Collectively, churches comprise the largest segment of the nonprofit sector in America. They also represent the largest accumulation of assets and human capital. Moreover, the Church is diverse: racially, geographically, vocationally, socio-economically. Their potential to impact significantly our social challenges is extraordinary.

Collective Impact is a methodology designed to facilitate cross-sector collaborations in order to move the needle on important issues. Kania and Kramer developed the methodology to correct the practice of isolated intervention, choosing instead diverse partnerships aligned around shared goals. Collective Impact is a helpful framework to organize churches to affect change in their cities.

God loves cities. In fact, He encourages His followers to seek the welfare of the places in which they live (Jeremiah 29:7). He promises as cities flourish, His people dwelling within will also flourish. The Bible is replete with God’s commands to proclaim good news, heal the sick, comfort the downtrodden, feed the hungry, and to care for orphans and widows. The gospel is a verbal message of salvation demonstrated through acts of God’s love. Obeying these commands pursues the common good of a city and its people.

Unfortunately, the division between churches often mirror the broken system they are trying to…

The disparities highlighted by the COVID-19 health crisis in health access, education equity, underinvested neighborhoods, and lack of or underemployment, all play a role in the disproportionate impact the crisis will continue to have on Latino and underserved communities nationwide. Nonprofit organizations meant to support these communities have suffered a similar fate in the federal response while foundations try to fill the void. 

Nonprofits will see a rise in need stemming from people on the margins of the disaster recovery response. Nonprofits must engage in long-term strategies that will prepare them for the work that will remain long after federal, state, and private responses have receded. This crisis will only serve to exacerbate the effects of slight growth in traditional funding sources for nonprofits, already trying to do the best with what they have.

Social enterprise opportunity

For the most part social enterprise has been a response explored by larger nonprofits – think Goodwill, Habitat for Humanity. For these organizations, the balance of “money and mission” offered by social enterprise approaches was a promise fulfilled. Social enterprise is any earned income business or strategy undertaken by a nonprofit to generate revenue in support of its charitable mission. These early adopters understood the need to explore opportunities outside of conventional funding sources to achieve financing needed…

Maybe Vanilla Ice was on to something when he sang these infamous lyrics. If you are a nonprofit executive then, stop and consider collaboration or a merger. Listen up! Nonprofit executives, as we know, have a lot on their plates to juggle, but at the very top of responsibilities is that of impact. Impact is the driving force of all nonprofit efforts. Nonprofits are created and exist for a specific purpose or mission. In our search to realize our nonprofit’s mission, collaborations and mergers are two strategies that can maximize impact under the right conditions.

Strengths can be amplified and shortcomings can be mitigated through joint efforts. These partnerships have the ability to minimize duplication of efforts and competition for limited resources while increasing their ability to problem solve. Many believe there are too many nonprofit organizations competing for the same donor dollars, resources, and stakeholders. “Are there too many nonprofits?” is a question asked often in the sector. Merging operations can reduce this overcrowding while also increasing stability and reducing overhead. Partnering with another organization can have many benefits, however they need to be executed carefully and appropriately to achieve the desired benefits.

Let’s break down when to consider collaboration or mergers:

Collaborations

Collaborations…

As nonprofits attempt to tackle some of our communities' most difficult problems; funders, government agencies and the general public are actively calling for accountability, transparency and proof that a program is producing change. This call spurred the increasing demand for program evaluation.

Nonprofit leaders have heard the call but are struggling to meet expectations due to a lack of basic resources, expertise and support. In your organization, this may look like negative attitudes toward evaluation, poor research designs and collecting data but not using the data. The root problem here is poor evaluation capacity.

                                             Evaluation Capacity = ability to do and use evaluations

The key to achieving more effective evaluation and overcoming these challenges is evaluation capacity building (ECB).

Guide to building evaluation capacity

ECB involves a series of steps taken by an evaluator (internal or external) to build evaluative knowledge and skills, create a culture of continuous learning and accountability, and make resources readily available.

Assess the organizational context

Make sure your organization is ready for capacity building. Some things to consider…

In the Journal of Nonprofit Management and Leadership, Seung-Chul Yoo and Minette Drumwright provided data from 2017 indicating that “…86 percent of U.S. nonprofits used some form of online fundraising and 61 percent of donors worldwide reported that they prefer to give online.”  While the majority of nonprofits are using technology to increase donations, it is not always being utilized efficiently and successfully.

Technology, in all facets, is ever changing and will continue to grow as an influencer on nonprofit fundraising efforts. This is primarily due to younger generations continued utilization of digital platforms. The amplified use will continue to benefit nonprofits as one of the most cost-effective fundraising mechanisms.

Organizations can better leverage technology through first recognizing three notions. The first is that social media is a small donor platform. Meaning that donations are not large in dollar amount, but they are large in quantity of donations obtained. The second is that motivations of donors that prefer to utilize technology to donate varies from other subsets. Primarily, those that donate via digital platforms do so because they are influenced by their social network, not by what an organization accomplishes. Lastly, the social network effect will impact success in a positive way. The more messages an organization…