Jane Wei-Skillern, assistant professor in the General Management Unit at Harvard Business School, studies entrepreneurship in the social sector. I've ordered her book, Entrepreneurship in the Social Sector (Sage Publications, Inc., 2007, 424 pp. $69.95) for the library's nonprofit collection. One focus of her study is nonprofit networking. Nonprofit networking is a new way to achieve significant social impact of a nonprofit. Wei-Skillern and her research colleagues found that growing an organization did not always lead to the benefits the organization had thought. For example, many nonprofits anticipate that fundraising would be easier with organizational growth. However, significant new costs are created; the nonprofit needs to now manage and coordinate operations across multiple locations.
Too, recent studies from the Rand Corporation, including, "Arts and Culture in the Metropolis: Strategies for Sustainability," (Santa Monica, CA: Rand Corporation, 2006, $25.00), show that the nonprofit sector, most importantly the arts nonprofits, will need to soon transform the traditional nonprofit model into a more business model, focusing on cost over revenue, collaboration over single-use, and networking. This will require conscious change in how nonprofits manage themselves.
For example, instead of "growth" as an organizational strategy, Wei-skillern's research shows that a more powerful lever to increase a nonprofit's social impact might be to focus on building network relationships among like-minded groups, even competitors. "Often times an organization might be engaged in a partnership at one point or another, or be a member of an umbrella organization...but it's not really a network approach" to the day-to-day operations. A key to successfully fulfilling a nonprofit's mission might be to understand the nuts and bolts of how to create, build, and sustain effective relationships (networks) with like-minded organziations to better accomplish a social goal.
This is especially pertinent to my present work with Arts Alive Fort Collins, a local arts service organization, the mission of which is to bring the arts to the community and the community to the arts. There are several arts organizations in the community, a City Cultural Resources Board (for granting); Beet Street, a new presenting organization; Arts and Cultures Committee for the UniverCity Connections group (a discussion group), and Arts Alive. These organizations are like-minded in their mission to grow the arts in the community, and would be perfect networking organizations. We just need to figure out how to solidify and professsionalize such a structure.
Benefits of networks that have been documented by researchers include mutual learning; enhanced legitimacy and status for the members; economic power; and an enhanced ability to manage uncertainty. These are very conducive to the work of nonprofits, in that nonprofits are trying to solve large, complex problems that really cannot be addressed by any single entity. According the Wei-Skillern, "trust" forms the core of such a network.
By creating a network, you can see and work toward the bigger picture, you can invest in affiliates and associates; build a culture around quality and accountability; and get more services out to your targeted populations. This change can serve the nonprofit managers who are trying to create social value, as well as the funders who drive the dynamics within the nonprofit sector.
Think about creating and managing networks to help focus on your social cause. Think in new entrepreneurial ways. Instead of concentrating on the overwhelming management challenges, think about how to mobilize resources within and outside your organizational boundaries to achieve your social aims.
