Archive for July, 2009

July 22nd, 2009

The nonprofit sector in general seems to have snatched the concept of sustainability away from its more specific use in environmental settings. I get to see it tossed around all the time, not least amongst the grant makers of our realm. I have seen some of their reps somberly opine its importance.

For that matter, when I was a program officer in a previous life, I would frame it as a matter for concern with applicants for funding because the foundation where I po’d was most comfortable as a peripatetic maker of grants throughout our community. Hither and yon they went. So, the point was that our foundation was not along for the ride, but would always cut a funded entity loose.  The focus for our conversations was — and occasionally presented in the proposals we received — how the applicant was going to keep on, if needed, when we left off.

Here’s the thing wherever and whenever the importance of sustaining your organization’s work presents itself. It only makes sense if sustainability is considered in light of your organization’s ability & willingness to evaluate its efforts.

The question that is begged when people in a nonprofit contemplate sustainability is what is to be sustained? All to often, your humble writer hears “our program” in response. Sometimes, “our active program where busy people show up every day.” Good luck in your attempts to get funders intrigued in continuing to support busy-ness.

The answer to the question above should be derived from what an organization has learned about itself through its efforts at evaluation. Something along the line of indicating that it is important to keep at it because when your organization does its work, it works.  My sense: no evaluation to confirm success, no basis for sustainability.

July 12th, 2009

If they are truly as labeled, why isn’t every nonprofit out there using them? Or, to put it another way, how can reference be made to such practices without taking into consideration the idiosyncrasies that abound within the communities where nonprofits do their work? Is it legitimately possible to boil down the give & take of community engagement  — whether in a classroom or on the street — to universally applicable practices, aka best practices?