The Inevitable Evolution of the Nonprofit Sector

Over the weekend, I had the opportunity to speak at two great nonprofit conferences, the Young Nonprofit Professionals Network National Conference in Grand Rapids and Benchmark 3.5: Nonprofit Educators Leading, Learning and Creating the Future in San Diego.

The theme of both conferences centered around evolution, innovation and new ideas in the nonprofit field for academics, practitioners and young professionals.

But unlike other conferences I’ve been to in the past, the underlying sentiment I felt from each of these gatherings was not so much about the novelty of doing things differently, but the necessity of change in the sector. The Young Nonprofit Professionals Network National Conference breakout sessions were all about leadership, innovation and sustainability – and all taught by young people. I kept thinking how great it would be if the average nonprofit conference were more like this – with more age diversity among speakers instead of the same talking heads that we hear from over and over, year after year with the same tired ideas simply packaged into a new conference theme.

But I digress. The point is that I don’t think we’ll have to wait for the evolution of the nonprofit sector much longer. The natives are getting restless, as they say. The people “on the ground” are tired of the status quo and beginning to share their voices, out loud and in larger groups. A new generation of leaders are on the horizon, approaching the nonprofit field with vigor and passion, ready to fix what’s broken. That’s why I was so excited to share my presentation 6 Ways to Rock Your Nonprofit Career with the YNPN folks to help them take their talent to even greater heights within the sector.

Because they’re showing up just in time. In every practical sense, nonprofit organizations are DYING. That is, the traditional, hierarchal, compete-for-money-or-close-our-doors, scarcity-mindset organizations led by 60 year old white men are quickly becoming unsustainable in a rapidly changing world. We need new leadership models, new perspectives and new ways of doing the important work that the world needs us to do.

We also need new models for nonprofit education.

At Benchmark 3.5, I gave a presentation about using social media for nonprofit professional development called Social is the New Black: 7 Online Learning Models as Low-Cost Professional Development. My point was that there is so much more we can do to provide continuing education to nonprofit professionals beyond the typical degree programs or expensive conferences! I’ve actually been experimenting with these seven technology tools to facilitate online learning over the past few years with increasing success (especially with webinars, of which you’ll see more from me soon).

I also sat on a panel of professors and university administrators about using online tools for teaching nonprofit management and leadership. Most were in support of the use of new technology and agreed that we ALL need to prioritize learning it ourselves. But we also had an interesting conversation about how traditional nonprofit programs can compete with the new online degree programs that are coming out of University of Phoenix, Capella University and others. Many on the panel talked about a new benchmark/accreditation program called Quality Matters that would distinguish the “good” online programs from the “bad.” Not surprisingly, I was the lone dissenter on the panel who disagreed with the idea of focusing our time and energy on discrediting the for-profit programs. Instead, I think we can learn a lot from how UofPhoenix and others market and appeal to students with convenience and relevance of courses. We can no longer be on the “offense” in the nonprofit world. We’ve got to learn from what’s working in other sectors, incorporate new approaches in our work, partner with those who are making an impact and focus on getting even better at what we do.

But whether we like it or not, the sector WILL evolve. Market forces will eventually leave us no choice. Young people will vote with their feet in terms of working for certain types of organizations or choosing certain types of nonprofit degree programs (or no nonprofit degrees at all). It’s up to us to decide if we want to move forward with the changes or get left behind.

Food for thought? You bet. In the meantime, here’s a roundup of the blog posts and Twitter conversations around both conferences offering a ton of bright ideas for you to chew on. Would love to hear what you think!

Young Nonprofit Professionals Network 2011 National Conference

Blog Updates: http://ynpn.org/blog

Twitter Hashtag: #ynpn11

Benchmark 3.5: Nonprofit Educators Leading, Learning and Creating the Future

Blog Updates: http://www.naccouncil.org/blog

Twitter Hashtag: #benchmark3