Improve Your Organizational Strategy

The economy is forcing us to tighten the screws on our budgets, and nonprofits are now being asked to do more with less. In order to do so, many nonprofits are rethinking their organizational structure and strategies for sustainability.

We've compiled this set of tools to get you started.  Have things to add to the list? Let us know.

Tools and Resources on the Web

Articles, blogs, etc.

• Convergence: How Five Trends Will Reshape the Social Sector (James Irvine Foundation)
• The 2009 Nonprofit Tagline Report – An In-Depth Survey and Analysis: Building Your Brand in Eight Words or Less (Getting Attention)

• Adapting to Change: 22 Structural Strategies for Nonprofits (Fieldstone Alliance)
• Are You a Good Candidate for a Merger? (Fieldstone Alliance)
• Collaboration Strategies for Nonprofit Organizations (Maurice A. Selinger, III, Esq.)
• Collaborating with a For-Profit: Some Risks but Huge Potential (Fieldstone Alliance)
• Engagement Strategies: Making the Most of Working Together (Fieldstone Alliance)
• Finance & Insurance Supplement: Investment Strategies for Volatile Markets (ASAE)
• Four Keys to Collaboration Success (Fieldstone Alliance)
• Groups are getting together on the web (The Nonprofit Times)
• How Much Should Charity Resemble Business? (Chronicle of Philanthropy)
• The Most Powerful Marketing Copy in the World - Testimonials (Getting Attention!)
• Nonprofit Finance Fund Survey: America’s Nonprofits in Danger
• Nonprofit Layoffs and Furloughs: Do Them Right (Blue Avocado)
• Sector Can Avoid Bad Investments and Fulfill Obligations (The Cohen Report)
• Slaying Sacred Zombie Cows - Is this the best time to kill non-performing programs? (High Context Consulting)
• Strategic Financial Planning & Access to Capital (Nonprofit Finance Fund)
• Strategic Planning that Makes a Difference (Management Assistance Group)
• Strategic Restructuring: Case Studies (La Piana)
• Tactical Mapping: How Nonprofits Can Identify the Levers of Change (Nonprofit Quarterly)
• Thinking the Unthinkable: Maybe We Should Shut Down (Blue Avocado)
• What do I need to know about collaboration and other kinds of strategic alliances? (Foundation Center)
• When Layoffs Are Necessary, Nonprofits Need to Be Planful (Fieldstone Alliance)
• Working Together: A Toolkit for Cooperative Efforts, Networks and Coalitions (Institute for Conservation Leadership)
• Your Mission: Setting bold goals can be transformative (NonProfit Times)

Links to other Documents on the Web (PDF)

• Merge to Advance Mission (Mission + Strategy)
• Nonprofit Mergers & Acquisitions: More Than a Tool for Tough Times (The Bridgespan Group)
• Nonprofit/Nonprofit Collaboration in Boston (A Barr Foundation Report)
• The Pollyanna Principles – Part 1 (Excerpted from Hildy Gottlieb’s new book)
• Prepare Your Nonprofit Organization to Meet
  the Collaboration Challenge: Worksheets (Drucker Foundation)
• Working Together: Nonprofit Collaborations, Alliances, and Integrations Improve Performance and Advance Missions (Aspen Institute)