The Networked Nonprofit
Last week I dove into the Nonprofit Technology Network (NTEN) Conference, commonly known at #10NTC. (I dare you, search for that on Twitter and see how active is STILL is, days after the conference wrapped up. Us NPtechies are an enthusiastic, passionate and smart bunch. You can also find 58 Powerpoints from the conference on Slideshare, 870 photos on Flickr, videos on Youtube … need I go on?)
One of the best sessions I attended was where Beth Kanter and Allison Fine (among the gurus of nonprofit technology) presented their upcoming book, The Networked Nonprofit (due out in June, but you can preorder here). These two women completely understand the future of nonprofit organizations in the digital age, and I could listen to their wisdom, humor and case studies for days.
One element from their presentation keeps knocking around in my head, the idea of three stages of organizational development in this networked era.
- Fortress – an organization where there are insiders and outsiders, and the two rarely meet or interact;
- Transactional – an organization that is engaged with their community, but with the sole focus of transactions, such as getting people to sign up for an event or make a donation;
- Transparent – an organization that fully engages and empowers their community to accomplished shared goals.
I love the simplicity of these three stages, and the acknowledgment that getting on social media platforms is not the ultimate goal. Plenty of people are promoting events on Facebook and measuring success by the number of tushes in the seats. But the real paths to accomplishing our mission and goals, and the more accurate measurements of success go far beyond this. They also require a leap of faith, and the ability to take that first leap.
Remember the first time you climbed to the top of a high dive as a kid, your heart beating so hard you thought it would leap out of your chest, and that moment when you finally hurled yourself into the air? It’s the same moment really. And remember when you went back again and again and again to do it over and over? Yeah, it’s like that too.
So tell us — what stage are you at? What do you need to move from one stage to the next? Where do you see examples of “transparent” organizations or activities?
What do you think is a good first step in the transition from 1-3 ?
We were really intrigued by some writing a few years ago in Fast Company and elsewhere about the Naked Organization and Radical Transparency. We’ve tried to do a bunch at PT including: a) quarterly investor calls where board members are available to answer questions including questions on finance, etc , b) an annual Year in Preview that goes out to the public which lays out metrics, budgets, etc, c) quarterly metrics reports that we put up on our website for the public, d) board intranet with all our latest documents, e) (soon) investor intranet with metrics, financials, etc. We’re trying to do more, within our capacity. Alot of our learning is actually coming from public companies.
The Reut Institute does a good job in the transparency area. Most of their strategic docs are on their website.
Thanks for your comment, Aharon. In my experience, the move from 1->2 can be education, and “proof” of the value of getting online and working in networks. But moving from 2->3 is proving to be more difficult, and I think is more dependent on leadership and risk taking – it really takes a leap of faith to see the pay offs, the measurements of success are likely different, and ultimately, it means that the role of the organization (and the job descriptions of some staff) will evolve. This is why I refer to our current moment in time as a “revolution” and not just the arrival of a few new gadgets and widgets. Presentense is really leading the way in terms of transparency and using networks — kol hakavod. Thanks for sharing your mentors and sources of inspiration too!