This post is related to non-profits and has been reproduced from my other blog.
Ventures or new organizational initiatives, whether in the profit or
non-profit sector, face tough mortality rates early on. Luck clearly
plays a role in the success of new initiatives, but I find that many
times it has to do with a combination of tackling too many items,
lacking organizational skills or resources, and not working out
important issues of collaboration and leadership.
Non-profits bear a bigger brunt in my opinion:
- People tend to be naturally (and rightfully) more altruistic in non-profit endeavors
- This creates a large appetite, but it must be tapered with some
discipline and a devil's advocate mentality to say that "we should
first bite off a smaller goal".
- Non-profits may have greater tendencies to lack optimum organizational structures - As I mentioned in a prior post
outlining how MBAs can apply skills in a non-profit environment, many
non-profits I've seen have more diverse demographics than corporations.
This is great, but it may also mean that a non-profit is getting
contributed (pro-bono) support where one can't control the quality or
goals of the resource as one would with an employee of a commercial
entity. Non-profits may also lack resources in the way of $$ or
specialized help on-staff.
- Non-profits may lack collaboration mechanisms more widely used in the high-tech space
- Some of the team members may be working virtually from the
organization (e.g., if contributed pro-bono work). Given that virtual
teams have "amplified collaboration needs" (term coined here by Arienna Foley),
it is worthwhile to figure out how to get the people to actively
collaborate and get quick wins. Some bootstrap tools that may help in
the greater effort of getting the team to work together include things
like free conference calling (www.freeconferencecall.com), instant organizational intranet (note whitepaper PDF file) and communication platform (e.g., using free configuration of 21Publish group publishing service), and Skype (free voice over IP, e.g., for international team members).
In any case, I hope that these items and pointers above may help
give some ideas to those working for non-profits. This post was
motivated by a portion of a broader discussion I had with Dr. Saraiya
regarding the South Asian Health Research Institute (SAHRI). Dr. Saraiya asked me to write down some of my thoughts in starting a new endeavor.
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