7 Key Characteristics of a Successful Nonprofit
Building a high-performing, successful nonprofit is never easy. Sustaining one is even harder, especially in the new “normal” of a complex and ambiguous world.
Yet nonprofit organizations need to remain stable, relevant, and resilient in the face of up and down cycles of budget cuts and an increasingly changing landscape.
To truly succeed, a nonprofit needs to be financially stable, with a passionate volunteer base, and committed and strong leadership – among other things. But those are not the only things separating the nonprofits that are barely making it from nonprofits that are truly thriving.
If you’re starting or running a nonprofit, there are a number of positive traits you can adopt to help your organization succeed.
The term is now used more broadly, including in the nonprofit world. Nowadays, successful nonprofits use some or all of the agile methodologies in their work.
These methodologies focus on frequent inspection and adaptation of strategies and activities (usually every two weeks). They also include a leadership philosophy that encourages teamwork and clearly defined short-term specific tasks.
Agile nonprofits focus on delivering results in self-managed teams. In those teams, the hierarchy is not as present as in traditional models of management. There is also a big focus on transparency and an emphasis on frequent, short conversations. Immediate feedback is preferred instead of long meetings.
Agile nonprofits are all about responding to change rather than following a dusty yearly plan sitting somewhere on the office shelf.
If a nonprofit is to be successful today, it needs to continuously successfully face change and unexpected risks. The agile methodology can really help with learning and adapting fast. And organizations that are able to learn and adapt fast are the ones that are successful in today’s environment.
It can be difficult to change the culture of a nonprofit and get everyone on board with agile methodologies. This is especially the case if the nonprofit has been around for a while. The old and established habits and patterns are hard to break.
This is why it’s important to remember that ‘agile’ is not about one single thing, about one single methodology. Agile is a philosophy which you can adapt and distill into something understandable and applicable to your nonprofit. Just adopting a methodology for the sake of it won’t make your nonprofit succeed.
There is no ‘one-size-fits-all agile’ methodology, nor is any one methodology guaranteed to deliver certain results. The secret is in experimenting until you find the way that will propel your nonprofit forward.
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Yet nonprofit organizations need to remain stable, relevant, and resilient in the face of up and down cycles of budget cuts and an increasingly changing landscape.
To truly succeed, a nonprofit needs to be financially stable, with a passionate volunteer base, and committed and strong leadership – among other things. But those are not the only things separating the nonprofits that are barely making it from nonprofits that are truly thriving.
If you’re starting or running a nonprofit, there are a number of positive traits you can adopt to help your organization succeed.
7 Characteristics Exhibited by Successful Nonprofits:
1. They Are Agile
The origins of the term ‘agile’ come from a set of project management principles that were created by software developers in the 1990’s.The term is now used more broadly, including in the nonprofit world. Nowadays, successful nonprofits use some or all of the agile methodologies in their work.
These methodologies focus on frequent inspection and adaptation of strategies and activities (usually every two weeks). They also include a leadership philosophy that encourages teamwork and clearly defined short-term specific tasks.
Agile nonprofits focus on delivering results in self-managed teams. In those teams, the hierarchy is not as present as in traditional models of management. There is also a big focus on transparency and an emphasis on frequent, short conversations. Immediate feedback is preferred instead of long meetings.
Agile nonprofits are all about responding to change rather than following a dusty yearly plan sitting somewhere on the office shelf.
If a nonprofit is to be successful today, it needs to continuously successfully face change and unexpected risks. The agile methodology can really help with learning and adapting fast. And organizations that are able to learn and adapt fast are the ones that are successful in today’s environment.
It can be difficult to change the culture of a nonprofit and get everyone on board with agile methodologies. This is especially the case if the nonprofit has been around for a while. The old and established habits and patterns are hard to break.
This is why it’s important to remember that ‘agile’ is not about one single thing, about one single methodology. Agile is a philosophy which you can adapt and distill into something understandable and applicable to your nonprofit. Just adopting a methodology for the sake of it won’t make your nonprofit succeed.
There is no ‘one-size-fits-all agile’ methodology, nor is any one methodology guaranteed to deliver certain results. The secret is in experimenting until you find the way that will propel your nonprofit forward.
Donor Box
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