Scaling Agile Across Non-Profit Organizations

Scaling agile practices across non-profit organizations requires more than replicating team-level processes—it demands systemic coordination, cultural alignment, and adaptive frameworks that fit mission-driven, resource-constrained environments. This article explores strategies for expanding agile beyond small teams through mechanisms such as Scrum of Scrums, shared backlogs, coordination meetings, and open-source collaboration tools. It reviews enterprise-level frameworks—Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe), Large-Scale Scrum (LeSS), and Disciplined Agile Delivery (DAD)—analyzing how they can be adapted to non-profit governance and operational realities. Drawing from healthcare, education, and disaster relief case studies, the article demonstrates how incremental scaling, standardized playbooks, and affordable digital tools can strengthen communication, accountability, and responsiveness. It argues that scaling agile is not a technical shift but an organizational transformation that embeds agility into structure and culture. For scholars, it contributes to debates on enterprise agility in social impact sectors; for practitioners, it offers practical models for achieving coordinated, flexible, and resilient organizational systems.