Forces for Good - Identifying Six Practices of Great Nonprofits

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Figuring out what makes great nonprofits great is a seemingly impossible task—it’s like asking “what makes a good person good?” The unsatisfactory answer is that you kind of know—through experience, reputation, and recommendation.

The more satisfactory answer is that you should buy and read Forces for Good.

I just came back from a book launch event tonight where the authors, Heather McLeod Grant and Leslie Crutchfield, provide their answer to and for the nonprofit sector. Forces for Good has set its sights high and indeed, the essential elements of the greatness of civil society thread through this book and resonate with me as one who has worked and lived in nonprofits for over fifteen years.

The six principles outlined by Mcleod Grant and Crutchfield are:

1. Serve and Advocate
2. Make Markets Work
3. Inspire Evangelists
4. Nurture Nonprofit Networks
5. Master the Art of Adaption

1. Share Leadership

There is much to learn here and hold ourselves to as standards. My bias is that these are traits that should be found in corporations as well or any entity that wants to do well and good. Ultimately, it’s about creating something that is larger than yourself.

The best part of the night was when Dorothy Stoneman, founder and executive director of YouthBuild, answered her own question about the secret to longevity as an executive director. “It’s having one hour a week to cry. Or vent. In a safe place with people that you trust and then you go back to doing your work.”

My criticism of the book is the same as the one I have about Good to Great by Jim Collins, clearly a an inspiration for the Forces authors. In outlining the six principles, they are drawing their patterns onto interview-based data points which are squishy and subjective enough that I can view them as wise and informed perspectives about the sector, but not immutable laws or the secret sauce to creating high-impact nonprofit. It’s like asking 10,000 people what a sheep looks like. Well, they all look the same, but they all look different at the same time.

For instance, I would ask about data for decision-making, when and how much does a great nonprofit leader need and how does he or she process them. How many of the great nonprofits had enlightened donors that provided critical core operating support at critical junctures in the growth of organizations? Are foundations a help or hindrance to some of these principles in nonprofits?

In the end, though, it’s hard to write about the nonprofit sector and McLeod Grant and Crutchfield have certainly added to the literature in the field and this book will deserverdly be cited and pointed to by people who are passionate and care about making good nonprofits great.

An excellent synopsis of the book can be found at the Stanford Social Innovation Review’s website. Also Ed Batista’s take and Albert Ruesga’s rather snarky view.