I have been giving the same speech for about fifteen years on the importance of nonprofits setting outcome measures – both for programs and at the organizational level. When a Board asks itself “How do we know we are making a difference?” there needs to be some kind of reliable measure that provides the answer. Inevitably, though, when I give this “speech” someone says “But … [Read more...] about Great Tools for Setting Outcomes
Strategy
Give Your Strategy a Tune-up
How are you going to pursue your vision and work toward accomplishing your mission? What is your strategy? Your strategy is a collection of your answers to these three questions: *What programs/services do we want to provide to make a Mission Impact? *How will we staff our organization? *How will we fund our organization? The collective answers to these questions describe … [Read more...] about Give Your Strategy a Tune-up
Drucker’s Five Important Questions
The Nonprofit Strategy class I am teaching at Maryland was due to discuss SWOT analysis last night, so it has had me thinking about various assessment tools available for nonprofits. Peter Drucker spent a great deal of time in his later years working on applications of his management ideas for nonprofits – or, as he called them – social sector organizations. One of the … [Read more...] about Drucker’s Five Important Questions
A Cool Tool
It’s free, it’s been out for about ten years, and yet I think it is still a tremendously underutilized resource. It is the McKinsey/VPP Organization Capacity Assessment Tool. To download your free copy, go to: http://www.vppartners.org/learning/mckinsey-vpp-ocat The OCAT was developed by consulting experts McKinsey & Company for Venture Philanthropy Partners as a … [Read more...] about A Cool Tool
The 7th Deadly Sin of Nonprofit Strategy: “Not Ambitious Enough”
A strategy and its associated goals and plans should be focused on a vision that is big, bold, and inspiring. Many strategies are based simply on an analytical forecast of the way things are currently headed. How dull. It was Goethe who said: Dream no small dreams for they have no power to move the hearts of men. In his presidential run, Robert Kennedy used to quote … [Read more...] about The 7th Deadly Sin of Nonprofit Strategy: “Not Ambitious Enough”