Building Nonprofit Capacity E-Book

John Brothers

• Herausgeber: John Wiley & Sons
• Kategorie: Fachliteratur
• Sprache: Englisch

Seitenzahl: 297

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2011

Beschreibung

Praise for Building Nonprofit Capacity "A central question for leadership is to identify where, and when, to focus organizational energy, and that is where Brothers and Sherman's book comes in. Changing organizations is never easy, which is why managers need the right set of maps and tools--like this one." Jon Pratt, executive director, Minnesota Council of Nonprofits "Anyone running a nonprofit organization, no matter how large or small, would benefit from reading this book. It's chock-full of useful information about managing change." Eric Nee, managing editor, Stanford Social Innovation Review "Nonprofit leaders need tools to help them manage better, engage communities, collaborate, and have greater impact. Building Nonprofit Capacity is a great tool and a useful reference for organizations that are seeking to make a greater and more sustainable difference." Paul Schmitz, CEO, Public Allies "Brothers and Sherman expertly braid together complementary organizational lifecycle frameworks--and add their own wide-ranging expertise and experience--to bring practitioners and executives this comprehensive, relevant, and honest book about the organizational quest to become ever better." Jeanne Bell, CEO, CompassPoint Nonprofit Services "Whether you are building a start-up, bringing an organization to scale, managing an established group toward excellence, or shepherding a nonprofit at risk of decline, this book should be required reading for every nonprofit executive director." Richard R. Buery, Jr., president and CEO, The Children's Aid Society "There are a lot of nonprofit management books out there. What makes Brothers and Sherman's book different and so important and worthwhile is that they have combined a number of models, theories, and practices and shaped them into a few essential processes that can be used by organizations both large and small." Doug Bauer, executive director, The Clark Foundation

Leseprobe

CONTENTS

Acknowledgments

Chapter One: Setting the Stage: Change as a Defining Force in the Nonprofit Sector

Lifecycle: A Framework for Initiating, Anticipating, Managing, and Understanding Change

Our Perspective

What’s in this Book?

Chapter Two: Back to Basics: “What Is Core”

Defining the “Core” in Core Program

The Established Organization in Core Program: Characteristics and Telltale Signs

To Put a Stake in the Ground, You Need a Good Mission

An Organizational Vision as Your Guide to Success

Values Matter

Be Sure Your Strategy is . . . Strategic

Founder’s Syndrome . . . not Just for Founders Anymore

Taking it to the Next Level: The Importance of Trust

Chapter Three: Infrastructure/Adolescence

Planning for Organizational Growth

The Role of the Board

Organizational Culture

Chapter Four: Maturity/Impact Expansion (MIE)

Importance of Resource Development in the MIE Phase

Making the Case

Building Board Accountability in the MIE Phase

Organizational Assessment: The CSE Tool

Impact Expansion and the Question of Scale

Chapter Five: Decline

Overview of Decline and the Lifecycle

High-Arc and Low-Arc: How Organizations in the Decline Phase Are Affected

The Arc During Crisis

Chapter Six: Turnaround and Closing

Historical Look at Lifecycle Thought: Closing

The Downward Apex Point

Organizational Turnaround

Closing an Organization

The Mind-Set of Closing Organizations

Chapter Seven: Conclusion

Reflections on this Book

Where Do We Go from Here?

Appendix

The Authors

Index

Copyright © 2012 by John Wiley & Sons, Inc. All rights reserved.

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Brothers, John.

Building nonprofit capacity: a guide to managing change through organizational lifecycles / John Brothers and Anne Sherman.

p. cm.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN 978-0-470-90777-1 (pbk.); ISBN 978-1-118-10326-5 (ebk); ISBN 978-1-118-10327-2 (ebk); ISBN 978-1-118-10328-9 (ebk)

1. Nonprofit organizations—Management. 2. Organizational change. I. Sherman, Anne. II. Title.

HD62.6.B753 2012

658.4'06—dc23

2011029152

Visit the Building Nonprofit Capacity website at: www.buildingnonprofitcapacity.com

We dedicate this book to the memory of our fathers, John Brothers, Sr., and Warren T. Sherman, M.D.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

I begin first by thanking those individuals who helped in the development of this book, including reviewers and case study and interview participants. I also thank all the organizations with which I’ve worked. Realizing the missions and building the capacity of these important efforts is a true blessing.

I acknowledge my awesome wife, Arlene; my children, Max and Nina; and my dog, Lucy, for supporting me through this experience. I also give a special note to my mother and father’s many unrecognized efforts, which I now greatly appreciate through my own experiences as a parent. Thank you.

—John Brothers

I am extremely fortunate to have worked for over eleven years at TCC Group, where I get to interact every day with smart and generous people who are deeply committed to the nonprofit and philanthropic sectors and to helping nonprofits increase their effectiveness. So much of the way I see the nonprofit world is a result of the training and mentoring I’ve received at TCC Group. Special thanks go to Pete York, Paul Connolly, Shelly Kessler, Richard Mittenthal, and Jared Raynor. Bonnie Mazza and Susan Misra have also made important contributions. Chantell Johnson and Sally Munemitsu are exceptional consultants, colleagues, and friends. Michele Garvey was a source of encouragement and good advice throughout.

It’s been my privilege to work with nonprofit leaders who do brilliant and inspired work on a daily basis. The lessons in this book are the ones they’ve taught me. I am especially appreciative of Gary Bagley at New York Cares, Chet Cantrell at Christian Activity Center, Becky Hatter-James at Big Brothers Big Sisters of Eastern Missouri, Cecilia Clarke of Sadie Nash Leadership Project, Rich Berlin at Harlem RBI, and Bob Rath of Our Piece of the Pie. Jane Donahue and Elizabeth George of the Deaconess Foundation in St. Louis are not directly quoted in this book, but have had a profound influence on my thinking about organizational lifecycles and what really helps nonprofits move “up the curve.”

Given how much of the book talks about values, I would be remiss in not acknowledging my parents, Lyn and Warren Sherman, who have always modeled the importance of strong values for my siblings and me.

Finally, I thank Russell Langsam, because you changed everything. And Ben and Claudia Langsam, who make every day a lesson in lifecycles and adaptive capacity.

—Anne Sherman

We are both indebted to Allison Brunner, who helped get this project under way, and Alison Hankey at Jossey-Bass, who shepherded it through to completion. We are deeply grateful to David Campbell at the Department of Public Administration at the College of Community and Public Affairs at SUNY Binghamton, Paul Connolly at TCC Group, and Tim Wolfred at CompassPoint Nonprofit Services for their invaluable contributions as reviewers.

Chapter One

Setting the Stage

Change as a Defining Force in the Nonprofit Sector

First, introductions. We have between us over twenty-five years of experience working as consultants to nonprofits, foundations, and corporate funders. John is the owner of a firm called Cuidiu Consulting and is a senior fellow at the Support Center for Nonprofit Management, both based in the New York City area. Anne is an associate director and codirector of the strategy practice at TCC Group in New York City. Both of us spend our days helping nonprofit organizations understand how to increase their impact. We do this by providing a set of services loosely defined as “capacity building,” which helps nonprofits (or the entities that fund them) function more effectively and efficiently, so that they can be as successful as possible in achieving their missions.

Between the two of us, we have worked with many nonprofits at various stages of development, presenting a wide range of strengths and challenges. We’ve both been fortunate enough to be part of efforts to get nonprofits off the ground. John has a great deal of experience at the other end of the lifecycle as well, having helped engineer nonprofit mergers to preserve the mission and value of programs after it had become clear that the organizations themselves were no longer sustainable. And both of us have worked with dozens of nonprofit organizations at all points in between “start-up” and “shutdown.” Whereas Anne works more with established groups that seek to strengthen or grow, John does a heavy amount of his work with organizations that are either in the start-up phase or with groups that are in decline or turnaround. These groups include organizations with annual operating budgets of less than $100,000 and those with budgets of $50 million or more. As noted, we’ve worked with start-ups, and we’ve also consulted with nonprofits that are well over one hundred years old. Although we probably have the greatest depth of experience working with organizations that meet some kind of human service or educational need, our clients have also included art nonprofits, membership associations, and advocacy groups. We’ve learned a lot, and we’re both keenly aware that we still have a lot to learn. What we enjoy most about our work is that it is never dull, stagnant, or repetitive.