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Forces for Good: The Six Practices of High-Impact Nonprofits :: 0787986127
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| An innovative guide to how great nonprofits achieve extraordinary social impact. What makes great nonprofits great? Authors Crutchfield and McLeod Grant searched for the answer over several years, employing a rigorous research methodology which derived from books on for-profits like Built to Last. They studied 12 nonprofits that have achieved extraordinary levels of impact—from Habitat for Humanity to the Heritage Foundation—and distilled six counterintuitive practices that these organizations use to change the world. This book has lessons for all readers interested in creating significant social change, including nonprofit managers, donors and volunteers. Leslie R. Crutchfield (Washington, D.C.) is a managing director of Ashoka and research grantee of the Aspen Institute. Heather McLeod Grant (Palo Alto, CA) is a nonprofit consultant and advisor to Duke University’s Center for the Advancement of Social Entrepreneurship and the Stanford Center for Social Innovation. Crutchfield and Grant were co-founding editors of Who Cares, a national magazine reaching 50,000 readers in circulation between 1993-2000. Editorial Descriptions are usually submitted by the manufacturers, publishers and authors. Contact us if you are one of them, and wish to change the above description. |
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Author: Guest
I attended a book signing by Leslie Crutchfield and Heather MacLeod Grant. The event included talks by Dorothy Stoneman the founder of YouthBuild and Michael Brown co-founder of City Year.
The book showcases 12 non-profits that exemplify the essence for a "Force for Good." The book is an extremely important work that examines the the factors and attributes that make organizations such as YouthBuild and City Year world class operations. It is an excellent contribution to the sudy of management.
Dorothy Stoneman and YouthBuild are truly inspirational. Michael Brown and City Year show us how community service really makes a difference.
The book is a must ready for anyone interested in public-private initiatives.
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Author: Guest
I found many of the insights to be right on the money in "Forces for Good." I particularly appreciated the emphasis on pragmatism. Disregarding practicality can be your Achilles heal when working in the non-profit sector. Practitioners may be passionate about their missions, but they tend to under-appreciate the context in which they work (competing demands for resources and the expectations for accountability). In chapter six the authors quoted Al Brislain of America's Second Harvest, "You have to adapt to the environment around you. You can't impose your reality on your environment." Well said. After all, it does far more good for the community to actually accomplish something than to wish things were different. I appreciate the dose of reality served up by the authors.
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Author: Guest
What is particularly ground-breaking about this book is that the six characteristics identified by Crutchfield and McLeod Grant result in one elegant measure of nonprofit success -- impact. The 12 organizaitons studied featured in this book changed the systems in which they worked. Whether in the areas of housing finance, education or hunger prevention, these exemplary nonprofits fundamentally altered the prevaling frames and discussions. For me, this is precisely the return on investment nonprofit executives should be striving for and investors in the social sector should be demanding.
For the participants in this growing $1 trillion nonprofit industry who grapple with how to balance the discipline and management of great for-profit companies with a mission-oriented purpose, this book is an achievement. The authors translate, in practical terms, how to effectively implement business practices to accomplish maximum social change.
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Author: Guest
If you work with a nonprofit as a staff member, volunteer or board member, you already know that nonprofit management is not as easy as it looks. The authors of this book agree. They studied nonprofits, the third largest industry in the U.S., for four years and identified 12 "exemplary" organizations that share six similarities in best practices.
Habitat for Humanity, Teach for America, The Heritage Foundation, Share Our Strengths and eight other nonprofits made the list. This helpful study also dispels six myths about effective nonprofits. Example: not all organizations are perfectly managed, have brand-name awareness, or breakthrough new ideas. They don't wordsmith their mission statements, they live them. And--they're big on implementation and execution (my favorite.)
Read chapter one and you'll have the gist of the whole book, especially the six practices: 1) Advocate and serve, 2) Make markets work, 3) Inspire evangelists, 4) Nurture nonprofit networks, 5) Master the art of adaptation, and 6) Share leadership. The best nonprofits realize it's not about egos and logos.
The authors intentionally excluded religious organizations and churches from the study (a flaw, in my opinion since The Salvation Army and others have much to teach us). But you'll benefit from these new insights. Many nonprofits will especially appreciate learning how these exemplary organizations turn volunteers into evangelists.
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Author: Guest
The nonprofit and philanthropic sectors have been growing rapidly and professionalizing at an unprecedented pace in the last 25 years. However, professionalization in the nonprofit sector is not necessarily the same thing as in the for-profit sector. This book articulates new and extremely relevant ideas for how to be more effective in achieving massive social impact. Scaling the organization is no longer synonymous with scaling impact and social change, which is our ultimate goal. We need a new way of thinking about impact and we need to re-think the reigning paradigms about effective organizational structure, strategy-design and leadership philosophy.
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