Achieving Breakthrough Performance

The Stanford Social Innovation Review just published a study on the keys to managing breakthrough performance for a nonprofit. It was done by several Bain consultants and the CEO of Critttenton Women’s Union.

Their conclusion is that breakthrough nonprofit managers follow four key principles:

1.  Costs of Serving Should Always Decline
2. Market Position Determines Your Options
3. Clients and Funding Pools Don’t Stand Still
4. Simplicity Gets Results

These are the four principles we use to run the Taproot Foundation, but they are almost exactly aligned with the four new Service Grants we are launching this year in our new Strategic Management practice. We designed these four Service Grants based on a year of comprehensive research on nonprofit needs and the effectiveness of pro bono service to meet those needs. The four new Service Grants are:

1. Financial Analysis – Helps a nonprofit understand the true cost of their programs
2. Competitive/Collaborative Analysis – Helps define the organization’s role in their marketplace
3. Strategic Planning Prep – Helps a nonprofit understand the changes in their community, especially changes to clients and funding environments
4. Strategic Scorecard – Defines the simple core metrics for a nonprofit to use to measure performance

You can see how well they are aligned. SSIR’s research underscores the potential for pro bono consulting resources to make a huge impact in supporting and building breakthrough nonprofits. Here is the full article.

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