I was sitting in a meeting of young professionals last week and the subject of nonprofits, grant funding, grant writing, and fundraising arose. In addition, the continued subject of interest to me (ethics, governance, and accountability) was also mentioned. But, I found the thoughts of the group of young professionals to be fascinating, well-timed, and very thoughtful: those nonprofit organizations that are ‘irrelevant’ or ‘duplicative’ are no longer needed in our communities, are drawing funds away from other, arguably more viable, needs and should not be expected to survive.

Interesting!

As the discussion progressed, it was clear that the young professionals truly have adopted ’social media’ (LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, etc.) as their means for communicating. They do not attend the meetings - nor do they join the community organizations - that were the mainstays of the past. This phenomenon places large numbers of non-profit organizations in jeopardy. Where are tomorrow’s leaders? How does the mechanism of ’social marketing’ find its way into the governance process required of nonprofits? Countless articles have been written about the scarce resources that continue to spiral downward for organizations in the nonprofit (charitable) sector.

And, thoughtfully, this group of young professionals believes ’survival of the fittest’ is very appropriate, particularly in this economic climate.

When you stop and think about it, the young professionals are correct - even by the standards of the ‘old timers’ (like this author). We have watched nonprofit organizations proliferate, compete, fuss and fight, refuse to collaborate, and provide ’services’ that are no longer beneficial by the community. Curiously, communities have not proactively rid themselves of irrelevant and duplicative nonprofits. Ostensibly this is because even the most irrelevant and duplicative nonprofit organizations still have some modicum of interested supporters (and funders).

So, what does The Center for Ethics, Governance, and Accountability (CEGA) recommend?

Well, for starters, our entire focus at CEGA has always been on ethics, governance, and accountability - and so it shall remain. If a community or a funder or a nonprofit organization were to focus on the ‘accountability’ aspect of the equation, would not that identify issues of ‘irrelevance’ and ‘duplication’ among the nonprofit sector?

Sure it would!

Nonprofits are notoriously skeptical of measuring outcomes - not outputs - but outcomes. Why? Simple answer: outcomes speak directly to the viability and the success of the nonprofit as measured against its mission. CEGA advocates a proactive approach to accountability and we argue that those nonprofits who can demonstrate excellence in accountability (and ethics and governance) should stand above their peers in the increasingly difficult fundraising arena.

What is the difference between ‘outcomes’ and ‘outputs’ as tools of accountability?

Using an example of a nonprofit jobs training organization, ‘outputs’ would typically measure the number of participants in the program, along with program costs, etc.; however, to make the move toward ‘outcomes’ the organization would need to track the number of program participants (outputs) that actually (a) successfully completed the training, (b) found jobs that pay a living wage, and (c) stayed employed over a given period of time. Now, that’s accountability!

Let’s take a look at the two obvious ends of the spectrum of organizations in the nonprofit sector.

The ‘government’ (federal, state, and local), by the process it uses to distribute funds, is an enabler of ‘output-based’ measures. A good example is the long-standing concept of the “community action agency” and its myriad of funding mechanisms that ‘automatically’ flow to these groups every year. Many of the community action agency funds are actually codified in federal and state law. Opponents of community action agencies would argue the very point of ‘irrelevance’ and ‘duplication’ arrived long ago. Make no mistake that accountability is enforced by means of audits of community action agency programs, but the audit can only be as good as the required measures.

While it is impossible to tally the numbers, considerable amounts of funding are not creating the desired outcomes. It is time to demand accountability from all nonprofits.

Conversely, individual donors and foundations are free to make contributions to nonprofit agencies of their choice, using whatever measures they deem appropriate. We would advocate both increased accountability by nonprofits and increased accountability by funders.

Growth and success require a very clear vision shared by an ever growing number of people. These people will become your employees, volunteers, advocates and donors.

It’s the magic of the vision that will inspire passion and dedication. The mission and goals come later, once they are committed.

Charity fairs are one of the best leadership development opportunities that exist in the non-profit world. Non-profits that have learned how to integrate workplace giving campaigns into their overall leadership development efforts can use them to provide low risk, high value opportunities to their staff in a number of areas, including project management, public speaking, and team building. For example, the skills that can be developed and practiced through participation in charity fairs include:

Oral Communication - public speaking skills -you can practice your “elevator speech” dozens of times in the course of a campaign.

Team Building - the non-profit action officer can get practical experience in creating and leading a team, whether they are paid staff or volunteers.

Listening Skills - the non-profit team will have the opportunity to listen to hundreds of people in your community - what are they saying, what’s most important to them, etc. These are your potential donors and supporters - does your mission resonate with them, are they aware of your organization, etc.?

Written Communication - there are multiple opportunities to develop one’s writing ranging from simple memos to an analysis of the comments from the members of the community that were made at the charity fairs that is prepared for the executive and board leadership

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