Forces for Good: The Six Practices of High-Impact Nonprofits

By Leslir R Crutchfield and Heather McLeod
http://www.amazon.com/Forces-Good-High-Impact-Nonprofits-non-Franchise/dp/0470580348
 

Book review from amazon reviewer:

How can nonprofits also become effective agents of change and have high-impact? Those who lead them "need to bridge boundaries and understand how to influence without authority. They will need to see the larger system and their role in it - not just their own interests...[They must] be influential enough to convince the CEOs of global corporations to change their ways, and to make the business case, as well as the moral case, for doing so...Above all else, nonprofit leaders must learn how to share power an empower others - if they aren't already doing so."
 
Because the nature of philanthropy is changing as donors seek more evidence of impact from their donations, even the high-impact nonprofits must make adjustments to sustain their effectiveness and thereby their appeal to benefactors. "Rather than just providing services or a basic charity, they're doing much more. In the process, they are redefining what it means to be an effective nonprofit."
 
it's not about being the biggest or the fastest or even the best-managed, nonprofit. The most powerful, influential, and strategic organizations transform others to become forces for good.

Adaptability cannot be exaggerated. At one point in their narrative, they refer to The Starfish and the Spider: The Unstoppable Power of Leaderless Organizations in which Ori Brafman and Rod Beckstrom examine the impact of decentralized networks. "Spider organizations have rigid hierarchies, top-down leadership, and centralized decision-making" whereas "Starfish [organizations] are highly decentralized, relying on peer-to-peer relationships, widely distributed leadership, and collaborative communities united by shared values. Decapitate a spider and it will die; with the headless starfish, cut off an arm and it will regenerate into a new arm while the old arm grows into a new starfish. That is why Crutchfield and Grant view the starfish model as a perfect metaphor for nonprofits.



Drucker article as well as Brafman and Beckstrom's book. Also, Drucker's Managing the Nonprofit Organization: Principles and Practices, Tom Ralser's ROI For Nonprofits: The New Key to Sustainability, a Dean Spitzer's Transforming Performance Measurement, and Enterprise Architecture As Strategy co-authored by Jeanne W. Ross, Peter Weill, and David Robertson.


Salvation Army is characteristic of the best nonprofit organizations, especially in terms of motivating knowledge workers and increasing their productivity. In successful nonprofit enterprises, "amateurs are being replaced with unpaid staff members, many of whom are managers and professionals in their for-pay jobs. They volunteer because they believe in the mission; they stay because they are given responsibility for meaningful tasks, held accountable for their performance and rewarded with training and the chance to take on more demanding assignments."

According to Crutchfield and Grant, high-impact nonprofits (i.e. those who have "created real social change...have come up with innovative solutions to social problems, and have spread these ideas nationally or internationally") demonstrate all or most of six practices:

Work with government and advocate for policy change
Harness market forces and see business as a powerful partner
Convert individual supporters into evangelists for the cause
Build and nurture nonprofit networks, treating other groups as allies
Adapt to the changing environment:  change is the only constant... deal with it.
Share leadership, empowering others to be forces for good

I really enjoyed the updated content and in my mind it made it much more relevant to what the agency that I am interviewing with is going through. In addition, I really liked the style of using great examples from real non-profits that are making it happen and really making a difference.


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Being in the world what they would like to see in the world
The means are the ends

I loved this review and I loved the excerpt I read from the book and the examples of what individuals, businesses and non-profits are accomplishing together.



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