Agile Social Sector/Nonprofits Advising/Coaching

Research shows that agile organizations have a 70 percent chance of being in the top quartile of organizational health, the best indicator of long-term performance. Agile thinking, leadership and organizational innovation is not just for tech companies generating products and apps.  Today companies in nearly every sector, especially post- pandemic, are beginning to discover that being less hierarchical, leaner, and having rapid- ready to take action teams– has made them more effective.

6 Reasons to Innovate to an Agile Organization:  

  1. Smaller, Faster Failures
  2. Rapid & Scalable Impact 
  3. Greater Stakeholder Engagement & Satisfaction
  4. Greater Employee Satisfaction (higher employee retention)  
  5. Organizational Transparency
  6. Greater Sense of Community & Shared Impact

Philanthropy Innovations has been applying agile thinking and leadership methods to our programs and advising for a long time. Initially, we just started with a few of the meeting framework structures or showing organizations how to manage their projects using a Kanban board, or how to create an open feedback loop among teams to remove silos.  But today– we are all in and have developed a best-in-class model for implementing agile thinking within the nonprofit and social sector– but especially for fundraising work.

We are currently in the human-centered design phase of piloting the program with a few organizations– and we are developing a waitlist of organizations who are interested in being part of this phase of the process.

In order to participate- organizations must align with our GIVE HALF Model requirements and we will share a brief conversation with you to discuss why you are interested in becoming an agile organization and to determine your readiness based on leadership support of the concept. Within that call we will discuss what you believe your organizational readiness is with regard to the 4 Step Recipe to Success.

Agile Nonprofit Transformation 4 Step Recipe to Success: (Adapted from McKinsey & Co’s Agile Transformation research on corporate and technology companies)

  1. Leadership Team Readiness 
  2. Clarify How the Organization Creates Value for stakeholders
  3. Rewire all the parts—strategy, structure, process, people, and technology.
  4. Champion & celebrate front-runners 

All organizations selected for the pilot program will be pro bono workshops and coaching. This will also include background on how to not only becoming more agile in general, but will provide specific guidance for your philanthropy teams on how to implement our Agile Fundraising Framework (AFF).

Agile Fundraising Framework (AFF)

In a post-pandemic world, more and more organizations are moving from traditional, slow-moving hierarchies to flexible and fast decision-making models— largely agile transformations. The COVID-19 pandemic created an immediate need for adaptability, speed, and efficiency among every sector but especially within nonprofits and NGOs. 

In order to survive and thrive, many organizations decision and leadership structures shifted and expanded to more agile method out of necessity and urgency– but now boards and leadership teams are recognizing that traditional organizations seem mechanical, hierarchical, and linear, agile organizations feel more organic: they balance stability with dynamism and can adapt for an ever-changing, unpredictable future. 

Philanthropy Innovations develops self-steering, high-performing teams (supported by a stable backbone) driving the transformation road map to scale agility across the organization, but especially in fundraising. Our Agile Fundraising Framework (AFF)  can include coaching senior leaders, managing interdependencies, and creating and refining best practices.

To get on our wait list or be considered as a pilot organization- please connect with us here and let us know why being an agile social sector/nonprofit interests you.