What Do Nonprofits Today Need Most?

I came across a thread on LinkedIn that has garnered a lot of attention recently in non-profit circles. If you are on LinkedIn, it can be found here on the Nonprofit Network on Mojalink.

The question asked was: What do you think are the top 5 things that Nonprofits need most?

The question was initially asked by Ingrid Zacharias in this blog post back in March and has generated 320 comments to date. Although for some reason I was only able to access posts written over the past month or so, I scanned through what people have been saying lately and identified a few common themes.  Here they are, in no particular order:

Money:  Finding funding, fitting programs and services to funding requirements, generating diverse revenue streams and having a financial plan in place that ensures the financial sustainability of a non-profit into the future was often-repeated (and challenging) need.

Good Communication:  Many people see communication as the biggest challenge in any organization and nonprofits don’t appear to be an exception to the rule here. In particular, comments revolved around a need for non-profits to clearly and effectively communicate their vision and mission in order to raise awareness of who they are and what they do among different stakeholder groups.

Structure and Systems: Having an organizational structure that 'fits' the organization itself was identified as an important need. Further to this, having systems in place in areas that include Operations, HR, Finance and Administration to effectively carry out the day-to-day activities of the organization was also identified as an important priority.

Strategic Planning:  Several comments related directly or indirectly to strategic planning.  According to the comments, particular areas of importance include:

• Having a strategic planning process that can be updated on an ongoing basis
• Developing a vision and mission that clearly identifies where the organization is going, how it is going to get there and what makes it different from anybody else
• Getting input from members, donors, volunteers and recipients into the planning process
• Having a solid understanding of best practices and not-profit trends and issues and using this information in the planning process
• Performance measurement to help non-profits keep track of their success (or lack thereof)

Leadership: Staff and board leadership that is innovative, passionate, hardworking and able to inspire others to roll up their sleeves and jump on board was identified by many people as a critical need for non-profit survival and success.

A Great Team:  Whether the challenge is recruiting and retaining skilled volunteers or attracting and retaining the right staff, having people on-board who are passionate and skilled at what they do vital to the success of any organization. Commenters point out this means non-profits need to do more when it comes to investing in their people through volunteer and staff training, as well as in paying competitive wages.

Networks and Partnerships:  Good non-profit, public and private sector partnerships was identified as a growing need for non-profits as they seek to find new ways to survive in an increasingly crowded environment. In addition to benefitting from potential economies of scale, non-profits also have opportunities through such partnerships to take advantage of additional networks of supporters with similar interests and focus.

Stakeholder Management: Whether it is members, volunteers, donors or recipients, investing in understanding their needs and priorities, as well as developing relationships with these key stakeholders was also identified as an important priority for nonprofits.

So what do you think? Do you agree or have a list of your own? Is any one of these needs more important than the others? Is anything missing?

Comments

[Scott McDowell]

This is fascinating information. Thanks for sharing.

I'm in the habit of asking my clients (np or not) what their biggest challenges are and it's really common to hear "money" or "fundraising" but less so "structure" and "communication." My feeling is that a problem with fundraising can usually be a symptom of other difficulties such as clearly communicating a vision, or leadership or board, etc. Intimate connections between all of these things.

It's really interesting to see them ranked with your commentary, so thanks for the thoughtful post!

[Carol-Anne Moutinho]

Thanks for your comment! I agree that many of these are symptoms of larger issues at the strategic level. I'm glad you enjoyed the post :)