The deal reached by President Obama and Congress to avert the fiscal cliff included future cuts in government funding for education, anti-poverty and anti-hunger efforts, and a wide range of human services. As usual these cuts mean non-profits will need to do more with less. And many will be sure to fail if they stick to business as usual. To meet the demands of the challenging years ahead, the nonprofit sector will need to change in dramatic ways.
One of the most important shifts will be how organizations articulate and achieve goals. They need to envision and articulate with measurable specificity what success looks like, persuade others of that vision, and measure and communicate their progress against it. Some organizations in recent years have begun by identifying battles that, as Jonathan Kozol said in his book On Being a Teacher are "big enough to matter but small enough to win."
To read the original article: Nonprofits: State the Goal, Set a Deadline, Get It Done - Bill Shore - Harvard Business Review
