For years, I’ve had an image in my head that represented the results of nonprofits’ often piecemeal, reactive efforts to respond to stakeholder demands and ill-fitting funding opportunities.
It can be a patched together, mismatched, less-than-functional mishmash of unclear intentions and unfocused efforts.
In my research, I came across a term in home remodeling: subtraction by addition. When you add on in this way, you actually diminish the value and impact of your efforts. Whether you’re adding new services to existing programs, entirely new programs, new forms and procedures, or another set of data to collect, the results can look something like this . . .
Mismatched
In this case, your additions clearly don’t match and don’t fit well. The end result looks nothing like the original intent, and it’s obvious that this isn’t a cohesive whole.
In this metaphor, the uneven floors we trip over could be conflicting outcomes for different funders, measurement tools that aren’t measuring what we care about, and program activities that don’t align at all with our missions or intentions.
Re-purposed
Or, in another scenario, we re-purpose existing resources to try to accomplish new purposes – purposes they were never intended to accomplish. It might get the job done, but it’s clear to everyone that this was a creative afterthought.
In the nonprofit world, we get extra points for resourcefulness, agility, and innovation. But sometimes, our efforts to adapt don’t go far enough. We make incremental adjustments when we need breakthroughs. We tweak things when we need to start from a clean slate.
Tacked On
In other cases, we tack on additional efforts that might match and be valuable, but they aren’t well-integrated. They stick out as additions. They create inefficiencies. Rooms with three external walls tend to leak resources.
This happens when we respond on the fly. A new set of requirements comes down from an accrediting body. A new funder has a different set of reporting requirements. We are asked to collect some additional data for a collaborative impact effort. Whatever it is, we often toss it on top of the pile or add it to the list and keep moving.
Believe me, I get it. We are building the plane while we’re flying it. We’re on a moving train and people need to get on board or get out of the way. I’ve heard and used all the metaphors to describe the way nonprofits react to changes in their environment that are outside their control, while never ceasing their work on behalf of the vulnerable people and communities who need them.
Evolving with Intention
What I’m suggesting is that nonprofits might increase their impact if they avoided some of these self-inflicted wounds. We can’t change the forces of philanthropy or the economy (at least not quickly or single-handedly). But we can respond more thoughtfully and with greater intention.
How? By setting aside time on a regular basis to take stock of your efforts, requirements, and data. Take a step back and look at the bigger picture. Find ways to kill two birds with one stone, integrate new requirements into existing processes, and save ourselves some effort along the way.
Consider each activity or program and ask yourself:
- When did we start doing this, and why?
- Is this aligned with our mission?
- What is this activity or program designed to accomplish?
- What is this activity or program actually accomplishing?
- How do we know?
For each piece of data you collect, ask yourself:
- Why do we collect this?
- For whom?
- Do we use it? How?
- Is it answering a question we care about?
For each procedure or process, as yourself:
- Why do we do this?
- Is it adding value?
- How do we know?
- Is it aligned with our intentions?
- Can we integrate this with another effort?
Treating & Preventing Self-Inflicted Wounds
The tools of performance management, process management, and quality improvement can be so easily used to ask and answer these questions and provide meaningful first-aid and effective prevention for nonprofits’ most common self-inflicted wounds.
Operation: Outcomes can Help!
This is a 12-month capacity building program that provides organizations with tools and support to take a step back and intentionally design a performance management system with one of their programs in mind. Participants receive the training and coaching they need to consider their existing requirements and original intentions, articulate meaningful and measurable outcome statements, develop the tools and processes to measure them, and receive support as you implement them and build a culture of learning and improvement.