Sustaining Nonprofit Performance: The Case for Capacity Building and the Evidence to Support It

Chapter 6. The Spiral of Sustainable Excellence

Imagine nonprofit life as a journey up and down a spiral. All organizations would start with a simple idea for some new program or service and then move up the spiral toward greater and greater impact. Also imagine five landings, or stops, along the climb: the organic phase of life in which they struggle to create a presence in their environment, the enterprising phase in which they seek to expand their size and scope, the intentional phase in which they try to focus themselves on what they do best, the robust phase in which they strengthen their organizational infrastructure to hedge against the unexpected, and the reflective phase in which they address longer-term issues of succession and legacy. Viewed as a spiral, nonprofit development would be anything but a fixed march ever upward. Many nonprofits would linger at one stage or another for long periods of time. Some organizations would make it up the first flight and remain at the organic landing for what might seem like an eternity. Others might quickly move to the enterprising stage, becoming the “hot” organization in their community or field, and stay there for a lifetime or at least for an executive director or two. Others would make the difficult climb from the enterprising stage to intentionality by focusing their attention on the programs they care about most, while The Spiral of Sustainable Excellence 136 6 THE SPIRAL OF SUSTAINABLE EXCELLENCE 137 jettisoning and spinning off others. Still others would enhance their capacity to withstand crises and shocks, handle risks, recruit and retain the most talented employees for the long term, and shape the future through their advocacy. And relatively few would reach the reflective stage by expanding their mission to include broad questions of long-term legacy. Viewed as a spiral, nonprofit development would also vary in both direction and speed. Some nonprofits would rise quickly through the stages, perhaps because of a large grant or unexpected gift; others would move slowly, if at all, from one stage to the other. More important, some nonprofits would move down the spiral from time to time, perhaps because of a crisis or shock, a leader’s departure, a change in government or donor priorities, or an investigation. Some would even jump down the spiral to their organic roots from time to time to ask themselves again why they exist, whom they serve, and how they intend to make a difference in the world. Indeed, I believe an important part of being a reflective nonprofit is being acutely aware of the organic history of the organization. This image of a development spiral did not spring full-blown from my imagination. It emerged from site visits to twenty-five high-performing nonprofits selected from the 250 organizations identified in my Pathways to Nonprofit Excellence project. The site visits covered nine cities— Atlanta, Chicago, Indianapolis, Los Angeles, Minneapolis, New York, San Diego, San Francisco, and Washington. The site visits began with a trip to Chicago on September 14, 2001, and concluded in March 2003 in Atlanta. The twenty-five nonprofits were hand-picked to provide a wide range of experience and included well-known national organizations such as Care, Doctors without Borders, Environmental Defense, the Girl Scouts, the Nature Conservancy, OMB Watch, and Share Our Strength; regional exemplars such as the New York’s Big Apple Circus, Chicago’s Friends of the Chicago River, Heartland Alliance, Lakefront Supportive Housing , and Vital Bridges (which was named Open Hand Chicago at the time of the site visit), the Indianapolis Children’s Museum and Second Helpings, the Los Angeles Alliance for a New Economy, Pillsbury Neighborhood Services in Minneapolis, and the San Diego Opera; and wellknown local organizations such as the Bay Area’s Pacific Repertory Theater, Asian-Pacific-Islander Wellness Center, and Pact Adoption Alliance, Los Angeles’s Community Coalition and Tree Musketeers, Chicago’s Ancona School and Instituto del Progreso Latino, and Washington ’s Calvary Women’s Services. As the list suggests, the twenty-five included large organizations and small, young organizations and old, and a wide variety of missions— from HIV-AIDS education to international relief—but it is easy to argue that all were achieving significant program impacts. However, at least eight of the twenty-five were achieving those impacts in spite of significant organizational frustrations, and none was perfect in every way. According to my observations following half- to full-day visits with...