Nonprofit Effectiveness

What is "Nonprofit Effectiveness?"

One definition reads:

"The ability of an organization to fulfill its mission through a blend of sound management, strong governance and a persistent re-dedication to assessing and achieving results."

-- from Grantmakers for Effective Organizations

Why does "nonprofit effectiveness" matter?

A few widely shared reasons include:

• Desire for greater progress on mission achievement, and greater community impact
• Demand for accountability, internally among the Board and staff, and externally due to nonprofit or sector regulation
• Competition for scarce resources
• The need to be more flexible and resilient

Pathways Approach to Nonprofit Effectiveness

The first thing many groups want to know is "how are we doing?" Board and staff leaders are working hard to provide services to the community while juggling the many internal aspects of a nonprofit organization.  In our efforts to answer this perennial question, Nonprofit Pathways discovered the research of TCC Group, which has studied more than 2,000 organizations across the country to identify the key components of successful nonprofit organizations.  Pathways is now incorporating these elements into all that we do.

We hope you will educate yourself and your organization's leaders about what these terms mean so that you can do the ongoing work needed to increase your nonprofit effectiveness. 

1)    Know where you are on the Nonprofit Lifecycle and intentionally move forward in your development over time.
2)    Build the Four Core Capacities in order to survive and thrive: leadership, adaptability, management and operations.
3)    Adopt a positive Organization Culture so that the people in your nonprofit can achieve your mission.

For more information on the components of Nonprofit Effectiveness, click on each link above.  The full model is described in these articles:

• The Sustainability Formula
• The Capacity to Succeed

How Do You Become More Effective as a Nonprofit?  Start with an Assessment!

Pathways offers an On-Line Self-Assessment that allows you to see where your organization stands related to the lifecycle, core capacities, and organization culture.  Using the results of this Assessment, your group can prioritize areas for improvement and get to work on strengthening the impact of your organization.  Go to Assessment for more information on this tool.