If you are involved in a nonprofit, it’s important to really think about whether you’re having an impact or not. There are a lot of factors that keep nonprofits afloat that maybe aren’t having the impact that they should have. A similar trend happens in the non-profit sector, but market forces don’t exist in the same way. – Charlie talks about how in the business sector, organizations must adapt or they die.
#NONPROFIT LEADERSHIP PODCAST KATHLEEN JANUS NOTES HOW TO#
For nonprofits, it’s important to learn how to leverage your donors and get them more involved in the causes. Donors have also changed, and often want to do more than just cut a check. There have been improvements in technology that allow organizations to measure their impact better. What Kathleen has noticed is that many organizations have been doing good work in the community for years, but have grown accustomed to that work and don’t think about gaining a fresh perspective. – A big part of Kathleen’s thesis is that many nonprofits are operating in an old-fashioned way, and they could modernize to maximize their impact. Many nonprofits focus on serving the next generation (not necessarily adult customers), and it requires us to have a longer view, while at the same time taking action now. It is Kathleen’s hope that through Social Startup Success and capacity building, they can give organizations the tools they need to grow their business efficiently and effectively. – While strategies to grow can be learned, time is the enemy when it comes to some of the social issues many nonprofits are trying to solve. It’s important to be intentional about your strategy for scaling given the stage of your business so you choose a strategy that will allow you to continue great work without wasted time, effort, or heart (especially for nonprofits). As revenue increases, it’s about perfecting that strategy for scale. There is testing, or figuring out which revenue stream works best for your organization. Kathleen talks about some of the steps to overcoming speed bumps as revenue increases. Nonprofits often experience these fundraising speed bumps, and different organizations will have to treat them differently depending on their scale. – In the business world, sometimes when an organization reaches a speed bump, they might have to change the nature of their organization in order to scale and grow. The strategies are innovation, impact, funding experimentation and fundraising, leading collaboratively, and storytelling. The five strategies Kathleen outlines in her book are the ones that target what organizations get the most tripped-up over. – One of the speed bumps people often encounter in starting and running nonprofits is the previously mentioned $500,000 revenue block, but there are others that come up as well. Charlie talks about the tension between scaling and sustainability: sometimes strategies used to scale can keep you from being sustainable, and on the other hand, some versions of sustainability prevent you from being able to scale. For Kathleen in her book, scale is about getting to a level of sustainability, so organizations aren’t struggling to survive but are able to focus on their social impact. – Scale can mean different things to different people.
It highlights five basic strategies that successful organizations seemed to implement to get to their level of success. This research culminated in her book, Social Startup Success. – Kathleen started to research the top-performer organizations in the country to understand why some organizations succeed and manage to scale, and others don’t. Kathleen experienced this firsthand when she started her own nonprofit, Spark, but they capped out at $500,000 in revenue and they couldn’t get the capital that they needed to grow. Her parents instilled this virtue in her, but also spent time talking about the importance of the organizations caring for vulnerable communities, and whether they had the resources necessary to do so. – Kathleen’s origin story: Kathleen grew up in a small town in California where she spent weekends volunteering and giving back to her community. – SaneBox is a great resource for managing your email inbox. They also touch on how the non-profit sector unintentionally reinforces the same inequities they’re attempting to solve.
She joins Charlie today to discuss how nonprofits maximize their impact by adopting some of the same strategies that modern, for-profit organizations are using. She recently released her book called Social Startup Success. Kathleen Kelly Janus is a social entrepreneur, author, and lecturer at Stanford University.
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