Forces for Good (book)

But instead what we found flew in the face of conventional wisdom. Achieving high impact is not just about building a great organization and then scaling it up site by site, or dollar by dollar. As we got further into our research, we saw that many commonly held beliefs about what makes nonprofits successful were falling by the wayside. In fact, the vast majority of nonprofit literature focuses on issues that, although important, don’t determine whether an organization has impact, such as:

Myth #1: Perfect Management.
Myth #2: Brand-Name Awareness.
Myth #3: A Breakthrough New Idea.
Myth #4: Textbook Mission Statements.
Myth #5: High Ratings on Conventional Metrics.
Myth #6: Large Budgets.

Six Practices of High-Impact Nonprofits:
1. Serve and Advocate
2. Make Markets Work
3. Inspire Evangelists
4. Nurture Nonprofit Networks
5. Master the Art of Adaptation
6. Share Leadership

This is the summary of Forces for Good, Revised and Updated: The Six Practices of High-Impact Nonprofits by Leslie R. Crutchfield, Heather McLeod Grant.

The big insight in our original work was that high-impact nonprofits focus on mobilizing forces beyond their four walls, rather than worrying only about internal management or scaling up their organizations. The most successful nonprofits, we found, spend most of their time trying to change entire systems by advocating for government policies, tapping into the power of free markets, nurturing nonprofit networks, and building movements of evangelists—individual volunteers and supporters who advance their cause. And to be effective at influencing external systems, they share leadership internally and adapt quickly to changing conditions. These then were the six practices that great nonprofits use to have markedly more impact than their peers.

It was a fresh way of defining nonprofit success, and our initial framework seemed to resonate in the field. Subsequently, we’ve observed a shift in the mindset of many social sector leaders—not just because of our work, but because others are writing and talking about similar themes as well. If the 1990s and 2000s were about scaling up organizations and social innovations, more recently attention has shifted to understanding how large-scale social change happens through more collaborative approaches to scaling out impact. Today there is increased focus on how nonprofits tap into larger social and organizational networks and how they operate within the entire ecosystem of actors that influence societal issues.

Forces for Good is an innovative guide to how great nonprofits achieve extraordinary social impact. What makes great nonprofits great? Authors Crutchfield and McLeod Grant searched for the answer over several years, employing a rigorous research methodology that derived from books on for-profits like Built to Last. They studied 12 nonprofits that have achieved extraordinary levels of impact—from Habitat for Humanity to the Heritage Foundation—and distilled six counterintuitive practices that these organizations use to change the world. This book has lessons for all readers interested in creating significant social change.

Heather McLeod Grant is an adviser to the Center for Social Innovation at Stanford University's Graduate School of Business and to leading nonprofits. She is a former McKinsey & Company consultant, serves on the Advisory Board of Stanford Social Innovation Review, and resides in the San Francisco Bay Area.

This Authors@Google event took place January 7, 2009 at Google Headquarters in Mountain View, CA.

Leslie is an author, speaker, and leading authority on scaling social innovation and high-impact philanthropy. Prior to co-authoring FSG's book Do More Than Give, Leslie co-authored Forces for Good: The Six Practices of High-Impact Nonprofits (Wiley 2008), recognized by The Economist on its Best Books of Year list.

As a senior advisor with FSG, Leslie collaborates with the firm on developing new knowledge designed to advance social sector thinking and practice, bringing twenty years of social sector leadership and publishing experience to the firm. For the past decade, Leslie has guided a range of nonprofit and philanthropic organizations across North America as an independent advisor, and she is frequently invited to deliver presentations to and workshops for gatherings of leaders.

Uploaded by 800ceoread on Aug 12, 2008

Leslie Crutchfield presents Forces For Good to a group of Milwaukee non-profit organizations. Hosted by 800ceoread, and sponsored by Wipfli and Milwaukee Shares.

High-impact nonprofits build social movements and fields; they transform business, government, other nonprofits, and individuals; and they change the world around them. In the end, six patterns crystallized into the form presented here—the six practices that high-impact nonprofits use to achieve extraordinary impact. These nonprofits:

1. Work with government and advocate for policy change
2. Harness market forces and see business as a powerful partner
3. Convert individual supporters into evangelists for the cause
4. Build and nurture nonprofit networks, treating other groups as allies
5. Adapt to the changing environment
6. Share leadership, empowering others to be forces for good

The research approach employed by the authors of Forces for Good was inspired by renowned business management books such as Good to Great and Built to Last. The authors’ first challenge was to define and identify a select group of “great” nonprofits–those that were among the highest-impact groups in their respective fields. Then they studied the 12 organizations for several years, identifying patterns that explain their effectiveness.

In order to identify high-impact nonprofits, the authors first considered concrete outputs: Did the organization achieve substantial and sustained results at the national or international level? The second part of their definition was more qualitative: Did the organization have an impact on an entire system or field? They used the following baseline criteria to narrow their research.

They then used the following four-phase process to select and study organizations that met these criteria.

The authors have since written a Revised and Updated Edition of Forces for Good (Wiley 2012), which contains new chapters that explore how the original 12 great nonprofits have thrived during tumultuous times, and how local and smaller organizations can apply the "six practices" to achieve greater impact in their own local communities.

Whether you’re a nonprofit leader, a philanthropist, a business executive, a donor, a volunteer, a board member—or simply interested in learning how to be a force for good—you’ll find something that inspires you to be an even more effective catalyst for lasting social change.