Book Preview: “Forces for Good”

The U.S. has 1.5 million nonprofits that account for more than $1 trillion of the country’s economy. Over the last 15 years, nonprofits actually have grown faster than the rest of the economy and currently are the third largest industry in the U.S., behind retail and wholesale trade but ahead of banking and telecommunications.

So with the playing field getting larger and larger, something begs to be asked. What makes a great nonprofit? Which are the crème de la crème, and how did they attain such a level of success? This is the question that Leslie Crutchfield and Heather McLeod Grant meticulously answer in their captivating and inspiring new book, “Forces for Good: The Six Practices of High-Impact Nonprofits.”

In the course of their research, Crutchfield and McLeod Grant dispel several ideas about what makes nonprofits effective. The authors tell us that early research on nonprofit effectiveness focused on three things: program replication — in the private sector this is the same as studying product development and distribution; building organizational capacity in order to increase a nonprofit’s impact; and seeking out management models in the private sector. These are all helpful ways to think about nonprofit management, Crutchfield and McLeod Grant argue, but focusing on them alone constitutes a failure to get the big picture.

The authors say that several converging trends make it necessary for nonprofits to rearticulate their strategies for success:

* the staggering and unprecedented amount of money moving from foundations, philanthropists and donors;

* as the social welfare state scales back, nonprofits begin to inhabit the vacuum left behind, providing many of the services that big government formerly provided;

* technology and the rapid dissemination of information and images have increased our awareness of the manifold problems facing our planet — from global warming to genocide in Darfur to persistent homelessness; and, finally

* today’s corporate chieftains are giving to charities at levels previously unheard of — and demanding accountability.

What Crutchfield and McLeod Grant found in their four years of research — fueled by $750,000 in grants from several leading foundations — is that what makes certain nonprofits salient in a crowded field is an ability to see beyond the tips of their own noses — to understand that they are a part of a greater process — and to work in harmony with government, the marketplace, individual supporters and other nonprofits. “Forces for Good” highlights the massive successes of 12 such organizations with very different agendas, which were selected after Crutchfield and McLeod Grant surveyed CEOs at more than 2,000 nonprofits.

“We must begin to study and understand nonprofits not merely as organizations housed within four walls,” they write, “but as catalysts that work within, and change, entire systems.”

The politically conservative think tank The Heritage Foundation is a case in point. Founded in the early 1970s, it exploded conventional wisdom about the role of think tanks in society: rarefied, academic and far behind the scenes — an eminence grise of public-policy formulation. But by taking a boisterous, grassroots approach — what Crutchfield and McLeod Grant call converting ordinary supporters into “evangelists” — and by aggressively courting Republican representatives of Congress, Heritage has been wildly successful at pushing its agenda through — causing enormous political change in a relatively small amount of time and in a remarkably public way.

“It was the first think tank to proactively market conservative policy to the public, Congress and the White House,” the authors write. “In the process, it helped catalyze a much larger conservative movement.”

Another nonprofit that makes Crutchfield and McLeod Grant’s list is San Francisco’s Exploratorium, one of the first interactive museums in the U.S. — and a paradigm for other interactive museums internationally. With hardly any formal marketing efforts in place, Exploratorium has grown since it opened in 1969 largely because it possesses a spirit of unbridled generosity and collaboration, developing programs to help other interactive museums replicate its successes — Exploratorium helped start 21 other museums in just three years — and raising federal funds to develop science centers at universities and in communities around the country.

“The Exploratorium has always seen itself as a museum without walls,” Crutchfield and McLeod Grant write. “Rather than simply shore up resources for its own organization, the Exploratorium actively helped other nonprofits copy its model.”

“Forces for Good” is a must-read not just for nonprofit managers, but for anyone interested in channeling their energies into changing the world.

As Steve Case, founder of America Online and Chairman of the Case Foundation, writes in the book’s foreword, “Whether you are in business, a nonprofit organization or government, whether you are a high school student or a grandparent, this book can have a profound impact on your ability to contribute to a more just and sustainable society.”

“Forces for Good: The Six Practices of High-Impact Nonprofits,” January 2008, Jossey-Bass, 250 pgs., $29.95. www.josseybass.com/WileyCDA/WileyTitle/productCd-0470178574.html