Forces for Good: The Six Practices of High-Impact Nonprofits

After completing five years of rigorous and extensive research on 1,435 "Fortune 500" companies during a 30-year period (1965-1995), Jim Collins and his associates selected only eleven that met their admittedly "very tough standards" for greatness. (Note: Collins also wrote Good to Great and the Social Sectors: A Monograph to Accompany Good to Great, published four years later.) Leslie Crutchfield and Heather McLeod Grant acknowledge that Collins' book was a "real inspiration to them" as they surveyed more than 2,000 CEOs of nonprofits before selecting only twelve for examination in their book, Forces for Good. As is true of several other outstanding business books, the work on this one was driven by a question: "What makes great nonprofits great?" What Crutchfield and McLeod learned is shared in this volume. It is worth noting that, until recent years, most of the books and articles about nonprofits (at least those with which I am familiar) suggested that they had much to learn from exemplary for-profit organizations. It may have been Peter Drucker who first recognized that the business world could learn much of value from studying the best-managed nonprofits. He wrote an article published in Harvard Business Review in July of 1989, "What Business Can Learn from Nonprofits," that was later reprinted in Peter Drucker on the Profession of Management, in 1998. Drucker suggests that The Salvation Army is characteristic of the best nonprofit organizations, especially in terms of motivating knowledge workers and increasing their productivity. In successful nonprofit enterprises, "amateurs are being replaced with unpaid staff members, many of whom are managers and professionals in their for-pay jobs. They volunteer because they believe in the mission; they stay because they are given responsibility for meaningful tasks, held accountable for their performance and rewarded with training and the chance to take on more demanding assignments." According to Crutchfield and Grant, high-impact nonprofits (i.e. those who have "created real social change...have come up with innovative solutions to social problems, and have spread these ideas nationally or internationally") demonstrate all or most of six practices: 1. They both advocate what is urgently needed and commit resources in response to that need 2. Are "pragmatic idealists" who combine social values with business "smarts" to "make markets work" 3. Build a community of evangelists as a powerful force for social change by communicating their mission, vision, and values as well as creating meaningful experiences 4. Adopt and maintain a network mind-set to share resources and empower other organizations 5. Constantly adapt and modify their tactics and initiatives while maintaining "the balance between stifling bureaucracy and unbridled creativity" 6. Support growth by developing high-impact leadership internally, widely distributing authority as well as responsibility among those involved in

Crutchfield and Grant have made a significant contribution to the field with their work "Forces for Good" and the title of their work is well chosen. Books that bring insight to people in the nonprofit world are themselves "forces for good" as they enable those same people to better fulfill the important work of the organizations they serve. This is one such book. The work outlines six practices of high-impact nonprofits that are concrete, practical and well presented. For people who gravitate toward working in the nonprofit sector, the fact that these organizations often act as forces for good can be a primary attraction. In simple terms, nonprofit people want to change the world and, consequently, impact counts. The list of six practices are invaluable and will likely become widely known and discussed. If you are a nonprofit leader (or work with one... or hope to be one) this book is a very valuable read. The book's case studies are both inspirational and aspirational. It is refreshing to see that the findings from the research defy much conventional wisdom about how nonprofits become powerful change agents. It is now on my favorite work-related book list and I have a feeling that I will be returning frequently to "Forces for Good" as I navigate the waters ahead for the nonprofit that I run. David Wish Executive Director, Founder Little Kids Rock

Forces for Good is a fantastic resource for anyone interested in helping nonprofits become better at doing what they already do well--serving communities and changing the world. I work in the private sector and serve on the boards of two nonprofit organizations in Portland, ME, and I am drawing on the lessons in this book as I think about how to help these groups raise money, improve their services, and expand their presence in our local community. I am definitely going to recommend it to the leadership of the groups, and to all of my firiends who serve on boards and work closely with nonprofit groups.

I so often hear that the nonprofit sector needs to learn from the busines world. Although books like Built to Last and Good to Great offer insights, what the nonprofit sector really needed was a book that focused on our sector. Thanks to these authors, we now have that book. Their insight into what makes a great nonprofit great have already impacted how I think about organizations I work with -- and which organizations I want to support. This is a must read for those who work in the nonprofit sector or for students interested in entering the field.

I highly recommend Forces for Good to all nonprofit leaders and philanthropists striving to increase the impact of their giving. This could well be a landmark book in helping turn the tide of how social capital should (and hopefully will) flow in greater abundance to the most effective organizations.