Balancing Nonprofit Reliability and Innovation
For nonprofit leaders balancing nonprofit program reliability and innovation is a core component of thinking strategically about program expansion.
For nonprofit leaders balancing nonprofit program reliability and innovation is a core component of thinking strategically about program expansion.
Nonprofits need strategic philanthropy. Make no mistake about it, the need is urgent and should not be confused with “big bet” or “audacious philanthropy.” Instead of reinforcing the mythology that reinforces the bigness of philanthropy and the source of change, nonprofits need philanthropists who bring partnerships, strategic investments, and humility.
The framework for the discussion was the reality of the strategic challenges that confronting the nonprofit sector.
Forward thinking nonprofits are engaged in ongoing planning and the larger and more complex the nonprofit is, those conversations must include frank conversations about restructuring, breaking up and focusing on the organization’s core competencies.
For a nonprofit approaching a crisis, it is important to assess your situation and have a disaster planning conversation.
As a nonprofit leader your need to stress test of your current strategic plan.
Your nonprofit strategy needs to be grounded in knowing your core competencies because they are essential to the DNA of your organization.
But ultimately, if nonprofit leaders and their board of directors fail to embrace their role in thinking and acting strategically, the organizations they represent will continue to be fixated on managing rather than solving community needs.
While I doubt that I would give nonprofit collaboration the highest marks possible, as a whole, the nonprofit leaders I know rise above the mediocrity that the capacity survey authors suggest is “universal.” Let’s stop promoting the mythology of mediocre nonprofits. Rather than haranguing on nonprofit deficits, I would like to suggest four investments related to collaboration that nonprofits can make in order to build even more effective at collaboration.
The bottom line is that the most effective nonprofits I know, do not hesitate to invest in planning and thinking strategically. Conversely, those nonprofits with an uncertain future choose to focus on the immediate rather than the long view. The future is coming and inaction is not an option. It is up to the leadership of nonprofits to Shape, Adapt, or Reserve. The choice is yours.