Too Many Nonprofits Exist to Exist
Nick Fellers | March 15, 2009
And I think that’s a problem. Don’t you?
Maybe an org was founded by a passionate person with a grand vision 25 years ago. Now the M.O. appears to be meeting the operating budget or finding the next grant.
Why do you [org] exist? We don’t return to this question often enough – if ever. We do strategic planning — which means nothing if there is no clear purpose.
- The french have a wonderful term for this – Raison d’etre. Reason for existence.
- If we don’t know our purpose, how can we evaluate our progress toward an end?
- In the for-profit world this answer is answered more often – but still not often enough. However, when cash flow gets tight we find a way to look at the big questions.
- Sequoia Capital (big VC) thinks this is THE MOST IMPORTANT QUESTION for ANY company: “Summarize your company’s purpose on the back of a business card.”
This is a big question that impacts:
- Funding: Your funders what to know WHY. Not WHAT. Knowing your CAUSE also helps to identify funding sources.
- Morale: Maybe if we did a better job of connecting to this on a regular basis we would not have such a high turnover rate. I believe people get into nonprofit jobs with a sense of purpose then lose it – and move on.
- Board meetings: Again, without a WHY there is no framework for high-level dialogue.
- Real Impact: If we don’t know where we’re going we’ll wonder aimlessly
Some questions to help drive clarity:
- Why do we exist? (on back of napkin)
- What is our cause? (again, simply)
- What would we do with $100B? In other words, don’t focus on money for a second. Look up and out. This question is so much more productive than ‘What are our strategic goals for next year’.
- What are we best in the world at? (via Jim Collins)
I believe this is THE question that has forced foundations to ask for mountains of data, reports, crap, etc. Unfortunately, they’re just not doing a good job of asking the question — and to be fair, we’re not doing a good job of giving the answer.
4 Comments So Far
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Niels - March 16th, 2009 10:18 am
Thank you. Yes. This is the key question. And I have never seen a mission statement that answered this question well.
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Nick Fellers reply on March 16th, 2009 11:06 am:
@Niels, Yep. WHY. It’s huge. I think most organizations THINK they can answer it – indeed they can – reading through the lengthy case statements I can usually find the WHY but that’s the problem. It’s buried and not understood as such.
I did a workshop three years ago. I always ask, “What was your greatest epiphany?” One ED looked stunned – almost ghostly white. She said, “I’m not sure I can tell you WHY we exist.”
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Does your organization exist to exist? — Niels Teunis - March 16th, 2009 10:47 am
[...] What is your impact, really? Nick Fellers asks the all important question. I will write a post in the next couple of days and describe a very simple exercise to find the three or four words that describe your reason for existence. You need those words, because they are the foundation of everything you do. Fundraising, staff moral, grant writing, service delivery, strategic planning, tactical decision making, getting up in the morning. Everything. Share this post: [...]
Niels - March 16th, 2009 11:19 am
That would turn me the same color white as well. In fact, to be very honest, it has once upon a time. And yet, it isn’t necessarily hard to rediscover why you exist. It does take getting out of the automatic language generation that is required by foundations and “nonprofit management consultants” who went to business school and clearly studied.
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