"The nonprofit sector survives because it has a self-exploiting work force: wind it up and it will do more with less until it just runs out. But at some point, the spring must break." America's nonprofit organizations face a difficult present and an uncertain future. Money is tight. Workloads are heavy, employee turnover is high, and charitable donations have not fully rebounded from the recent economic downturn. Media and political scrutiny remains high, and public confidence in nonprofits has yet to recover from its sharp decline in the wake of well-publicized scandals. In a recent survey, only 14 percent of respondents believed that nonprofits did a very good job of spending money wisely; nearly half said that nonprofit leaders were paid too much, compared to 8 percent who said they earned too little. Yet the nonprofit sector has never played a more important role in American life. As a generation of nonprofit executives and board members approaches retirement, it becomes increasingly important to ensure that their organizations are prepared to continue their missions—that they are built to last in a supremely challenging environment. Paul Light, renowned expert on public service and nonprofit management, strongly argues for capacity-building measures as a way to sustain and improve the efforts of the nonprofit sector. With innovative data and insightful analysis, he demonstrates how nonprofits that invest in technology, training, and strategic planning can successfully advance their goals and restore public faith in their mission and capabilities. He explains the ways in which restoration of that faith is critical to the survival of nonprofits—another important reason for improving and then sustaining performance. Organizations that invest adequately in their infrastructure and long-term planning are the ones that will survive and continue to serve.

Nonprofit leaders are beginning to confront the most important unfinished business of their sector. Having invented scores of successful model programs to address virtually every type of social problem or goal, they are discovering that large-scale, sustained impact remains elusive. Today, the only way to get the full benefit of successful programs, however, is for nonprofit leaders to begin building high-performance organizations?nonprofits that are capable of creating sustained, effective impact. That requires reversing decades of under-investment in the capacity of nonprofits. A sector that has been indifferent, if not hostile, to the needs of its organizations, where leaders are forced to manage upstream, against countless obstacles, now needs to apply its ingenuity and passion to the challenge of creating high-performance organizations. Drawing on management techniques used by successful managers in both businesses and nonprofits, High Performance Nonprofit Organizations outlines approaches that nonprofits can use to build their capacity for learning, innovating, ensuring quality, and motivating staff. Illustrated with case studies and examples, the book outlines processes for achieving these goals, including: * human resources management-to attract and develop employees truly in synch with an organization's mission * benchmarking-to identify practices that best meet a nonprofit's needs * responsiveness and quality systems-to continuously review and upgrade quality of service * product development-to tap the talents of every employee to create effective programs The authors argue that these processes?far from corrupting a nonprofit with practices that evolved to make companies more profitable?actually help an organization convert its values and integrity into results for clients and communities. These adaptive capacities help nonprofits deliver on their mission, building the model organization that will make the biggest impact with model programs. High Performance Nonprofit Organizations goes further, laying out an agenda for changing the nonprofit environment, making it more supportive of its managers and more aware of the potential of organizational capacity. The authors assess the special opportunity of several stakeholders-including the nonprofit board, foundations, and the national office of multisite nonprofits?to create a new culture that values organizational performance. For the nonprofit manager trying to build an organization that is truly responsive to its clients and community, High Performance Nonprofit Organizations is an essential review of best practices. For the board member, foundation program officer, or nonprofit leader trying to create sustained impact, it is a provocative challenge to deal with the sector's unfinished business with a new approach.

Steer your organization away from burnout while boosting all-around performance The Happy, Healthy Nonprofit presents realistic strategies for leaders looking to optimize organizational achievement while avoiding the common nonprofit burnout. With a uniquely holistic approach to nonprofit leadership strategy, this book functions as a handbook to help leaders examine their existing organization, identify trouble spots, and resolve issues with attention to all aspects of operations and culture. The expert author team walks you through the process of building a happier, healthier organization from the ground up, with a balanced approach that considers more than just quantitative results. Employee wellbeing takes a front seat next to organizational performance, with clear guidance on establishing optimal systems and processes that bring about better results while allowing a healthier work-life balance. By improving attitudes and personal habits at all levels, you'll implement a positive cultural change with sustainable impact. Nonprofits are driven to do more, more, more, often with fewer and fewer resources; there comes a breaking point where passion dwindles under the weight of pressure, and the mission suffers as a result. This book shows you how to revamp your organization to do more and do it better, by putting cultural considerations at the heart of strategy. Find and relieve cultural and behavioral pain points Achieve better results with attention to well-being Redefine your organizational culture to avoid burnout Establish systems and processes that enable sustainable change At its core, a nonprofit is driven by passion. What begins as a personal investment in the organization's mission can quickly become the driver of stress and overwork that leads to overall lackluster performance. Executing a cultural about-face can be the lifeline your organization needs to thrive. The Happy, Healthy Nonprofit provides a blueprint for sustainable change, with a holistic approach to improving organizational outlook.

The authority on developing strategies and a strategic plan for any public and nonprofit organization Strategic Planning for Public and Nonprofit Organizations is the comprehensive, practical guide to building and sustaining a more effective organization, delivering a clear framework for designing and implementing a better strategic planning and management process. The field's leading authorities share insights, advice, helpful tools, and specific techniques, alongside a widely used and well-regarded approach to real-world planning. This revised and updated Sixth Edition contains new literature cited, new cases, more information on international public and nonprofit concerns, and a more extensive discussion of design and agile methods of strategy development and implementation. In this book, readers will learn how to: Establish an effective approach to the strategic planning process that helps clarify mission and mandates, identify issues, establish a vision, develop strategies, and implement plans Manage the process with continual learning and linking unique assets and abilities to better accomplish the central mission Create significant and enduring public value and navigate political, economic, societal, technological, environmental and legal developments, both locally and internationally Innovation and creativity produce great ideas, but these ideas must be collected and organized into an actionable plan bolstered by a coalition of support to make your organization great. Strategic Planning for Public and Nonprofit Organizations provides everything public and nonprofit leaders need to help bring all of your vision, talent, and assets together into a workable organizational strategy.

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How can leaders use strategic planning to strengthen their public and nonprofit organizations? In this fourth edition of his perennial bestseller Strategic Planning for Public and Nonprofit Organizations, Bryson provides the most updated version of his thoughtful strategic planning model and outlines the reasons public and nonprofit organizations must embrace strategic planning to improve their performance. Introduced in the first edition and refined over the past 18 years, the Strategy Change Cycle--a proven planning process used successfully by a large number of nonprofit and public organizations--is the framework used to guide the reader through the strategic planning process. Bryson offers detailed guidance on implementing the process, and specific tools and techniques to make the process work in any organization. In addition, he clarifies the organizational designs through which strategic thought and action will be encouraged and embraced throughout an entire organization. In addition to updated examples, new cases, and additional information on boundaries, distinctive competencies, Actor-Network theory, Bryson will creat an instructor's manual with sample syllabi, PowerPoint teaching slides, and additional cases.

The personal sustainability of a Chief Executive Officer (CEO) influences their effectiveness and thus, their organization’s performance. Leaders whose personal mission is too closely intertwined with their organization's professional mission are at the most risk of experiencing diminished sustainability; defined as personal wellbeing and professional effectiveness over time. Suggestions have been made on combatting the issue, but the phenomenon of low sustainability persists among nonprofit leaders. Through studying nonprofit organization leaders, the purpose of this research is to elevate and preserve the personal wellbeing of nonprofit organization leaders while contributing to a growing body of knowledge on professional effectiveness. Using mixed methods, a qualitative study was followed by a quantitative study at two time periods. Critical incident interviews for the qualitative study were conducted with twenty "sustainable" and ten "unsustainable" CEOs of diverse nonprofit organizations, as identified by trusted third party raters. Interviews were also conducted with fifteen spouses. A true focus on the organization’s mission, mastery over relationships, and self-care significantly differentiated the sustainable and unsustainable CEOs. Building off those findings, 107 nonprofit executive directors and CEOs were administered a survey in the quantitative study combining the Multifactor Leadership Questionnaire (Avolio, Bass, & Jung, 1999), Personal Sustainability Index (Goleman, Boyatzis, & McKee, 2013), Relational Climate Survey (Boyatzis & Rochford, 2015), Satisfaction with Life Scale (Diener, 1984), and Reputational Effectiveness Survey (Tsui, 1994). Portions were administered to the spouse and a direct report for validation. Personal sustainability practices, both the intensity and variety of renewal activities engaged in by leaders in relation to stressful activities, had a positive impact on leadership effectiveness. The qualitative survey was also taken a year later with 54 of the original 107 participants and confirmed the decline of sustainability and the consistency of the factor relationships. In addition, IRS Form 990 data from the nonprofit organizations represented was trended and included as a dependent variable revealing that personal wellbeing, mediated by leadership effectiveness, has an impact on organizational performance.This work contributes to the streams of research about personal wellbeing and leadership effectiveness and has practical implications for leaders and stakeholders of nonprofit organizations.

We are entering a new era—an era of impact. The largest intergenerational transfer of wealth in history will soon be under way, bringing with it the potential for huge increases in philanthropic funding. Engine of Impact shows how nonprofits can apply the principles of strategic leadership to attract greater financial support and leverage that funding to maximum effect. As Good to Great author Jim Collins writes in his foreword, this book offers "a detailed roadmap of disciplined thought and action for turning a good nonprofit into one that can achieve great impact at scale." William F. Meehan III and Kim Starkey Jonker identify seven essential components of strategic leadership that set high-achieving organizations apart from the rest of the nonprofit sector. Together, these components form an "engine of impact"—a system that organizations must build, tune, and fuel if they hope to make a real difference in the world. Drawing on decades of teaching, advising, grantmaking, and research, Meehan and Jonker provide an actionable guide that executives, staff, board members, and donors can use to jumpstart their own performance and to achieve extraordinary results for their organization. Along with setting forth best practices using real-world examples, the authors outline common management challenges faced by nonprofits, showing how these challenges differ from those faced by for-profit businesses in important and often-overlooked ways. By offering crucial insights on the fundamentals of nonprofit management, this book will help leaders equip their organizations to fire on all cylinders and unleash the full potential of the nonprofit sector. Visit www.engineofimpact.org for additional information.