4 Steps to Achieve More
As the year was winding down, a friend asked me to contribute to what looked like a worthy nonprofit organization. I was happy to consider a gift. I hugely admire the nonprofit sector, and I’m grateful that I’m able to help good organizations by making donations.
It was clear the org is trying to do good things. But there were a few matters I wanted to better understand. Namely, how it set priorities and held itself accountable and exactly what big outcomes they aim to make happen. So I took a careful look at their website.
To my (only partial) surprise, none of these points were well addressed. This was disappointing.
Nonprofit organizations are one of the brightest shining lights these days. For the most part, they are staffed by great people who work very hard to accomplish important outcomes. We should do everything we can to help them succeed.
Personally, one of my favorite professional activities is advising NGOs on strategy. I also advise donors. I serve on several non profit boards too. And I used to run one. So I decided I would draw from these experiences and address the topic of NGO performance in a series of brief newsletter posts.
Let’s start with the 4 things I always recommend that NGOs try to do.