What Kind of Change Does the Nonprofit Sector Need?

This month’s Nonprofit Blog Carnival was hosted by the Rad Campaign and asked participants to offer ideas on how nonprofits can become more innovative and effective.

Many of the ideas tackled how we raise money and communicate, how we lead, and how we collaborate. Here are a few of the ideas that stood out to us:

• The Validation Board: a “Lean Startup” Strategy Worth Testing by Natasha Golinsky. How much time (and money!) would we save if we knew that a particular service is not wanted by the people we serve? Rather than going all in and regretting it later, nonprofits might benefit from the lean approach of testing ideas quickly and abandoning the bad ones before you sink too many resources into it. Article includes a helpful worksheet and video for readers to get started.
• 6 Women Who Are Disrupting the Startup World with Social Change by Craig Newmark. We often hear about how the lines between for-profit and nonprofit are blurring, but what does this look like on the ground? By highlighting six women who are shaking the startup world by focusing on social change, Craig also provides us with a glimpse of how new organizations are tackling pressing issues with new models.
• Precious Snowflake Syndrome by Tara Cunningham. There are over 1.5 million nonprofits in the United States and the number keeps growing each year. Are all of these organizations necessary? What makes each one unique? Tara outlines signs that leaders might not be thinking critically about their work and offers steps to ensure the organization makes a real impact.

Read the rest of the submissions here.

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by Allison Jones