Ten Ideas to Strengthen the NonProfit Sector

In this posting I offer 10 ideas that non profit sector organizations might consider undertaking to strengthen themselves.. All of them may not be necessary to the same degree for your organization but this list of ten transformations does, I believe, contain at least several major changes your organization should at least think about. Here they are in no particular order.

Tough Times, Tough Questions

What should we do? How can we deal with the budget crunch? Where can we find new opportunities? Who else is going to cut us? Likely these are among the questions you have asked yourself in the last while. And unfortunately, we are still in uncertain times for who knows how long.

While senior leaders share a lot of the same questions, most also have experienced tough times before. We understand that nearly everything comes in cycles – from good times to bad times to the good again. It’s that way in our professional and personal lives, and we typically meet the challenges, don’t we? We do that by making tough choices while seeking new and different ways to strengthen our organizations and keep moving forward.

Is this the time to think about strategy?
Now may be the time to ensure sufficient time and energy are spent on strategy and innovation. It’s hard, I know. I have been a CEO of a social service agency and consulted to many that were facing difficult times. Funding cuts, decreased fundraising results, and uncertain tomorrows have preoccupied my thinking, too, as a senior leader in the non profit sector. But I have found and I am sure you have, that even during the bad times, there are organizations that succeed, that grow, that somehow are able to create and act on opportunities.  

You know as well as I do that during hard times, funders seek out organizations that offer new or innovative approaches to producing results. They want to ensure their shrinking pot of money is honed in on top quality organizations producing demonstrable results in ways that are optimally efficient.

While funders tend to narrow their focus or scope during downturns, often they increase their willingness to forge new or changed partnerships that mutually benefit all concerned, especially the most important stakeholder: your clients.  

Maybe we can help
Given this environment, is it the right time to think about your strategic framework, your vision, your opportunities for change?  If so, give a thought in our direction. Over the years, Mark Holmgren has  worked with many non profits (social service, health, educational, religious) as well as government entities to not only faciliate the development of strategies and plans, but also to support CEOs in the change-making that typically accompanies a plan’s implementation.  

If this isn’t the right time or you have the benefit of in house people to help you, I encourage you to take a look at some postings (below) on this blog about visioning, mission, and why planning goes wrong. At the very least, I hope what you find there offers you some assistance and support.

Best as always to you and your organization.

New Technologies Change Things!

New technology and software solutions, especially large-scale solutions, generally mean changes to operations, business processes, employee learning, reporting, and even how a business engages its client-base.

If your organization is faced with significant change, you might want to consider undertaking a change facilitation process to help ensure that everyone affected can play a role in making change happen effectively and efficiently.

Effective change facilitation requires optimal involvement of users, especially regarding how their particular roles and responsibilities will be affected by a new application or business process. At 24 reasons, our facilitation of change begins with ensuring the right people are at the table reviewing business requirements and working together to determine appropriate user Interfaces, reporting requirements, help screen requirements, and learning needs.

We believe as well that line users require appropriate involvement in adjusting business processes, where required, to best utilize the new system.

Executive leadership is paramount
Employees look to executive management for leadership and inspiration when faced with major change in the business environment. While the CEO and other key management staff do not necessarily have to be leading the facilitated change process, they should be clear with their employees and other stakeholders about the objectives and intended benefits of the changes. The role of executive leadership should include articulating the vision, leading group meetings at key milestones, ensuring that ongoing communication channels are in place, and providing clear guidance to those who carry responsibilities for the design of change.  

Innovation is intentional change

Organizational innovation calls for the players to understand and affirm the vision and direction of the organization. They need to be able to identify, recognize, and decide upon vision relevant opportunities and challenges. 

To innovate effective, the organization should be intentional, objective or goal oriented, and be able to create and sustain momentum to achieve the objective.

 The attributes of an innovative environment…

• There is an inspirational mission and vision embraced by all and that serves at the heart of organizational planning, execution, evaluation, and innovation.
• The organization understands that innovation involves risk and failure. The environment is tolerant of risk and not only affirms and celebrates innovative successes, it also affirms and learns from innovative attempts that did not work. This latter point is crucial. If the organization is truly committed to, and engaged in, innovation practices, it knows there will be failures. The point is always to at least “fail forward.”
• There are rewards for innovations.
• The organization ensures there is time to innovative, to “incubate” ideas, to pilot possibilities.
• The organization is intentional about the information it collects and disseminates to ensure information helps evaluate performance as well as inform strategic thinking.
• There are meaningful relationships with customers, other organizations that complement one’s mission and vision, and with competitors.