From Local to Global: How a Simple Idea Became a Social Program that Scaled

Think of an organization or nonprofit in your local community with a social program that really works. Across the world, hundreds of organizations have launched impactful, purpose-driven programs that are changing lives—but only in their local communities. Their mission, insight and program details remain hidden from others wishing to address the same social problem or issue in other communities. Lava Mae is an organization that envisioned a social program model that was scalable almost from the beginning. In just a few short years, Lava Mae scaled from a local organization in San Francisco to a global organization impacting the lives of thousands of homeless people. The Lava Mae story is an inspiring and rare role model on how to scale an idea.

In 2013, San Franciscan Doniece Sandoval was inspired to take action after learning three heart-wrenching stories: three of her elderly neighbors become homeless after being evicted from their homes following a huge rent increase; a homeless woman she met shared a fear of never being clean again; and she found out there were only 16 showers for 7,000 homeless people in the city. She resolved to find a way to provide showers to the homeless (she calls them “unhoused”). A few months later, she proposed the concept of repurposing discarded Muni buses to provide showers and toilet services for the unhoused. Her organization, called Lava Mae (which means “wash me” in Spanish) developed a culture symbolized by “Radical Hospitality,” a concept rooted in the basic principle of staff and volunteers creating authentic relationships with their clients. They learned names and stories of those they served, reflecting a belief that how you serve people is just as critical as the service itself.

After a successful start in the Bay Area and Los Angeles, with each bus providing 2,000 showers each week, Lava Mae added DIY handwashing stations and Pop-Up Care Villages that brought doctors, dentists and hairdressers into the mix.

From the outset, Lava Mae gained visibility in part because of its positive press coverage. The organization began to get numerous inquiries about how to establish services for the unhoused in other communities. As a result, Lava Mae launched a “how-to” guide and consultation service to enable others to duplicate its methods. By 2019, Lava Mae programs were in 243 organizations in 13 countries and expanding rapidly.

In 2020, its priority explicitly changed from local services to being an accelerator and support network for organizations throughout the world desiring to serve the unhoused. The mission and a new name, LavaMaex, was to provide communities, nonprofits, governments and refugee aid organizations globally with seed money, guidance on starting and executing mobile-hygiene entities that deliver Radical Hospitality, and a worldwide support network. Its goal is to create a global network of communities launching and sustaining LavaMae?-designed programs that serve 100,000 people by 2024.

The core of the new strategic thrust was LavaMae? Connect, a free global community of homeless service providers that bring mobile showers and other care services to the streets. Members can access online training, toolkits, community discussions and troubleshooting to connect with other service providers for support.

Lava Mae still has a local operation although it has been thwarted by the pandemic. Since launching, it has served 80,000 showers for 32,000 guests, has advised 90 organizations around the world and has influenced another 160. And all of this was achieved from a simple idea formed just over seven years ago, an idea built with a mission and purpose that gave it the wings to go from local to global in only a few years. Imagine what your organization could achieve—and the lives it could change—with a social program built to scale.

Are you prepared to scale/grow your business with purpose?

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