Smart Stewardship for Nonprofits

Acknowledgments xiii CHAPTER 1 Introduction 1 Overview 1 The Need for This Book 2 Who This Book Is Written For 4 The Benefits of Reading This Book 5 A Preview of the Book 6 Chapter 1: Introduction 6 Chapter 2: The Keys to Smart Stewardship for Your Nonprofit 7 Chapter 3: The Smart Stewardship Decision Tree 7 Chapter 4: Mission and Values 7 Chapter 5: Understanding Capability and Capacity 7 Chapter 6: Understanding the True Cost of Growth 7 Chapter 7: Innovation as the Norm 8 Chapter 8: Going to Scale 8 Chapter 9: Smart Stewardship in Difficult Times 8 Chapter 10: Final Words 8 Appendix: Tools and Resources 8 Our Three Case Organizations 9 Goodwill Industries of North Georgia (GING) 9 Lakeview Christian Church (Lakeview) 9 Peckham Industries (Peckham) 10 Recap 10 CHAPTER 2 The Keys to Smart Stewardship for Your Nonprofit 13 Overview 13 It Always Starts with Your Mission 14 More Mission 15 Better Mission 15 More Effective Mission 16 More Efficient Mission 17 Your Mission Is, Far and Away, Your Most Valuable Asset 20 You re a Smart Steward of Other People s Stuff 20 Money Matters 21 Your Nonprofit Is Not a Charity. Your Nonprofit Is a Mission-based Business 21 Innovation Must Be Baked Into Your Culture 23 You Have to Engage Everyone 25 You Need a Common Strategy and Decision Process 26 Recap 27 CHAPTER 3 The Smart Stewardship Decision Tree 29 Overview 29 Why Use a Decision Tree? 30 The Smart Stewardship Decision Tree 33 Question 1: Is This Choice Consistent with Our Mission, Values, and Strategies? 36 Question 2: Is It Something We Already Do Really Well? 38 Question 3: Do We Have the Capacity We Need? 39 Question 4: What about Money Matters? 40 Question 5: Can We Protect Our Existing Services Quality? 41 Question 6: Have We Done the Appropriate Business Analyses? 43 Question 7: Have We Consulted/Involved the Appropriate People? 44 Developing Your Own Decision Tree 45 Recap 48 CHAPTER 4 Mission and Values 51 Overview 51 Your Mission: Your Most Valuable Asset 52 Get the Mission You Want 52 Use Your Most Valuable Asset 54 Values: How You Do Your Mission 56 Create and Sustain the Culture You Want 59 Create or Amend Your Values List Together 60 Make Your Values Analog, Not Digital 60 Talk about What Your Values Mean on the Ground 61 Proclaim Your Values 62 Welcome Values-Based Criticism 62 The Mission/Values Intersection 63 Peckham Values 63 Lakeview Values 64 Creating a Culture around Your Mission and Values 65 Recap 67 CHAPTER 5 Understanding Capability and Capacity 71 Overview 71 Core Competencies: What Is Your Organization Really Good At? 72 Start with Data and Accreditation 75 Check with Your Customers 77 Finally, Take a Collaborative Vote 77 Choosing Core Competencies Going Forward 78 Story Telling 78 Embracing Technology 79 Capacity: Measuring Your Ability to Grow Your Mission 80 Are You Over Capacity Already? 82 Staff Satisfaction 82 Staff Turnover 82 Use of Sick Days 83 Use of Vacation Days 83 Remember: Cash Equals Oxygen 83 What about HR, IT, and Other Administrative Functions? 83 When Do You Add Capacity? 84 A Capacity Checklist before Growing 85 Recap 86 CHAPTER 6 Understanding the True Cost of Growth 89 Overview 89 What Growth Does to an Organization 90 GING Growth 91 Peckham Growth 91 Lakeview Growth 92 How to Run Out of Cash 92 Predicting the Cash Cost of Growth 95 An Organic Growth Tool 96 How to Run Out of Quality 97 Is a No-Growth or Slow-Growth Policy Smart Stewardship? 99 On Going to Scale 100 Recap 102 CHAPTER 7 Making Innovation the Norm 105 Overview 105 Why Does Innovation Seem So Hard? 106 Collaborative Innovation 108 Peckham Innovation 109 GING Innovation 110 Innovation Tools 114 Keep Minds Flexible 114 Book Clubs 115 Field Trips 115 Lead by Not Deciding 116 Listen for Partial Ideas 117 Ask the Ignorant 117 An Innovation/Problem-Solving Process 118 Baking Innovation into the Organization 119 Make Innovating and New Ideas as Safe as Possible 120 Embrace Innovations That Are Not Yours 121 Remember That Some Innovations Will Fail (and That s Okay) 122 Celebrate the Attempts as Well as the Successes 122 Be Patient 122 Reward Carefully 123 Recap 123 CHAPTER 8 Going to Scale 127 Overview 127 Can Your Mission-Provision Methods Be Duplicated? 129 The Truth about Models 131 What s a Reasonable Growth Curve? 134 How Much Time, Talent, and Treasure Do You Want to Invest? 135 Time 136 Talent 136 Treasure 137 Does Your Market Really Want What You Have to Offer? 138 Models for Scaling 139 Lakeview Scaling 140 Going to Scale A Checklist 140 Recap 141 CHAPTER 9 Smart Stewardship in Difficult Times 145 Overview 145 In a Crisis, Start Here 146 Starting Questions 148 Strategic Issues/Actions 152 Tactical Issues/Actions 154 Inform Staff and Board Early and Often 156 Communicate, Communicate, and Communicate 158 Prepare for the Media 158 Leadership Issues 159 Am I Taking Care of the Leader? 159 Am I Putting Mission First? 159 Am I Leading Our Values from the Front? 160 Am I Asking the Hard Questions? 160 Do I Have All the Information I Can Get? 161 Am I Sharing Information Widely? 161 Am I Leading Optimistically? 161 Recap 162 CHAPTER 10 Final Words 165 Appendix 167 Books 167 Papers 168 Web Resources 168 Books by Peter Brinckerhoff 168 About the Author 169 Index 171