The sustainable nonprofit: The community a nonprofit builds

Nurturing a community for the greatest impact

Whenever I ask a nonprofit fundraiser or board member about their organization's impact, I know what kind of response I'm going to get. I'll hear about how many people they've served or the number of participants in last year's programs. With good reason, the fundraiser or board member is focused on the programmatic inputs and outcomes of their work, the efforts that are having a positive effect on the people their mission statement says they seek to benefit.

While there's nothing wrong with these answers to my questions about impact, they aren't comprehensive enough. Those measures don't take into account the full spectrum of the ways in which the organization is making an impact on the issue. And the most significant of those impacts come through the community a nonprofit builds....

Read the full column article by Derrick Feldmann, lead researcher at Cause and Social Influence.