The Future of Nonprofits E-Book

David J. Neff

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

Seitenzahl: 386

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2011

Beschreibung

Ever heard of an internal entrepreneur? You might know the type. They're kind of employee who pushes mercilessly towards the trends of the future. Often looked at as a little bit outside the mainstream, more often than not the decisions this internal entrepreneur makes on behalf of an organization pay off in spades. So what makes an internal entrepreneur? How can you, as a nonprofit, create a culture that rewards futuring, internal entrepreneurs and innovation and doesn't shut it down? The book "The Future of Nonprofits: Thrive and Innovate in the Digital Age" helps organizations do those very things. Better predicting future trends helps to reshape culture, creating the kind of environment ripe for positive growth in this fast changing world we work in today. Designed for nonprofit employees on all levels, the book will become a go to handbook for those interested in adapting in the modern world, not looking to be left behind. The Future of Nonprofits helps organizations capitalize on internal innovation. Innovative nonprofits are able to better predict future trends to remake and reshape their culture, structure, and staff to be a more nimble and lean. By applying the strategies laid out in this book, nonprofit professionals of all levels can prepare their organizations to take advantage of future trends and develop innovative "internal entrepreneurs" that will grow revenue and drive their mission. * Provides nonprofits with a comprehensive playbook on how to create a new, more flexible, innovative organization * Provides nonprofits a look at the future of fundraising and communications trends into 2016 * Case studies highlight successes and failures * Highlights the power and strength of Social Media * Hightlights how to hire, train, manage and inspire "internal entrepreneurial" employees * Features actionable advice on creating an organization that is primed to grow and thrive in the immediate and long-term future This game-changing book reveals how every nonprofit can put technology, innovation and future trends to work to reach their mission and grow revenue.

Leseprobe

Contents

Acknowledgements

Introduction

Part I : Definitions and Strategies

Chapter 1 : Innovate, or Die

Change Is Inevitable

Futuring for Effective Innovation

Preparing for Change

The Shift that Changed Local Fundraising Forever

Applying Such a Shift to Today

Executive Engagement

Conclusion

Chapter 2 : What Is Innovation?

What Innovation Is

What Innovation Is Not

Focus Areas for Innovation

Three Innovation Success Stories from the Business World

Conclusion

Chapter 3 : Innovation as Your Strategy for Success

The Three Usual, Large-Scale Business Strategies for Production

What Nonprofits Need versus the Big Three Methods

Innovation as a Strategic Business Tool

Conclusion

Chapter 4 : What Is Driving Your Innovation? Technology, Society, and Innovation

Technology Driving Innovation

Innovation Driving Technology

Conclusion

Part II : The Three Pillars of Innovation

Chapter 5 : Awareness

Knowing Your Own Business

Knowing the Surrounding Market

Knowing the Competition

The Value of Awareness

The Importance of Leadership

Conclusion

Chapter 6 : Structure: Into the Belly of the Beast

Structure Provides Value

Hindsight Is Always 20/20

Follow the Idea

Key Elements of a Structure Ready to Innovate

Another Way to Support Ideas

Conclusion

Chapter 7 : Staffing: The Right People, the Right Skills, and the Right Roles

Hiring with an Eye toward Innovation

The Three Levels of Innovation

No Aspect Is Too Small

Conclusion

Part III : Implementation and Future Considerations

Chapter 8 : Starting Your Innovation Projects: Managing Innovation at Your Organization

How to Ignite Innovative Projects

How to Staff Your Innovation Project

How to Fire Up Your Organization

Rules for Rule Breakers

Our Challenge to You

Conclusion

Chapter 9 : The Future of Fundraising: New Money from New Donors in New Ways

Five Major Changes for the Next Five Years

Example from the Front Lines: Alan Graham of Mobile Loaves and Fishes, and Kate Donaho of T3

Conclusion

Chapter 10 : The Future of Communications

Emerging Trends through 2016 and Beyond

The Top Five

Interview: The Evil Bloggers of 2009—Monitored and Dealt With

Conclusion

Chapter 11 : In Conclusion

Today, Tomorrow, and Next Month

Next Quarter

Going Forward

Most of All, Enjoy It

Appendices

Appendix 1 : Sample of Job Descriptions

Appendix 2 : Organization Innovation Index Quiz

Appendix 3 : Are You Looking to the Future?

The Future of Nonprofits: The Comic Book

Index

Copyright © 2011 by David J. Neff and Randal C. Moss. All rights reserved.

Published by John Wiley & Sons, Inc., Hoboken, New Jersey.

Published simultaneously in Canada.

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data:

Neff, David J., 1977-

The future of nonprofits : innovate and thrive in the digital age/ David J. Neff, Randal C. Moss.

p. cm.

Includes index.

ISBN 978-0-470-91335-2 (hardback); ISBN 978–1–118–06381–1 (ebk); ISBN 978–1–118–06379–8 (ebk); ISBN 978–1–118–06380–4 (ebk)

1. Nonprofit organizations–Management. 2. Nonprofit organizations’Management’Case studies. I. Moss, Randal C., 1977- II. Title.

HD62.6.N44 2011

658'.048—dc22

2010052155

This book is dedicated to the memory of Michael J. Mitchell (1946–2009). For decades Mike had a profound impact on the nonprofit field. His innovative ideas persist decades later in numerous variants and incarnations throughout the entire industry. He made a subtle yet indelible mark on the field and this book is our humble attempt to honor the impact his thinking has made.

Mike served as a mentor to countless luminaries in the nonprofit world. He was revered for his intellect, sense of humor, and personable nature. Mike’s innovative thinking inspired his professional colleagues to defy conventional thinking and find unique and creative solutions to challenges that arose.

We are dedicating this book to Mike because he had an enduring impact on our personal and professional growth. He led, challenged, and inspired us to make a positive impact in everything we did. We mention Mike often in this book for good reason—the world still has a lot to learn from him.

Acknowledgements

David J. Neff: I would like to thank God for giving me the strength to write this book. I would like to thank both my parents and my sister for always encouraging me to volunteer, donate, and advocate for causes that I care about since I could speak. I want to thank Peter, Barbara, Aaron, Rich, Sarah, and Ehren for giving me time to work on this book for the last year. I want to also thank all the nonprofit people I know for giving me amazing feedback, listening to me, reading my blog, and busting my chops on a daily basis. I hope this book changes the way you work. You can find them and follow them on Twitter at #nptech, #npsocial, and #socialmediacrushes. Another big round of thanks to all the social media mavens who shared their thoughts and interviews in this book. And to the man who sent back his interview a week ahead of anyone else, which restored my faith: Rob, you are a friend for life! I want to also thank all the great professors who inspire me and let me talk to their students: Ron, Dave, Tamara, Clay, Dara, Cindy, and Meme. I want to thank the BNF for the most amazing hugs and inspiration in the late stages of writing. I also need to thank Alex, Skip, and Jessica whose time I constantly stole in writing this book. My final thanks would go to Randal C. Moss who never once thought we couldn’t do this project, and do it well.

Randal C. Moss: I would like to thank my whole family for teaching me to always strive to make the world a better place in everything that I do. The world could use more parents, aunts, uncles, sisters, cousins, and grandparents like you. Thank you to David J. Neff for everything you have put into this book. I want to thank my wife for teaching me what unconditional love is, and supporting me through every step of this adventure. Writing this book would not have been possible without your constant encouragement. And I want to thank my daughter because her brilliant smile and never-ending laughter gave me inspiration and hope that my effort here can translate into a real impact in her life.

Together we would like to thank the staff at Wiley (Jennifer and Susan) who guided us through the process of writing a book in the digital world and then sending it to be printed on paper. And, for letting us design a graphic novel to go inside our book! Thanks to Danny Ingram and all the great staff at the American Cancer Society, and to Dusty Reagan and Beth Kanter for warning us about what we were getting into. Thanks to Nicole for working on the web site and Chris for the graphic novel and Sean for editing our videos.

Learn more and engage with us at #thefutureofnpos and www.thefutureofnonprofits.com.

Introduction

We knew when we sat down to write this book that we wanted to deliver both inspiration and tactical advice to everyone who reads it. We knew if we did not inspire and educate at the same time we would be doing our readers a disservice. So, with almost 20 years between us, and our experiences fresh in our minds, we wanted to write an introduction that would educate you, then ignite you to action.

Don’t Crush the Moth

Think of two sets of people. Those that kill the moths they find in their houses and those that try and get them back outside. Now, think of the work involved in those two situations.

In the first scenario, you spot the insect, scream/shout, grab the closest object you have, and swing with all your force to destroy the intruder. Or maybe you scream/shout and signal for help from a fellow member of your household! Either way it’s a lot of work with no thinking.

While we still scream/shout when something flies up and lands on our legs, we also have learned to stop, look, and identify. (Unless it’s a roach, then we scream for about five minutes and signal our dogs to attack!) Once we identify that it’s only a moth that has wandered into our domain, it would be much easier to swat it with our hand and keep moving, but instead some people follow the instinct to help.

In the second scenario, we try and capture the moth in our hands and escort it outside. It seems like it takes more work, but often it does not. When faced with this situation, overall we need to evaluate what to do. What is the moth’s life worth? Did it, or could it, benefit others if we keep it alive? How much effort would we expend to kill it versus letting it run free?

Also, what if it was a gorgeous, colorful butterfly? What would the outcome be then?

The same situations hold true for innovation in nonprofits. We are so often caught up in the day-to-day grind of our mission, of managing staff and volunteers, and seeking donors/grants that we tend to ignore things that don’t fit in our paradigm. When an employee suggests we start recycling our aluminum cans we see a butterfly. A gorgeous and simple idea. Recycling? That’s easy enough! We can recycle. What a great and innovative initiative the manager says! On top of that she says “you’re in charge of it. Go make it happen.” The employee does or doesn’t and we move on.

However, when the employee comes to us to question how we enter data in our Constituent Relationship Management system or why we lack services geared toward young adults in our market, the indifferent managers balk and put off the idea. We are all guilty of this at one time or another. This is the moth. It’s an ugly and hard to understand idea. “Let’s wait on that” or “we will add it to our next agenda” are common put-off responses toward change in nonprofits. We tend to crush the ugly bugs. In fact we might get a little secret pleasure from crushing the moths. It’s much easier than helping them outside.

You can run the analogy as far as you want. Think of all the flowers a butterfly pollinates during the day. Now think of all the flowers the moth pollinates at night. Now think of the ideas that you squash as moths in any given year at your nonprofit. How many amazing, innovative ideas are you not listening to because they look like moths?

This book is about changing that attitude in your organization. It’s about getting the people, volunteers, and structure in place to take amazing ideas and get them where they need to go.

Who We Are

We both grew up in the business world steeped in digital media, online strategy, and social media marketing in the nonprofit arena. We have more than 20 years of experience creating innovative digital marketing, community building, social media, fundraising, and futuring engagement projects and programs for the likes of The American Cancer Society, The Aids Research Alliance, Planet Cancer, The Austin Film Society, Best Friends Animal Society, Mobile Loaves and Fishes, Lights. Camera. Help., United Way, Ronald McDonald House of Central Texas, Greenlights, NTEN, Goodwill, and more. Most of that time was spent working together in complimentary roles at The America Cancer Society, the nation’s largest volunteer-driven health nonprofit, where one of us was a divisional director of Web, Film, and Interactive strategy (David) and the other served as a national director of the Futuring and Innovation Center (Randy).

Together we were able to collaborate and launch multiple high-impact digital marketing campaigns and engagement projects. Between the two of us we launched more than 15 unique marketing programs, websites, and software and social media projects that drove tens of thousands of constituent engagements and more than $4,000,000 in revenue and, more importantly, our work cultivated a culture of innovation within a 6,000+ employee, national volunteer-based organization. Throughout the course of this book we offer you case studies and insights gained from our real-life successes and failures in driving new products through the innovation-development process.

We have also taken our experience of driving innovation in digital marketing even further by using it in consulting, speaking, and presenting engagements. We have spent time working with for-profit companies such as Johnson and Johnson, MeadWestVaco, MAKE Magazine, The Alamo Drafthouse, Ridgewood : Ingenious Communications Strategies, and nonprofit organizations helping them all create meaningful digital marketing programs through video and online work. The majority of our work not only ended up teaching our clients how to make the best use of a specific tool or campaign, but helped them to think innovatively and recognize opportunities. The strongest assets we have given to our clients over the years have been effective marketing and fundraising tools and an ability to innovate and look to the future with a clear strategy.

In part it is the positive response that we received from our clients after learning how to innovate effectively that is the driving force behind us writing this book. Here, we will give you insights into our own methodologies, and the projects and programs that inspire us. We will give practical and tactical advice on how you can begin and sustain a culture of innovation and, most importantly, show you how innovation pays, how to evaluate the impacts of your innovation efforts, and provide you an approach to sell the concepts within this book to your organization’s leadership at both the team level and board level.

Why We Emphasize Social Media

This book presents our current experience in social media and uses it as a lens through which we present our ideas on future thinking and organizational innovation because it is an urgent topic that is relevant now and will be for the foreseeable future. The social media landscape is full of innovative thinkers constantly creating new products and projects. The industry is in a rapid state of growth and development and innovation and new creative ideas are the engine behind that growth.

As with most new media advents, digital social media is having a profound impact on the way that nonprofit organizations and for-profit companies conduct their business. It is both the darling and the bane of old school marketing professionals and executives in all industries because it is such a quickly evolving technology that it has proven difficult to harness its power. However, we are choosing to emphasize social media because of its explosive growth, social and business relevance, and potential impact on the way organizations operate.

Our personal experiences with social media played a substantial part as well. We have seen the transformative power that this technology wields, especially when paired with a business growth strategy that relies heavily on future planning and innovative thinking. We have, through our work with former employers and as consultants, worked through innovation-based activities in an attempt to create effective social media projects that deliver revenue and mission impact.

The current energy and interest in social media is undeniable and we feel there is no better lens through which we can examine innovation. By telling the story of innovation through social media we believe that we will deliver twice the value. Not only will you learn about the fundamentals of creating an organization that can create and drive innovative programs and projects, but you will also get an inside look into social media and how it is driving tactics within the nonprofit space.

However, we also realize that social media is not a vaccine that future-proofs your organization. In fact, within the next five years social media as buzzword will die, and it will become just another way you accomplish your nonprofit business goals. Gone will be the social media consultants and social media vice presidents you see today. The positions will return to what they were five years ago: communications and marketing consultants.

Who This Book Is For

We believe that innovation is a holistic effort to be taken on by every member of the organization. This book is for every volunteer, staff partner, board member, fund raiser, executive, and everyone in between. This book is for anyone who is passionate about finding a better way to work and anyone looking for a way to find the right questions to ask and desperate to find the answers.

From our interview with Matt Glazer, Partner at GNI Strategies

Q: Do you have executive support for your efforts?

A: We have to or it won’t get done right. If you don’t get executive support then there won’t be anyone pushing to keep the innovation alive or maintain it once we leave. Having buy-in from the top to the bottom is required for any new outreach efforts to work.

Innovation derives power, value, and utility from the broad-based engagement of every participant in an organization. We understand that to implement an innovation strategy you need support from top executives and the directors on your board. Both of us have had conversations with top-level leadership in a variety of situations and understand the difficulties involved in selling innovation as a business tool and strategy. Innovation as a concept is ethereal and intangible, but in practice it can deliver against business metrics in measurable and meaningful ways.

To successfully drive innovation through an organization, executive buy-in from the top-level leadership is essential. We will take the time in Chapter 1 to explain how innovation can deliver real value to your executives across all their roles. The overall point is that innovation drives real tangible value; the kind of value that executives want to find from any major organizational transformation or culture shift. And as with all major change and process initiatives, leadership must be fully committed to realize the true impact of innovation as an integrated component of the business strategy.

For example, in his book, The Game Changer, A.G. Lafley comments on the leadership role necessary to fully realize Proctor and Gamble’s drive to integrate innovation: “The P&G experience clearly demonstrates that innovation can be part of a leader’s day-to-day routine.”1 Lafley is not just suggesting the leadership of the company can make innovation a part of the daily work, but that innovation is so critical that each leader within P&G can and should make innovation a part of their daily work.

From our interview with Holly Ross of NTEN

”Strategically, innovation for the sake of innovation is pointless. Unless you can tie that innovation to your mission and measure your outcomes, it’s worthless.”

So how would members of your executive leadership potentially see the value of innovation? What are the ways that innovation can tangibly drive the success metrics that are central to their job performance? The answers to these questions are the foundational arguments as to why innovation is a winning strategy for your organization. To sell innovation as a concept at the highest level you must remember that Jeff Immelt, the CEO of General Electric, believed that “innovation without a customer is nonsense, it is not even innovation.” In GE’s terms, an innovative idea that was not going to drive results such as business efficiencies, a new patent, or increased revenue was not an idea worth pursuing. Innovation had to deliver against business metrics, and that is what you need to present to your executives.

What This Book Provides

The bottom line is this book is going to help your organization do more relevant things faster, less expensively, and drive key business metrics. We know this is a tall order to fill, so let us explain the basic value of a well-functioning system that exists within a positive and flourishing culture of innovation.

Proven Methods for Integrating Innovation

This book helps you learn about both organizational innovation and social media. In it, we provide a number of case studies from organizations that are using social media in unique ways to raise money and move their missions. We hope that you glean ideas from the concepts in the case studies and apply them to your organization. What you learn from their success should inspire you to replicate the programs and strive to think of new ways to leverage the technology.

On a much deeper level, this book provides you with a blueprint to recreate the way that your organization fulfills its mission. We are going to teach you the core elements of innovating in the digital age to successfully create a culture of innovation. This book, through narrative, future thinking, and case studies shows you the importance of each piece of the innovation process and explains why it is important not only to the overall process, but also the greater business value that it has.

Flexible Implementation Tactics

The book continues to provide incremental value as you implement each progressive piece of our innovation system. We worked to create a flexible process that we think can work in any sized organization. Based on this flexibility, organizations both small and large benefit greatly because innovation is not resource intensive or dependent on a large and available staff.

Each segment of our innovation system can function independently, and you can implement and execute them in any order you please. Each of the segments can and will drive specific value to your organization on their own. However together, and in order, their individual impact is multiplied and compounded.

Quick and Easy Self-Examination Skills

Building (or rebuilding) an internal culture takes time and should be done in stages. To maximize the impact we set forth ideas to get your entire organization in a heads up mode (awareness), create a healthy support system to nurture their ideas (structure), and then help you maximize the human resources you have and find the best additions (staffing). As you read about each segment you will begin to question your own organization’s abilities and wonder, “Why aren’t we doing this?”

Sparking inquisition is another layer of value. We want you to question and challenge the day-to-day operational norms of your organization. Our expectation is that as you read this book you will explore the potential that exists within your organization and tap the knowledge in this book to help release that potential. Cultural change is difficult, but this book is filled with examples and success stories of organizations that took a difficult look inward and challenged the conventional operational standards of their organizations.

We strongly encourage you to turn a critical eye on yourself to see how you stack up against some of the most forward-thinking organizations and agencies in the country. To assist you, take the quiz in Appendix 2. Use the information you come up with as a preliminary test to gauge the culture of innovation in your organization.

How This Book Is Set Up

When we began writing this book, we saw a great opportunity to not only teach you how to innovate but also to teach you about the rich history of innovation and the little-known value that it drives into our daily lives.

This book is broken up into three parts and is probably best utilized when read from front to back because each part builds upon the part before. Part 1 introduces you to innovation through definitions, examples, and sample strategies; Part 2 takes you through the three pillars of innovation important for organizations of any size; and Part 3 provides you with implementation techniques and chapters on future considerations. Along the way, we offer examples from interviews we’ve done with innovative leaders at various companies in the nonprofit industry. Most chapters have a detailed interview, but we’ve also peppered quotes from our interviews throughout chapters to help hit home a concept or two.

Part 1: Definitions and Strategies

In Part 1, we show you examples of what innovation is and what it is not. We introduce you to some of the leading thinkers and practitioners of innovation and show you how they implement innovation in their businesses. The information in Part I will help you to think critically about the way that your organization currently operates. Do your best to use it to identify the challenges that you face, the way you address the future of your organization, and how you handle adversity organization wide. The more growth opportunities you can identify, the bigger the impact that an innovation program will have on your overall business. Don’t be afraid to be critical in your self-assessment. The deeper you dive into your own organization the greater the change you can make.

In addition, Part 1 also covers the practice of future casting because understanding the future state of your environment is a critical step that helps give innovation activities a framework. Innovation produces the projects and programs that change the course of your organization and future casting sets that course.

After you learn about innovation, we discuss a number of major business practices such as Lean Management, Six Sigma, and Total Quality Management, and illustrate how business models are sometimes detrimental to building a culture of innovation. In the last few decades nonprofit organizations have adopted business management practices from the manufacturing field. We will discuss the value they bring, the challenges that they create, and how a comprehensive innovation program can add value above and beyond what these systems can deliver.

Part 2: The Three Pillars of Innovation

Part 2 is all about our innovation process and delivers the tactical advice and specific steps that you can take to create and deliver innovation to your organization and constituents. We discuss in detail the three pillars of innovation (awareness, structure, and staffing), and provide you with case studies of organizations that are successfully implementing the pillars. Each chapter in this part focuses on why we feel the particular pillar is important. We then describe how to address it effectively and explain the value that it can deliver you, both independently and as part of a comprehensive innovation program, challenging you to imagine what your organization would look like if it incorporated the concepts.

Part 3: Implementation and Future Considerations

Once we introduce all of the core elements of an effective innovation program, we bring it all together and show you how we optimally use social media as innovators. We detail how we actively use the core principals in our own work and create our own case study for you to learn from. As part of that learning we also introduce practical tools that you can implement in your own organization.

We understand that not all organizations have the same access to resources, and want innovation change to be accessible to anyone who takes the time to read this book. To that end, we have included chapters on new fundraising techniques as well as our thoughts on the future of communications.

Finally, the Appendices provide additional articles, links, and information to help you discover the power and potential of both innovation and social media. Throughout this book, we give you the resources we use to evaluate innovations with our clients so you can use them as a baseline and then take the extra step to customize them to the specific needs of your organization and get the most value out of them.

Many of the resources used and discussed throughout this book are available at our website at www.thefutureofnonprofits.com. Visit us there to join our mailing list and find information from this book in easy-to-use formats so you can edit them to fit your needs. While there, you will have a backstage pass to read all of the interviews presented in this book in their full and unedited form. We will also release exclusive content, share additional ideas, and answer questions on the site and through outreach we do to the mailing list.

Let’s Begin

This book and the examples it provides will be most helpful to you when you start to implement them and move forward toward improving your organization’s culture. The book should be the foundation for the case to your team leaders, group executives, and the top board leadership that innovation and futuring needs to be an integrated and essential part of your organization’s operations going forward.

Remember: Innovation derives power, value, and utility from the broad-based engagement of every participant in an organization. Continue reading, then begin to implement its strategies wherever possible as soon as you can.

Good luck!

1 A.G. Lafley, The Game-Changer: How You Can Drive Revenue and Profit Growth with Innovation (Crown Business: New York, NY, 2008) p. 18.

PART I

DEFINITIONS AND STRATEGIES

CHAPTER 1

Innovate, or Die

The only constant is change.

—Heraclitus, Greek philosopher

The highly-acclaimed science fiction writer Isaac Asimov once said, “It is change, continuing change, inevitable change that is the dominant factor in society today. No sensible decision can be made any longer without taking into account not only the world as it is, but the world as it will be.” And for the nonprofit world, truer words have not ever been spoken. Asimov had his eyes on society as a whole and his observation was that it was in a perpetual state of change, ever evolving and growing in complexity.

The nonprofit organization is a reflection of a specific segment of society and, therefore, as society and its vast array of segments change, the organizations that are charged with servicing them must change as well.

Change Is Inevitable

To be supremely effective, organizations must actually change and evolve before society and their constituencies change. Yes, the best nonprofits really do change in advance of their core constituencies and in anticipation of the reality that will be the new operating environment. However, that is a very rare thing. This is the paradox that a lot of businesses and nonprofits are not willing to confront. Every aspect of our current environment is constantly changing. The social, economic, business, health, political, and even entertainment environments evolve on almost a daily basis. For a perfect case study, simply look at the immense change that technology and social media have had on nonprofits and businesses in the last three years.

So if nothing stays the same and everything changes, how are organizations expected to stay current, let alone be ahead of the curve? The answer is creating future vision and then unlocking change through innovation.

One of the keys to developing an exceptional culture of innovation is consistently producing projects and programs that deliver actual value to your constituents and deliver on your organization’s mission. Before you begin to deliver innovative programs, you need to consider the environment that you will be operating in over the short term, medium term, and long term. Creating a vision of the potential future environments establishes parameters for innovation and change. The process is commonly called futuring and it’s a complimentary activity to the overall innovation process.

Futuring for Effective Innovation

Futuring, future scanning, future scans, future casts, future states; these are all terms we use to refer to the act of or the output from a concerted effort to examine the broad environment and make educated guesses as to what happens next. When you begin to embrace the fact that your business or organization exists in an environment that is in a teeming state of flux, where millions of variables interact with six billion individual actors, you begin to realize that there is no one future to plan for. You literally have to plan for all the futures. (Well, not all the futures, but at least for the futures that are most likely to materialize.) Understanding how the manifestation of those future states could impact your business practices provides you the kind of insight you need to effectively innovate.

In an ideal situation your organization is innovating toward a future, or set of futures. Innovation can work in tandem with futuring in two specific ways: Strategy planning for a future state, and agility planning (or proactively working with your staff to create an organization that is able to quickly adapt to changes in the operating environment).

You can leverage futuring to develop a future vision of your organization. The process of futuring is more comprehensive than strategy planning because strategy planning, in many cases, assumes that the current state of the world will hold true into the near future, and encourages you to develop business action plans based on those minimally variant futures. Strategy planning is all about what the organization is going to do, and in most cases it does not consider the environment that you may be doing your work in. We understand that strategic planning may be a tool for effectively plotting the overall direction of a company but strategic planning cannot predict exactly how the business environment and market that you operate in will change and what issues or organizational obstacles will surface in the coming days, weeks, months, or years which will directly impact the effectiveness of an organization’s strategic plan.

While strategic planning focuses on the organization and what it is going to do to prepare for what might impact its goals and metrics, futuring can help define the various potential environments that an organization may be operating in. Traditional futuring projects carried out by organizations such as the Institute For The Future (IFTF) or members of the Association of Professional Futurists (APF) focus on specific business topics and create a range of scenarios that may develop based on key factors. Members of the APF have created papers and presentations such as “The Future of Human Health Treatments,” “The Future of Electricity Transmission,” and “American Television in the Year 2020: Hispanic Influence and Business Opportunities” for clients. Futuring insights help clients prepare for potential shifts and changes in their operating environments. By understanding the potential operating environments, your organization can become flexible, nimble, and prepared to react at the first signs of change.

What is important to keep in mind is that you should not confuse futuring and future casting with contingency planning. Traditionally a contingency plan is something created to provide tactical instructions in the case that a specific event takes place. More often than not, event triggers are catastrophic events that disrupt the organization’s or business’s ability to conduct business normally (such as when your business experiences a power outage, severe weather, or other unforeseeable event). Interestingly enough, more and more nonprofit organizations are proactively creating financial contingency plans for the scenarios where they do not meet certain levels of fundraising. Unlike contingency planning, which looks at change in a linear “if-then” format, futuring takes a broader look and focuses on understanding the potential positive and negative aspects of a multitude of future states.

In the 1970s, U.S. automobile companies—content with the belief that gasoline was a cheap commodity that was uninterruptible—were delivering automobiles that were large, heavy, and utilized large displacement fuel-inefficient engines. At the same time, Japanese auto companies were producing cars based on the needs of their population and on the belief that gasoline may become a scarce resource. This resulted in more fuel-efficient, smaller Japanese cars and left the U.S. automobile firms at a disadvantage. The United States just didn’t consider alternative future scenarios that involved limited supply and high prices (see Figure 1.1).

Figure 1.1 Fluctuation of Oil Prices

Source: Energy Information Administration, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Oil_Prices_1861_2007.svg

The 1973 oil embargo had a crippling impact on the economic engine of the United States but it also impacted the way that the country saw transportation. The business environment changed and the automobile companies in the market that could update their production methods quickly to deliver small efficient cars reaped the benefits. Ultimately, companies and organizations that looked forward and considered alternate potential business environments and prepared for them reaped the benefits when circumstances changed. The lesson here is, even if the operating environment does not change, having an organization that is capable of adapting to varying scenarios can provide substantial returns in the long run.

Mathias Crawford from the Institute For The Future puts futuring further into perspective in an interview with Good magazine by emphasizing that “...the future is not an end state. Tomorrow will someday be today, which will fade into yesterday. As our world moves through this unyielding passage of time, how people act in our world will determine just which of many possible futures we end up with.”1 Developing a future cast is an event that requires frequent revisiting and evaluating. In his interview, Mathais Crawford goes on to reiterate the point by explaining that, “Even though we can’t predict exactly what will happen, we can make reasonable assumptions about what potential futures might look like, and in doing so, we can begin to make choices today that can help us bring about the changes we hope to realize in the world.”

It is these sets of reasonable assumptions that lend themselves to the creation of an agile organization able to react to a rapidly changing business environment, and help give direction to ongoing proactive innovation activities. Reasonable assumptions, not concrete assertions, are the ultimate goals of a well-designed and well-implemented futuring engagement.

Preparing for Change

Being innovative and opportunistic in any business means being prepared for the future, and planning for the future is something that every business and organization should do. A substantial part of your organization’s success is going to rely on your ability to look forward and understand the various social, economic, and mission-related elements that are going to impact your business and your constituents.

As we touched on before, we advocate against creating a contingency plan or even a series of contingency plans, but rather we want you to evaluate a number of macro factors and assess the impacts and changes those factors may have on your business. Consider if your organization is actively looking at the future. Whether you are paying attention to the future or not, it will occur. (Please see Appendix 2 for a quiz that will help you assess how well your organization is looking into the future.) Unlike a contingency plan that is reactive, futuring and innovation are proactive steps to identify and then create the reality for your organization.

Change is not always a cataclysmic event punctuated by news stories and fanfare. The 2008 financial collapse is a great exception to this rule. The implosion of the real estate market and the domino impact it had on the global economy were covered in depth for months on end. But most change does not happen that way. Most change goes unnoticed and, in fact, creeps up on us. In many situations we accommodate for the change; developing workarounds and alternative processes until that change hits a critical mass. We try our best to avoid acknowledging the change and plow forward, executing the same business plan and using the same tactics that seemed to work, hoping that nothing will alter our output or productivity.

The North American car seat is a perfect example of a workaround developed in an attempt to avoid facing the fact that we are getting fatter. In October 2006, Mark Hogan, president of Magna (Canada’s biggest auto parts supplier) was quoted in an article titled “Battle of the Bulge” discussing modern society’s obsession with weight-watching. He mentions that this reality may have finally hit the auto world full throttle: “Vehicles are getting bigger because human beings are getting bigger.”2 People are getting bigger in height, width, and weight. However, an entire continent did not wake up one day and become overweight overnight. It took years of slow change, and lots of accommodation, to reach the crisis point. As a point of reference, according to “The Obesity Epidemic in the United States,” a 2007 study conducted by Youfa Wang and May A. Beydoun, by 2015, 75 percent of Americans will be classified as overweight3 and that kind of change takes decades.

These kinds of slow changes can either be a boon for your organization or wreak havoc on it. As a business you have to be aware of changes taking place and diligently future cast to see what kind of impact it may have on you. But making sweeping changes just before the moment of crisis is not an effective way to maximize the resources your organization has to offer its constituents. Over the last 75 years, the world—and the nonprofit field in particular—has seen major environmental changes that have made substantial impacts on the nonprofit field. These seismic changes sent shock waves through the entire world but had unique impacts on the nonprofit realm. Some were technological, some were social and economic and, in most cases, these massive changes impacted all three areas of society. We simply want to remind you of the past so you can have an appreciation for what may come in the future.

We tend to look at seismic shifts with perfect hindsight. We can evaluate and dissect them for greater understanding but, in our past tense review, we sometimes lose perspective of the calamity they caused at the time. Even the changes that were gradual and took hold over a long period of time caused extensive upheaval once the impacts of the changes began to impact usual business, social norms, and practices.

If we can embrace the idea that change is constant, we can begin to structure our organizations around that idea. We can THEN create flexible organizations that can identify change while, or even before, it happens. With this knowledge in hand, the organizations we have been involved with have consistently been ahead of the game and reaped the rewards of being the first to move.

Consistency in this endeavor is the key to success and we want to share a few examples of some major shifts that changed our business forever. The following is a case study in how change—slow change—crept up on the nonprofit sector. With perfect hindsight, we can see the slow and methodical change occurring, and almost laugh at the fact that an entire sector missed such a fundamental shift in American society. Consider that at the time this change began, the nonprofit landscape was very well organized and hierarchical. The business model was successful and the roles each individual played were set. Juxtaposed next to ideals of futuring and innovation, the nonprofit field in the 1950s and 1960s looks overly-regimented and restricted.

The Shift that Changed Local Fundraising Forever

In the early part of the twentieth century, direct solicitation was seen as an effective way to raise both revenue and awareness for nonprofit organizations. Most organizations had a formal fund-raising plan that brought in a steady stream of predictable revenue from households. The premise was to empower supporters to reach out through their personal networks for donations. Programs depended on tight networks consisting primarily of geographic neighborhoods.4 And the social movement of a post-World War II America enabled this fund-raising tactic. New home development in the suburban areas was creating bedroom communities for veterans. The Levittowns5 of America were primed for intimate face-to-face, personal fundraising and interaction.

For many years, fundraising programs that relied on neighborhood relationships provided a steady and reliable stream of income. As this kind of program expanded and revenue increased, management structures evolved to support it, spurring the development of local community offices. The geography and proximity of the neighborhood was the driving factor in business development. States were broken into regions and regions were subdivided into city-level units. Sometimes there were even multiple offices to service larger metropolitan and suburban areas. Fundraising grew in tandem with the support structure because at the time it was critically important to have a physical infrastructure to support mission delivery and revenue activities. The neighborhood or city office became the nexus of activity for the organization at a local level and everything flowed through a storefront office or volunteered space.

This model worked and it worked very well for a long time. Large nonprofits grew and expanded their reach, delivering services to many more people in many more communities across the country. And there was one person that was playing a critical role in this strategy: the matriarch of the household. In post-World War II America, it was typical for moms to have a number of non-earning years. Not just six weeks of maternity leave—but multiple years!6

Women who stayed home from work served a critical and vital role in the family structure. In an interview with Mother Jones, Amelia Tayagi explains that “It used to be that a stay-at-home parent was a sort of safety net—she (and it was usually a “she”) not only took care of the children, but she was there if anyone got sick. Or if Grandma broke a hip, she could step in and provide care without costing the family financially.”7 Beyond being a safety net, the stay-at-home mother was also a social net. She was involved with her community and was connected with the neighbors, and this web of personal relationships is what made her a powerful fundraiser.