“Doing The Whole Job” as a nonprofit leader means ensuring that programming needs are met, AND that there’s sufficient strength in essential supporting functions, including finance, HR, and marketing.
At a certain point organizations need to build additional infrastructure. Infrastructure is like a trellis that supports plants to grow higher faster. Infrastructure supports skilled people with things like templates, tools, software, and data. The outcome is that the task either requires less personal skill and experience, or else requires less time to complete the job.
Building infrastructure can be as simple as creating a checklist, or as complex as a year-long software implementation project.
For example, a company that values high-quality personal interactions with each and every funder faced confusion whenever the person in charge of a specific funder relationship was out of the office and an issue arose.
That organization chose to implement a CRM database where information and touches for each relationship are stored. The same high-touch practices remained in place but became more automated (with touchpoint calendars). Now others in the organization can simply look up key funder information without needing to ask the main contact.
If you had the money and the time to build more infrastructure in your organization, what area would you pick first? What would be the desired outcome? How would the project benefit your team, your community, and your funders?
Comments +