Designing Impact Communities with Abbey Pantano

Abbey is the founder of The Impact Collab, a community for Social Enterprises and the experts who serve them.

Abbey threw out the growth-first mindset most community builders use and created something that literally sells itself.

(she didn’t have a website for the first 3 years of the community because she didn’t need one)

Here are 5 practical strategies she used so you can build a community you’d actually want to join.

1. Design for value exchange

The strength of the Impact Collab is that there is really intentional diversity, which (imo) is such an underrated aspect of high value communities.

Most communities feel like they are designed for one type of person.

So you get a lot of members who need the same thing (and that might not be each other).

For example: a community of impact founders may need access to impact investors, but their community is full of other founders.

Still great, but maybe not as valuable as it could be.

With Abbey’s approach there is community wide benefit because she designs for two types of people (and they both need each other).

• Social Entrepreneurs - need help with all of the various aspects of building a purposeful and profitable business

• Subject Matter Experts - need good clients who do good for the world

So, who are the players in your ideal community?

I’d suggest to write them all down and map the potential value exchange between each.

Then design for THAT.

2. Curate over abundance

Lately I feel like I’m drinking from the information firehose online.

I’ve all but deleted social media, but even if I’m looking up something I want to learn, there are 1,000 gurus all pitching me their special framework (99% are the same).

I get overwhelmed, close my laptop, and cry (metaphorically).

Then I go outside and touch some grass, come back, and binge 20 Youtube videos that all basically tell me the same thing (literally).

Community is where you go to get to escape the feed and get real advice from trusted sources.

Impact Collab takes this very seriously. They restrict the community to one subject matter expert per specialty, period.

1 SEO expert.

1 Design expert.

1 Legal expert.

Of course members are encouraged to shop around and find what works for them, but having a trusted recommendation at your fingertips is SO valuable and such a time saver.

3. Respect Dunbar's Number

Dunbar’s number is a theory that suggests humans can only maintain stable social relationships with around 150 people.

It’s based on tribal anthropology, groups naturally split beyond this size and develop hierarchy, formal systems, etc.

If you want your community to feel like a family (ok, a pretty huge family, but still), you may consider capping it at 150.

This ensures that everyone will likely have stronger relationships within the community, encouraging them to engage more often and retain for longer.

You may be thinking “wouldn’t this hurt my ability to scale?”

This actually doesn’t cap your ability to scale at all!!

There are many ways you can scale sustainably while still respecting The Dunbar Number.

More on this in strategy #5 😄

4. Measure what matters

When I look at most communities they are shouting about how many members they have, how fast they’ve grown, how much revenue they generate…

When I talk to Abbey, she measures how her members are doing.

She has developed founder scorecards for the community to ensure they are on the right track towards their ideal future.

Plus, this helps her make decisions for Impact Collab that benefit members first:

• Product - have our founders designed a business that makes enough money?

• Visibility - are our founders working with their dream clients?

• Systems - do our founders love the way they work?

• Impact - are our founders proud of the impact they’re creating in the world?

• Inner development - do our founders feel like they are learning and growing?

These scorecards not only help founders figure out where they need to improve to build a sustainable business, they help Abbey focus on what really matters in the community, the success of the members.

5. Scale your model, not your community

I’m beginning to think franchising (or business models that look like it) may be the most sustainable way to scale an impact business, whether that’s a community, service, or product.

You get to stay small, intentional, curated, and really nail the experience.

Then you can wrap up your systems, playbooks, and everything you’ve learned to replicate in a new market.

That can be through franchisees (see Vytal for inspiration).

That can also be through localization within your own business (see Too Good To Go for inspiration).

Abbey is building Impact Collab for the Australian market because that’s what she knows well.

Building Impact Collab - UK wouldn’t be as authentic or as valuable.

But a community builder in the UK could benefit greatly from the proven systems, brand recognition, and support that Abbey could offer.

In this way:

• Impact Collab gets to scale sustainably

• Franchise entrepreneurs get a head start with their local knowledge

• Community revenue stays in local markets

Most communities fail because they optimize for growth instead of member outcomes, leading to stale channels and a big, empty digital room.

Abbey’s approach proves that intentional design creates a community that truly benefits all it’s members.