Too (blank) to Fail?

(Bradford Smith is president of the Foundation Center. In his last post, he asked whether there are too many nonprofits -- or not enough.)

2008 was the year of the bailout, in which the giants of finance and industry were lent a generous helping hand by their friends in the U.S. government, generally because they were considered "too big to fail." Leaving the irony aside that, in many cases, the result was to create bigger institutions whose future failure could pose even greater risk to the world financial system, it got me thinking about the nonprofit equivalent of "too big to fail."

The following would be my candidates for nonprofit organizations that are too big, too important, or too (blank) to fail. For the sake of clarity, there is no indication whatsoever that any of these organizations is headed off the edge of a cliff like Lehman Brothers or AIG; if anything it may be time for the private sector to learn a thing or two from these nonprofits about how to create mission critical organizations with long-term staying power. It's just that, if things got much, much worse, these would be my candidates for a bailout -- the world would be a much poorer place without them.

• CARE International -– whatever and wherever the danger, when there is a humanitarian crisis, CARE is there, and they do good job reconstruction in the aftermath

• Save the Children -– idem

• World Wildlife Fund -– everywhere the panda is synonymous with caring for the environment

• Greenpeace -- the rainbow warriors add grassroots spice to the environmental movement

• Médecins Sans Frontières -– "providing medical aid wherever needed, regardless of race, religion, politics and sex"

• Oxfam -– international development as if politics really mattered

• Action Aid -– walked the walk by moving its global headquarters from the UK to South Africa

• Human Rights Watch -– now more than ever

• American Civil Liberties Union -– civil liberties cannot be denied

• YMCA -– since 1844, giving youth a chance in 121 countries *

• Grameen Bank-– Grameen is to microfinance as (blank) is to (blank)

• Self Employed Women’s Association -– showing how it's done when it comes to women's economic security and empowerment

• Shack Dwellers International-– makes slum dwellers a force to be reckoned with, from the streets of Mumbai to the halls of the World Bank

• Women's Funds everywhere -– it started with Mama Cash in the Netherlands, spread to San Francisco with the Global Fund for Women, branched out to Mexico with Semillas, and keeps on growing

Fill in the blanks above, and give us your own list of the nonprofits that are too (blank) to fail.

-- Bradford Smith

(* full disclosure -– I began my career working for the YMCA.)

Comments

[Meghan]

I think the larger question for all of these organizations (and arguably the companies too)is: are we too(blank)to evolve? I work for one of the 1300 local United Ways (a tremendous organization, which I'd add to your list. Countless people and nonprofit agencies depend on UW and we are completely ingrained in the workplaces and communities of America.)

One of the concepts we are always discussing is how to evolve to reflect and meet the changing needs of our community and to reflect and meet the changing ways that donors & volunteers want to interact with nonprofits.

The challenge here is not whether big organizations can innovate. I think they can (and have). But rather can public perception shift so that agility and innovation are as expected of large organizations as they are of web-based start-ups.

[Bilen Mesfin]

Thanks so much for the inclusion of women’s funds to this insightful and much-needed list. The current economic climate makes women's funds and their agenda of investing in women and women-led solutions even more vital.

Women's funds understand that investing in women sparks a powerful chain reaction. We know that when a woman is economically secure, that security spreads to families, and to communities, and to entire regions and nations, thus making our world more secure. In short, women make a difference – and they bring everyone along with them while they are doing it.

[Brad]

Thanks Meghan for adding United Way to the list and for posing a critical question about the need and ability of large organizations to evolve. A book was recently recommended to me--"Unstoppable" by Chris Zook--about how such evolution plays out in business and it is interesting reading.

As for women's funds, it is one of the truths of development assistance that investing in women has a huge payoff. Women's funds help connect women (and men) with resources to the struggles of women in their own countries and regions. There was a second, and extremely powerful women's organization on the group--Self Employed Women’s Association--as well.