By MAGGIE I. JARUZEL
As editor-in-chief of The Nonprofit Quarterly, Ruth McCambridge knows the depth and breadth of the nonprofit sector. As a result, she is quick to trumpet the lasting value of nonprofit organizations (NPOs).
"Some nonprofits might need to revisit their identities as venues for citizens' activities, but NPOs really are the training ground for democracy," said McCambridge, who is responsible for content included in the Boston-based print and electronic publication.
"They are critical to the future of the country if they focus, at least in part, on that purpose.”
Still, she is not hesitant to discuss the challenges common to leaders of the nation's nonprofit sector, and she does not mince words. Instead, McCambridge uses short, punchy sentences to talk about what nonprofits need to do to take a more central role in society. She describes the issues that keep executive directors awake at night, many of which address interactions within nonprofits:
- board members aren't fully engaged and sometimes do not fully understand the organization’s context and choices;
- many boards and staffs lack diversity;
- many nonprofits include far too few constituent voices in critical decision making;
- funders' interests often trump others' interests, resulting in too many nonprofits with a collection of programs with no clear strategic direction; and
- too much money is earmarked as restricted, often leaving nonprofits hamstrung in many ways.
These concerns, says McCambridge, also were widely cited by sector leaders during NPQ's annual survey, adding that the quarterly is the nation's "go to" source for nonprofit managers, just as The Harvard Business Review is the publication business leaders turn to for the latest information from thinkers in their fields.
The magazine is a project of the Nonprofit Information Networking Association, which has received two Mott grants totaling $350,000 since 2006 to support the publication and also to fund a study of the sector's infrastructure. The results of that 2008 study are expected to be published in an upcoming special edition.
With more than 35 years of experience working with nonprofit organizations, McCambridge has learned to listen beyond the buzz words. For example, while many people promote collaborations in glowing terms, experience has shown that these types of partnerships work best when they are not forced but emerge out of shared programmatic interests, she said.
Mergers pose their own problems.
“The idea that you are going to get any short-term payoff in terms of economy of scale is a common fallacy that many funders still cling to. The result is that the merged organization often finds itself underfunded for what it hoped to do."
"Some people ask, 'Aren't there too many nonprofit organizations out there?' and I say 'no' because organizations are an expression of human endeavors. An organization may drop a program because somebody around the corner does it better, but that first organization, if it is purpose driven, will continue to operate and fill a niche."
While sticking to purpose (also called mission) is crucial for any nonprofit's success, another key characteristic is shared leadership, says McCambridge.
"Leadership transition should never be about replacing a single outstanding leader with another. It is more than selecting the next savior. If we hope to build nonprofits that are powerful and effective, leadership development efforts shouldn’t wait for the executive to leave. They should concentrate on building the discernment and decisionmaking skills of all staff and board members -- as well as engaged constituent groups. This results in an organization that is deeply wise wherever you look instead of being largely dependent on someone at the top to have all the wisdom."
For McCambridge, who sprinkles her speech with visual images, shared leadership is round-shaped while "savior" style is triangular because all the power peaks with a single person at the top.
"One-person thinking creates a frail organization," she said.
When McCambridge looks to the future, she is optimistic about the sector. She says it has pockets that are getting "more and more savvy" about ways to keep their constituents informed, utilizing both traditional and new media. At the same time, many NPOs also are focusing on ways to professionalize their operations and staff. While the latter is viewed as a plus, McCambridge cautions that it also has a downside that isn't immediately apparent.
"Just because somebody doesn't have the credentials doesn't mean they can't do the work. We need to be careful that we aren't driving away qualified volunteers who want to commit their time and creativity to the organization.
"First, these people often become or recruit our donors. And second, volunteers constitute an active base of supporters who know our work and the constituency. They are our advocates; the people who rally around our issues. When we neglect to build this base of non-paid advocates, we lessen our power with funders and policymakers, and we can ultimately lessen our ability to make change as organizations and as a sector. And isn't that what the sector is all about -- making change?"