10 Lessons from Nonprofits

Who said that learning ever stops? Not me! Here are some things I learned, or re-learned, this Fall in my online class in Pastoral Leadership Feedback. The references are to chapters in The Jossey-Bass Reader on Nonprofit and Public Leadership. Ed. James L. Perry. (San Francisco: John Wiley & Sons, Inc. 2010).

As you read these, which three do you think are most important for Christ Crossman or your own congregation?

1.When leaders rein in their egos and share power with others in their organization, the entire organization benefits and grows in strength, enabling it to have a greater ability to fulfill its mission. (Chapter Nine, "Shared Leadership")

2.Succession planning is crucial to the long-term vitality of the organization. (Chapter Nine, "Shared Leadership")

3.Strategic planning is not a static process; rather it involves active engagement, reflection and action at every step of the process which might mean that the middle sometimes appears a bit chaotic but is really creative and challenges every participant to be fully engaged. (Chapter Eleven, "The Strategy Change Cycle")

4.When the imagination is engaged, helping planners dare to dream large, an organization is more able to take steps that move it towards real change. (Chapter Eleven, "The Strategy Change Cycle")

5.Knowing who all the stakeholders are for an organization and its mission, and including them somehow in the planning process is vital to the success of that process and the realization of the mission. (Chapter Eleven, "The Strategy Change Cycle")

6.Daring to redefine and even narrow the mission of an organization can help make its accomplishments more evident, and bring others into a supportive and/or collegial relationship with the organization which can deepen the change desired. (Chapter Twelve, "delivering on the Promise of Nonprofits")

7.Embracing evaluation of how an organization is accomplishing its mission, or not, can improve congruence between stated values and how those values are put into practice. (Chapter Twenty-Three, "Nonprofits and Evaluation")

8.Ongoing evaluation is important in strengthening mission and relationship in the community. (Chapter Twenty-Three, "Nonprofits and Evaluation")

9.While imagination and passion are vital in building towards real change, without a workable organization, the initial brightness might soon be overwhelmed and diminished or even extinguished. (Chapter Twenty-Four, "Sustaining Impact")

10.Investing in recruiting and training leaders for an organization is important in the long run even though "staffing for growth" ahead of the growth can be hard to justify when resources are limited. (Chapter Thirty, "Understanding the Nonprofit Sector's Leadership Deficit")

Exodus 18:23

If you handle the work this way, you’ll have the strength to carry out whatever God commands you, and the people in their settings will flourish also.

   The Message