
came also many would-be explorers, adventurers, and especially
gamblers, but good order prevails throughout. Drunkenness,
disorderly conduct, and theft are promptly tried before the
police justice and punished by fine and imprisonment. Copies
of the official rules and regulations are kept posted before
the city hall and in other conspicuous places, as a warning to
all: 'Ignorance of the law is no excuse.' Some of the well-known
'toughs' and most undesirable characters are reported to have
been rounded up by the authorities late in the fall and
exported to the States. … There are several printing presses
and three newspapers—the Nome News, Nome Herald, and Nome Gold
Digger. … There are at least 2,500 people now [February, 1900]
wintering at Nome, and, by estimate, at least several thousand
are on their way there by winter routes. …

"Since, according to the conservative estimate of those who


are best situated to judge, it is believed that the Nome
region will have a population of at least 30,000 or 40,000
people this year (1900), some public improvements there seem
not only commendable but urgently necessary. Among these the
most important are: Some municipal form of government, water
supply, land-office service, and harbor facilities. As the
General Government had never made provision for any form of
municipal government in Alaska, the people of Nome, in
response to the urgency of the hour, called a mass meeting,
and organized the present government of Nome, with a complete
corps of city officers, as aforesaid, though they were
conscious at the time that it was without authority from the
United States Government."

F. C. Schrader and A. H. Brooks,


Preliminary Report on the Cape Nome Gold Region, Alaska
(United States Geological Survey), pages 45-47.

{8}

ALASKA: A. D. 1900.
Civil Government.

Better provision for the civil government of Alaska was made


by an Act which passed Congress after much debate and was
approved by the President on the 6th of June, 1900. It
constitutes Alaska a civil and judicial district, with a
governor who has the duties and powers that pertain to the
governor of a Territory, and a district court of general
jurisdiction, civil and criminal, and in equity and admiralty,
the court being in three divisions, each with a district
judge. The act provides a civil code for the district.

ALASKA: A. D. 1900.
Exploration of Seward peninsula.

See (in this volume)


POLAR EXPLORATION, 1900.

ALASKA BOUNDARY QUESTION, The.

The boundary between Alaska, when it was Russian territory,


and the British possessions on the western side of the
American continent, was settled by an Anglo-Russian treaty in
1825. The treaty which ceded the Russian territory to the
United States, in 1867, incorporated the definition of
boundary given in Articles III. and IV. of the above-mentioned
convention, which (translated from French to English) read as
follows:

"III.
The line of demarcation between the possessions of the High
Contracting Parties upon the Coasts of the Continent and the
Islands of America to the North-West, shall be drawn in the
following manner: Commencing from the southernmost point of
the Island called Prince of Wales Island, which point lies in
the parallel of 54 degrees 40 minutes, North Latitude, and
between the 131st and 133d Degree of West Longitude (Meridian
of Greenwich), the said line shall ascend to the North along
the Channel called Portland Channel, as far as the Point of
the Continent where it strikes the 56th Degree of North
Latitude; from this last mentioned Point the line of
demarcation shall follow the summit of the mountains situated
parallel to the coast, as far as the point of intersection of
the 141st Degree of West Longitude (of the same meridian),
and, finally, from the said point of intersection, the said
Meridian Line of the 141st Degree, in its prolongation as far
as the Frozen Ocean, shall form the limit between the Russian
and British Possessions on the Continent of America to the
North West.

"IV.
With reference to the line of demarcation laid down in the
preceding Article, it is understood:

1st.
That the Island called Prince of Wales Island shall belong
wholly to Russia.

2d.
That wherever the summit of the mountains which extend in a
direction parallel to the Coast, from the 56th Degree of North
Latitude to the point of intersection of the 141st Degree of
West Longitude, shall prove to be at the distance of more than
ten marine leagues from the Ocean, the limit between the
British Possessions and the line of Coast which is to belong
to Russia, as above mentioned, shall be formed by a line
parallel to the windings of the Coast, and which shall never
exceed the distance of ten marine leagues therefrom."

When attempts to reduce this description in the treaty to an


actually determined boundary-line were begun, disagreements
arose between Canada and the United States, which became
exceedingly troublesome after the Klondike gold discoveries
had given a new importance to that region and to its
communications with the outside world. The Alaska boundary
question proved, in fact, to be considerably the most
difficult of settlement among all the many subjects of
disagreement between the United States and Canada which a
Joint High Commission was created in 1898 (see—in this
volume—CANADA: A. D. 1898-1900) to adjust. It was the one
question on which no ground of compromise could then be found,
and which compelled the Commission to adjourn in February,
1899, with its labors incomplete. The disputable points in the
definition of the boundary by the Anglo-Russian treaty of 1825
are explained as follows by Professor J. B. Moore,
ex-Assistant Secretary of State, in an article contributed to
the "North American Review" of October, 1899: "An examination
of the boundary defined in Articles III. and IV. of the
convention of 1825 shows," says Professor Moore, "that it is
scientifically divisible into two distinct sections, first,
the line from the southernmost point of Prince of Wales
Island, through Portland Channel and along the summit of the
mountains parallel to the coast, to the point of intersection
of the 141st meridian of longitude; and, second, the line from
this point to the Arctic Ocean. With the latter section, which
is merely a meridian line, and as to which the United States
and Canadian surveys exhibit no considerable difference, we
are not now concerned. The section as to which material
differences have arisen is the first. The principal
differences in this quarter are two in number, first, as to
what channel is meant by Portland Channel (sometimes called
Portland Canal); and, second, as to what is the extent of the
line or strip of coast (la lisière de côte) which was assigned
to Russia."

Map of Alaska.

The following is an English statement of the situation of the


controversy at the time the Joint High Commission adjourned:
"The adjournment of the Commission with nothing accomplished
is fresh in all our memories. Nor is it easy to determine on
whose shoulders lies the blame of this unfortunate break down.
America has been blamed for her stubbornness in refusing to
submit to an arbitration which should take into consideration
the possession of the towns and settlements under the
authority of the United States and at present under their
jurisdiction; while they have also been charged with having
made no concessions at all to Canada in the direction of
allowing her free access to her Yukon possessions. I am
enabled to say, however, in this latter respect the Americans
have not been so stiff-necked as has been made to appear.
Although it was not placed formally before the Commission, it
was allowed clearly to be understood by the other side, that
in regard to Skagway, America was prepared to make a very
liberal concession. They were ready, that is, to allow of the
joint administration of Skagway, the two flags flying side by
side, and to allow of the denationalisation, or
internationalisation as it might otherwise be termed, of the
White Pass and the Yukon Railroad, now completed to Lake
Bennett, and the only railroad which gives access to the
Yukon. They were even prepared to admit of the passage of
troops and munitions of war over this road, thus doing away
with the Canadian contention that, should a disturbance occur
in the Yukon, they are at present debarred from taking
efficient measures to quell it.
{9}
This proposition, however, does not commend itself to the
Canadians, whose main object, I think I am justified in
saying, is to have a railroad route of their own from
beginning to end, in their own territory, as far north as
Dawson City. At one time, owing to insufficient information
and ignorance of the natural obstacles in the way, they
thought they could accomplish this by what was known as the
Stikine route. They even went so far as to make a contract
with Messrs. McKenzie and Mann to construct this road, the
contractors receiving, as part of their payment, concessions
and grants of territory in the Yukon, which would practically
have given them the absolute and sole control of that
district. The value of this to the contractors can hardly be
overestimated. However, not only did the natural obstacles I
have referred to lead to the abandonment of the scheme, but
the Senate at Ottawa threw out the Bill which had passed
through the Lower House, affording a striking proof that there
are times when an Upper House has its distinct value in
legislation. It has been suggested (though I am the last to
confirm it) that it was the influence of the firm of railroad
contractors, to whose lot it would probably fall to construct
any new line of subsidised railway, which caused the Canadian
Commission to reject the tentative American proposal regarding
Skagway, and to put forward the counter claim to the
possession of Pyramid Harbour (which lies lower down upon the
west coast of the Lynn Canal), together with a two mile wide
strip of territory reaching inland, containing the Chilcat
Pass, and through it easy passage through the coast ranges,
and so by a long line of railroad to Fort Selkirk, which lies
on the Yukon River, to the south and east of Dawson City. It
is said also, though of this I have no direct evidence, that
the Canadians included the right to fortify Pyramid Harbour.
It is not surprising that the Americans rejected this
proposal, for they entered into the discussion convinced of
the impossibility of accepting any arrangement which would
involve the surrender of American settlements, and though it
is not so large or important as Skagway or Dyea, Pyramid
Harbour is nevertheless as much an American settlement as the
two latter. I am bound to point out that just as the Dominion
of Canada, as a whole, has a keener interest in this dispute
than has the Home Government, so the Government of British
Columbia is more closely affected by any possible settlement
than is the rest of the Dominion. And British Columbia is as
adverse to the Pyramid Harbour scheme as the United States
themselves. This is due to the fact that when finished the
Pyramid Harbour and Fort Selkirk railroad would afford no
access to the British Columbia gold fields on Atlin Lake,
which would still be reached only by way of Skagway and the
White Pass, or by Dyea and the Chilcat Pass. But quite apart
from this view of the matter, we may take it for granted that
the United States will never voluntarily surrender any of
their tide-water settlements, while the Canadian Government,
on the other hand, are no more disposed to accept any
settlement based on the internationalisation of Skagway, their
argument probably being that, save as a temporary 'modus
vivendi,' this would be giving away their whole case to their
opponents."

H. Townsend,
The Alaskan Boundary Question
(Fortnightly Review, September, 1899).

Pending further negotiations on the subject, a "modus vivendi"


between the United States and Great Britain, "fixing a
provisional boundary line between the Territory of Alaska and
the Dominion of Canada about the head of Lynn Canal," was
concluded October 20, 1899, in the following terms:

"It is hereby agreed between the Governments of the United


States and of Great Britain that the boundary line between
Canada and the territory of Alaska in the region about the
head of Lynn Canal shall be provisionally fixed as follows
without prejudice to the claims of either party in the
permanent adjustment of the international boundary: In the
region of the Dalton Trail, a line beginning at the peak West
of Porcupine Creek, marked on the map No. 10 of the United
States Commission, December 31, 1895, and on Sheet No. 18 of
the British Commission, December 31, 1895, with the number
6500; thence running to the Klehini (or Klaheela) River in the
direction of the Peak north of that river, marked 5020 on the
aforesaid United States map and 5025 on the aforesaid British
map; thence following the high or right bank of the said
Klehini river to the junction thereof with the Chilkat River,
a mile and a half, more or less, north of Klukwan,—provided
that persons proceeding to or from Porcupine Creek shall be
freely permitted to follow the trail between the said creek
and the said junction of the rivers, into and across the
territory on the Canadian side of the temporary line wherever
the trail crosses to such side, and, subject to such
reasonable regulations for the protection of the Revenue as
the Canadian Government may prescribe, to carry with them over
such part or parts of the trail between the said points as may
lie on the Canadian side of the temporary line, such goods and
articles as they desire, without being required to pay any
customs duties on such goods and articles; and from said
junction to the summit of the peak East of the Chilkat river,
marked on the aforesaid map No. 10 of the United States
Commission with the number 5410 and on the map No. 17 of the
aforesaid British Commission with the number 5490. On the Dyea
and Skagway Trails, the summits of the Chilcoot and White
Passes. It is understood, as formerly set forth in
communications of the Department of State of the United
States, that the citizens or subjects of either Power, found
by this arrangement within the temporary jurisdiction of the
other, shall suffer no diminution of the rights and privileges
which they now enjoy. The Government of the United States will
at once appoint an officer or officers in conjunction with an
officer or officers to be named by the Government of Her
Britannic Majesty, to mark the temporary line agreed upon by
the erection of posts, stakes, or other appropriate temporary
marks."

In his Annual Message to Congress, December 3, 1900, the


President of the United States stated the situation as
follows:

"The work of marking certain provisional boundary points, for


convenience of administration, around the head of Lynn Canal,
in accordance with the temporary arrangement of October, 1899,
was completed by a joint survey in July last.
{10}
The modus vivendi has so far worked without friction, and the
Dominion Government has provided rules and regulations for
securing to our citizens the benefit of the reciprocal
stipulation that the citizens or subjects of either Power
found by that arrangement within the temporary jurisdiction of
the other shall suffer no diminution of the rights and
privileges they have hitherto enjoyed. But however necessary
such an expedient may have been to tide over the grave
emergencies of the situation, it is at best but an
unsatisfactory makeshift, which should not be suffered to
delay the speedy and complete establishment of the frontier
line to which we are entitled under the Russo-American treaty
for the cession of Alaska. In this relation I may refer again
to the need of definitely marking the Alaskan boundary where
it follows the 141st meridian. A convention to that end has
been before the Senate for some two years, but as no action
has been taken I contemplate negotiating a new convention for
a joint determination of the meridian by telegraphic
observations. These, it is believed, will give more accurate
and unquestionable results than the sidereal methods
heretofore independently followed, which, as is known, proved
discrepant at several points on the line, although not varying
at any place more than seven hundred feet."

ALEXANDRIA:
Discovery of the Serapeion.

See (in this volume)


ARCHÆOLOGICAL RESEARCH:
EGYPT: DISCOVERY OF THE SERAPEION.

ALEXANDRIA:
Patriarchate re-established.

See (in this volume)


PAPACY: A. D. 1896 (MARCH).

ALIENS IMMIGRATION LAW, The Transvaal.

See (in this volume)


SOUTH AFRICA (THE TRANSVAAL):
A. D. 1896-1897 (MAY-APRIL).

ALPHABET, Light on the origin of the.

See (in this volume)


ARCHÆOLOGICAL RESEARCH: CRETE.

AMATONGALAND:
Annexed, with Zululand, to Natal.

See (in this volume)


AFRICA: A. D. 1897 (ZULULAND).

AMERICA:
The Projected Intercontinental Railway.

See (in this volume)


RAILWAY, THE INTERCONTINENTAL.

AMERICA, Central.

See (in this volume)


CENTRAL AMERICA.

AMERICAN ABORIGINES.

See (in this volume)


INDIANS, AMERICAN.

AMERICAN REPUBLICS, The Bureau of the.

"The idea of the creation of an international bureau, or


agency, representing the Republics of the Western Hemisphere,
was suggested to the delegates accredited to the International
American Conference held in Washington in 1889-90, by the
conference held at Brussels in May, 1888, which planned for an
international union for the publication of customs tariffs,
etc. … On March 29, 1890, the International American
Conference, by a unanimous vote of the delegates of the
eighteen countries there represented, namely: The Argentine
Republic, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica,
Ecuador, Guatemala, Haiti, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua,
Paraguay, Peru, Salvador, United States, Uruguay, and
Venezuela, provided for the establishment of an association to
be known as 'The International Union of American Republics for
the Prompt Collection and Distribution of Commercial
Information,' which should be represented at the capital of
the United States by a Bureau, under the title of 'The Bureau
of the American Republics.' This organ, so to speak, of the
independent governments of the New World was placed under the

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