Making Change

The history of nonprofits has always been about helping individuals, but was equally about holistic change–changing systems and community. Somewhere along the way, have nonprofit gotten caught up in the cult of “me, forgetting the us and focusing solely on my organization, my work, my goals.

One key consequence of this attitude is the unnecessary expansion of the sector that results from individuals insisting on starting their own new nonprofit to put into practice their idea. Except rarely is the idea new. Even more rarely does the incessant push to start their own nonprofit come after any market analysis. If they were smart enough to do that market analysis, they would be smart enough to know that floating a new entity in an already saturated market is not a smart idea. And even more rarely do they hear the bad news in advance of pushing: no one owns a nonprofit. As a result of all of these do-gooders doing what they want to do, we have a bloated sector that perpetuates, more often than not, the same ol’ – not real change.

Case in point: I was recently given a startling statistic: in two contiguous zip codes in one section of Philadelphia, with a total population of just over 64,000, average income of approximately $34,000, average number of people per household of 2.54 with an average age of 36.9, there are 50 food cupboards and four soup kitchens. Yes, many of these food cupboards are located in churches and community centers and may be the result of the efforts of a handful of a few dedicated volunteers. But the point is that if each of those few, dedicated volunteers got together, couldn’t they end up doing something more than simply feeding people for the moment? (And, to be fair, the reason I know of the 50 food cupboards is because of the incredible volunteer effort of one individual who is working to do just this: coordinate effort to change the system, at least in this one community with two zip codes.)

But we can all think of similar situations in our own communities or our own sphere of work where the competition to do the immediate and focused mission work, happening in silos, precludes the ability to do or think beyond what is necessary for today. Another case in point is actually the conversation that started me thinking about our sector “losing its way.”

How many child welfare agencies are there in your community, working tireless to help children in so many different ways, and all with the goal of helping them grow up with choices, aware of their opportunities and holding the goal of being productive, contributing members of society? Yet how many of these same organizations work equally tirelessly at changing the family to which these children return? the schools where they spend their days? the streets on which they live and play? How many are treating just the results—day in and day out—while ignoring the source, treating the symptoms and not the disease? That is but one example, but there are so many others from throughout the sector.

There are some who would say that nonprofits that are working on school reform in so many communities around our country are working on system change. I agree, but only on one system, too often ignoring the other important systems with which that one system interacts, or by which that one system’s success may be influenced. We cannot successfully reform education unless we also reform families where education is not valued or where there is an inability to support the educational efforts of the children living in the household. Our efforts to reform education will be impaired without the prospect of employment and livable wages. And the list goes on.

In succumbing to the chronic “all about me” illness of the ‘90s, the nonprofit sector has forsaken a key component of its essence: improving quality of life. If day after day, year after year, we do the same thing just for different people, have we improved quality of life? A shipwreck survivor doesn’t get to land by treading water, though treading water will keep him from drowning—at least for a while.

Perhaps the realigning of the sector so we are be back on a course of system change, can best happen by taking a systems approach within each organization. It is a basic tenet of how we work: nonprofits are, themselves, their own individual system. Systems are, by definition, interconnected; they influence and are influenced by those with whom they interact. A pull in one part of the organism is felt throughout, perhaps not with the same intensity but absolutely with reverberations. You cannot fix a system by working on just one part; you cannot improve fundraising without working on staff and board; you cannot improve the board without working on the senior management; you cannot achieve the idealistic goals of your mission without working on improving the environment in which that mission work is done.

My hope for the new year? We stop worrying about individual nonprofit survival and worry more about effecting holistic change.