Many nonprofit organizations have been hanging on for dear life for the past year. But the days of survival mode are coming to an end. Now, nonprofit leaders need to be innovative to position their organizations for future growth. In other words, if you are not moving forward, you are moving backward.
But how do you cultivate a culture of innovation in a nonprofit where it does not traditionally exist? No foolproof plan exists, but five techniques can help get you and your staffers in the right mindset.
1. Define Innovation
Don’t confuse innovation with technology. Although innovation these days often involves technology, it can be manifested in many other ways. Instead of, for example, immediately looking at new hardware or software that other organizations are buying, define what innovation means for your organization. Then share it with employees and let them help you find solutions to challenges or ways to optimize opportunities.
For example, you might define innovation in your personnel manual, detail a few reasons why innovation is important and ensure that all managers are on board. Be sure to diffuse the perception that innovation is only for IT or creative positions. Highlight several ways staffers can participate and give them the time and space to engage in innovated projects.
2. Prioritize Creative Thinking
Let your whole organization know how vital innovation is to operations. Start with short conversations, then scale up to lunch meetings or off-site retreats where you might brainstorm ideas or watch an inspiring documentary. In discussions, talk about how many charities are partnering in creative ways with for-profit businesses (including technology companies).
For instance, Greenpeace created a GPS whale-tracking feed so that its supporters could follow the marine mammals in real time. The campaign resulted in donations of over $120,000. Newer nonprofit Define American, whose mission is to change the cultural conversation surrounding immigration, has partnered with Comedy Central and enlisted the support of comedians. And, of course, during the pandemic, thousands of charities migrated to online fundraisers, including auctions and socially interactive galas.
These solutions may not be appropriate for your nonprofit and mission. But talking about them should help get your staffers’ creative juices flowing.
3. Make Time and Provide Space
It is hard for employees to be innovative when they are constantly scrambling to get their regular work done. If you expect staffers to develop innovative solutions (as opposed to just talking about them), you may need to give them time during regular workdays or even authorize internal sabbaticals to focus on these projects.
Also think about the space staffers need to innovate. If you have the space, dedicate a room to innovative thinking and development. Fill it with imaginative prompts and tools such as whiteboards and markers, Post-it Notes, and index cards.
4. Follow Through
It is one thing to talk about fostering innovation. It is another to walk the walk. If employees deliver good ideas but your leadership does not act on them — to explore or test them, at the very least — creativity is likely to dry out.
If you are seriously committed to innovation you need to allocate funds from your budget to these projects. Of course, this can be risky because projects may ultimately fail. So make sure you have support from your board, as well as the donors and grant makers who help finance such initiatives.
Follow up successful tests and trials with analysis and any necessary modifications. It is also important to know when to abandon unsuccessful projects.
5. Reward Employee Innovation
You can help spur staffers to innovate by providing rewards. Start with giving successful innovators credit within your organization, as well as publicizing it in external communications, such as your newsletter, and during your organization’s meetings and fundraisers.
Also consider providing such incentives as cash bonuses or extra vacation time. And include participation in innovation initiatives when evaluating employee performance and making promotion decisions.
Kick-starting Your Campaign
It is not easy to change an organization that is accustomed to doing things the way they have always been done. But one way to kick-start an innovation initiative is to create a contest. Offer a valuable prize to the staffer who comes up with the best viable idea over the course of a year or other time period. To build enthusiasm, schedule activities around the contest and hold an awards ceremony at its conclusion.
Contact us for more suggestions about fostering innovation in your nonprofit. We can help you vet new partnerships, explore novel funding models, and consider other financial, operational, and technological solutions.
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Our firm provides the information in this article for general guidance only, and does not constitute the provision of legal advice, tax advice, accounting services, investment advice or professional consulting of any kind. The information provided herein should not be used as a substitute for consultation with professional tax, accounting, legal or other competent advisors. Before making any decision or taking any action, you should consult a professional advisor who has been provided with all pertinent facts relevant to your particular situation. Tax articles in this blog are not intended to be used, and cannot be used by any taxpayer, for the purpose of avoiding accuracy-related penalties that may be imposed on the taxpayer. The information is provided “as is,” with no assurance or guarantee of completeness, accuracy or timeliness of the information, and without warranty of any kind, express or implied, including but not limited to warranties of performance, merchantability and fitness for a particular purpose.
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