Turn your idea into a
business model that works

Building purpose-driven ventures is hard.
Go from idea to testable business model — one page, one day.

Purpose
Customer Segments
Jobs to Be Done
Unique Value Proposition
Solution
Impact
Channels
Revenue Streams
Cost Structure
Advantage
Key Metrics

Most purpose-driven ventures fail

It's not enough to get the business model right — you also have to create lasting, measurable impact. Both have to fold into a single model where any broken piece can sink you. It's too complex to rely on guesswork.

One framework to make sense of it all

The Social Lean Canvas gives you a straightforward best-practice path to follow. It breaks your venture into manageable pieces that can be worked on independently and then fitted together into one integrated business model.

Free and opensource

The canvas and the core SLC program are completely free and opensource.

Start the Free Program

Three Models → One Canvas

Purpose-driven ventures need three interconnected models.

Customer Model

How you create value that people will pay for. The customer model maps who your customers are and how you create a proposition for them that is so compelling that they will pay you for it.

Impact Model

Your theory of change — the logic by which what you do leads to measurable impact in the world. It maps from your activities, through the stakeholders involved, to the outcomes you create.

Economic Model

How money flows through your venture to make growth and sustainability possible. Your economic model captures the value produced by your customer model.

Customers
Jobs to Be Done
UVP
Solution
Issue
Participants
Activities
Outcomes
Impact
Channels
Revenue
Advantage
Key Metrics
Costs

Venture Library

Real ventures analysed through the Social Lean Canvas.

Aravind Eye Care logo

Aravind Eye Care

Sector

Healthcare

Impact

Eliminating needless blindness through cross-subsidy

The world's largest eye care provider, performing hundreds of thousands of surgeries annually. Paying patients cross-subsidise free care for those who can't afford it — a high-volume, high-quality model that eliminates needless blindness.

Browse the full library →

Programs

Video programs — each step explained.

←Customer Model

Your customer model
is how your business model creates value.

Customer model canvas diagram

Fill In Your Canvas

A guided video program walking you through each section of the canvas step by step.

Free — available now

Improve Your Canvas

Go deeper on making your business and impact models stronger.

Coming soon

Develop Your Strategy

Build a validation and implementation plan for your venture.

Coming soon

Pivot to Purpose

Using the canvas to develop a purposeful solo venture.

Coming soon

Pivoting to Purpose

Innovation is getting faster and cheaper. A new wave of social entrepreneurs are taking up the challenge.

The shift is real

AI is making it possible to do more with less. Things that were once the domain of large companies are now being done by solo founders and small teams.

Honest hustle

This is not get-rich-quick internet hustle culture. This is about being smart and building something real that matters.

The Opportunity

Purpose is now a strategic advantage. We have a chance to rewrite the enterprise rulebook.

About

The Canvas

The Social Lean Canvas was created in 2013 by Rowan Yeoman, Dave Moskovitz, and the Ākina Foundation. It builds on Alexander Osterwalder's Business Model Canvas and Ash Maurya's Lean Canvas, adapted specifically for social innovation.

Since its creation, thousands of social entrepreneurs, investors, accelerators, incubators, and universities have used it to bring coherence and a shared common language to the social innovation journey.

We make as many of these resources as we can free and open source — to help innovators create more positive impact in the world.

The Social Lean Canvas is shared under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License (CC BY-SA 3.0).

Rowan Yeoman

Rowan Yeoman

Co-Creator & Founder

rowan@socialleancanvas.com