THE PARADOX OF NONPROFIT INNOVATION
The question reads like something of a charitable holy grail. An elusive elixir or seductive silver bullet. Forever sought after, yet so rarely achieved.
But why?
Perhaps it’s because we are asking the wrong question.
The 3M’s that Impede Innovation
Before examining how nonprofits can foster innovation, it is worth con
sidering what stalls their progress. The desire to innovate, or at the very least to create some kind of social change, is embodied in many NGO mission statements. But few nonprofits get to the level where they are truly pushing social, political, economic or environmental boundaries.
I believe that there are three primary obstacles that impede nonprofit innovation: means, mindset and management.
To achieve their goal(s) nonprofits need a means to get there. At the most basic level nonprofits require resources such as physical space and equipment to conduct their work, funding such as grants or donations to offset costs, people such as staff or volunteers to manage programs, and capacity such as knowledge and training to succeed at work. When any of these means are lacking nonprofits may have difficulty functioning, let alone innovating.
The wrong mindset can also stall nonprofit innovation. An environment that fails to reward hard work, promote creativity or encourage engagement is sending the wrong message to its staff and volunteers. Motivation and inspiration are core elements of innovation and without the right mindset it’s hard to foster new ideas.
The third (though by no means final) barrier to nonprofit innovation is management. While innovation may be driven from the ground up, it’s hard to imagine true innovation taking place without support from the executive level. Micro-managment and red tape (defined simply as any internal or external rule, policy or practice put in place that intentionally or unintentionally impedes the work of an organization) are the bane of innovation. Managers may not always foster innovation, but they should at least not stand in the way of its creation.
Fostering Nonprofit Innovation
If means, mindset and management can impede nonprofit innovation, it is the right culture and leadership which can help promote it. While many innovative ideas have been born without financial backing or a physical headquarters, without the right culture and leadership true innovation is hard to achieve.
A positive nonprofit culture is an integral part of fostering innovation. The right nonprofit culture is where collaboration and creativity are encouraged, it’s where new ideas and self-expression are celebrated, and it’s where staff and volunteers feel part of something larger than themselves. Indeed, the right culture is what makes going to work enjoyable.
There are many ways to help create an innovative nonprofit culture:
- Allow staff and volunteers to set their own hours to help them work around family and life responsibilities, as well as minimize sleep debt or fatigue
- Install whiteboards around your office (like an advertising/marketing agency) to promote brainstorming and sharing of ideas
- Add youth members to your nonprofit Board of Directors
- Integrate music, art, film, writing or photography into programs or awareness campaigns
- Challenge supporters to create an unconventional solution to a conventional social problem
- Help staff and volunteers write and publish content about your cause or issue in magazines, newspapers or academic journals
- Let staff members host workshops or present at conferences
- Organize and fundraise for a nonprofit retreat or take a visit into the field where your work is having impact
- Use social technologies to crowdfund projects, crowdsourse tasks or mobilize supporters
These ideas may sound simple (and even enticing), but their implementation requires not only the right culture, but the right kind of leader to help drive ogranizational change.
Naturally leaders come in all forms, but one of the best definitions of leadership I’ve come across is by Richard Stengel. In describing lessons of leadership learned from Nelson Mandela Stengel says: leaders lead from the front but don’t leave their base behind, and lead from the back while letting others believe they are in front.
When leaders are are at the forefront of advancing social norms and advocating for (sometimes unpopular) social change, and yet still allowing supporters to feel as if they are driving the movement, then innovation has great potential to flourish.
The Paradox of Innovation
Importanly however, we should not oversimplify the process of nonprofit innovation. Outdated funding models, closed organizational structures and limited incentives to attract bright leaders make answering the question: “How can nonprofits foster innovation?” rather difficult.
The question is also somewhat misleading for it assumes that innovation is an end rather than a result or by-product of progress. Who among us has ever sat down at our desks and said, “Today I’m going to innovate!” Innovation is a result of doing, not a final destination. Innovation is also evolving – what is innovative today is not necessarily what is innovative tomorrow.
The par 1c00 adox of innovation, at least insofar as it concerns nonprofits, is that it difficult to innovate without attracting innovative people, and it is difficult to attract innovative people if you are not already innovating.
At some point the cycle has to break. Nonprofits must not only become better internally at opening up and cultivating new ideas, but the nonprofit sector must also become better at attracting (and incentivising) young creative minds, who are so often the catalysts for revolutionary organizational and social change.
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