Trends in Nonprofit Organisations

by: Steven Bowman
Copyright 2008 by Conscious Governance.
All rights reserved. You may forward this in its entirety to anyone you wish.         

Key Trends in the Nonprofit Sector

Trend 1: Provision Of More Services

Government is expecting or demanding more from the Nonprofit sector in the provision of services, especially from the welfare sector. This is placing extreme strain on these organizations, who will need to learn to cope with increasing workload in a professional, strategic and corporate-like manner. There will be greater emphasis on strategic planning as resources are stretched to breaking point.

Trend 2: Self regulation

Nonprofit organisations are expected by society, their members and various government entities to develop and enforce self regulation. This concept and practice of self regulation is taking on much more emphasis, and will be the make or break of a large number of Nonprofit organizations. (ref The Role of Associations in Self-Regulation, S. Bowman, 1996). There is a growing list of examples where Nonprofit organizations are working with government, which takes on a complementary role of oversight and/or compliance, adding teeth to the self regulatory regime. If your Nonprofit organization is not investigating self regulation, it should be.

Trend 3: Provision of Information

There is an increasing emphasis on Nonprofit organizations as providers of information. Nonprofit organizations are in the privileged role of being able to collect information that no other entity would be able to collect. This is due in part to the trust that Nonprofit organizations members have towards "their" Nonprofit organization, and thus they will provide sensitive information they would provide to no-one else. The other main reason is that Nonprofit organizations find themselves the hub of a lot of information, through meetings, member contact, "gossip" etc, and thus are able to quickly pick trends from their market that would not be obvious to others. Those Non Profit organizations that do not pick up the challenge of becoming information providers will soon cease to exist.

Trend 4: Strategic Alliances

The trend is away from sponsorship as a concept, more towards strategic alliances

The philosophy behind successful strategic alliances is that they are a. business relationships; long term; and mutually beneficial.

There needs to be a change of mindset from "handout" to "let me make you a lot of money", and a change of focus (particularly of staff) from managing an expense budget, to one of developing income streams.

When selecting strategic alliances, there are four major triggers:
1. Need- of the Nonprofit organization, of your strategic partner
2. Fit- of image, of availability, and whether you like them.
3. Leverage- other potential long term alliances, media, value added from partner
4. Spinoffs- journal, conference, books, PD, Database, Membership categories

Trend 5: User pays/non-dues income/strategic positioning

With the increasing call on Nonprofit organizations resources, and the increasing sophistication of Non Profit organization members and their perception of value, there is an increasing need for strategic positioning of the Nonprofit organization to not only be seen to be providing services deemed necessary by members, but that these services are positioned to be valued by the members (by strategic pricing and image management), and that they are marketed to individuals or segments of the membership, not the whole of membership. The user pays philosophy allows the image of the service to be enhanced, and the income stream to be developed.

The larger a Nonprofit organization, the greater reliance there is on non-dues income. Non-dues revenue in itself is neither good nor bad. It is the way in which this source of income fits with the mission of the organization that is either a good fit, and therefore assists the organization fulfil its mission, or it is a bad fit and may therefore detract from the organization fulfilling its mission.

Survey on major issues:

A recent Peer review survey (3-day visits, 30 Nonprofit organisations, 20 national,7 state, 3 local; $1-5 million turnover) showed the following major issues were foremost in the CEO's mind:

Strategic planning problems, 75%

Conflicting volunteer-staff and leadership challenges, 75%

Deficient member needs assessments, 70%

Insufficient crisis management plans, 75%

There are three main factors emerging.

* The first is that there will be more amalgamations of Nonprofit organizations, as self regulation takes effect, more pressures are placed on them to provide services once provided by government, and as they become irrelevant due to lack of strategic positioning.

* The second is that members of Nonprofit organizations are becoming more sophisticated. They are expecting more, at a more sophisticated level, with a greater emphasis on value for money. They are more likely to switch allegiances if their Nonprofit organization fails to deliver their expectations.

* The third is the increasing professionalism of Nonprofit organization staff. There are now a number of tertiary courses and professional development programs that specialise in Nonprofit organization management.

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About the author: Steven Bowman is an international speaker, best-selling author and global leader in providing practical frameworks and comprehensive approaches to assist Boards and Senior Executive Teams to reach higher levels of conscious awareness in governance, leadership, strategy and risk. Authors of Conscious Leadership-the Key to Success, and Leading Yourself to Money with Consciousness. Steven Bowman can be contaced by E-mail: steven@the2bowmans.com . . . This article may be distributed or reproduced as long as the copyright and an active URL is included.