David Neff and Randal Moss, two experts in the fields of social and digital media, have teamed up to write The Future of Nonprofits: Innovate and Thrive in the Digital Age (Wiley, 2011).
The book provides definitions and strategies of innovation, explains innovation’s “three pillars” and looks to the future of fundraising and communications in the nonprofit sector.
Before undergoing organizational change, it’s important to determine if your organizational structure is ready to innovate; in chapter 6, the authors state that a nonprofit is ready if it’s open to experimentation, encourages and supports staff in investigating new uses of technology, has a consistent and systematic way to evaluate any new ideas, and possesses the ability to reward initiative and creative thinking.
In the chapter “Starting Your Innovation Projects” Neff and Moss recommend initiating a Skunkworks effort (an internal group given a range of freedom not given to the rest of the organization) and give pointers on igniting and staffing the project. They also provide a list of specific things to do and goals to strive for, such as enforcing a balance between time used for innovation and for other tasks (Google’s famous “20 percent time”) as well as rewarding all idea growth and rigorously testing the best ideas.
Neff and Moss also peer into their crystal ball with the chapter “Five Major Changes in the Next Five Years” which provides a big picture of the future of nonprofit fundraising in the context of digital innovations. One area examined is online donations. Today, many nonprofit donation forms take forever to download and require tons of fields to be completed. Reacting to this, the authors suggest a “Wet Nap” interface approach (no instructions, you just open and use it) through the wide scale adoption of the "payment phrase", basically a shortcut donors can use to store personal information, currency and payment types. This digital signature can then be referred to in all future online donations, bypassing the cumbersome forms.
The book is also chock full of interviews of nonprofit leaders that have initiated or launched innovative projects from organizations like Meals on Wheels and More (Austin, TX), Capital Area Food Bank (Washington, DC) and the Nonprofit Technology Education Network (Portland, OR).
The Future of Nonprofits is well worth the read if you feel your organization is ready to innovate but you’re not sure where to start. It’s available in the NY, DC, and SF libraries under call number 600 NEF.
Robert Bruno
Catalog/Reference Librarian, The Foundation Center
Here is a Google Books preview:
Thank you for the outstanding write up. You really captured the essence of the book and I appreciated you sharing this with your readers.
Posted by: Randal Moss | June 29, 2011 at 07:21 AM