Create a Nonprofit Memory Book to Establish Institutional Memory

Institutional memory reflects a nonprofit’s theory of change and, over time, captures an organization’s key characters, events, traditions and culture, practices, and strategic decisions in writing. That is, it covers the life history of the organization.

Institutional memory is the glue that links the past to the present. It clarifies who got it correct and not so correct to inform the future. Here’s how your nonprofit can chronicle and keep current institutional memory by creating a memory book. 

Institutional Memory Focus and Content

Establishing institutional memory is most effective when a timeline is established with at least four buckets of data. There certainly can be additional topics, but these four buckets go far in capturing what happened, when and by whom to shape what brought the nonprofit to its present state.

1. Key Characters

Key characters include the founder(s) as well as leadership staff. These may be paid or unpaid individuals to recognize that founders may have also served in volunteer roles. The most important item to document regarding the founders is their intent, purpose and view of the world, which is reflected best in their theory of change. 

The theory of change outlines the founder's worldview and the problem to be solved. This includes who is primarily concerned and their challenges, as well as the approach to addressing these challenges and the expected results. Current leadership must regularly update theories of change often during strategic planning, making it important to document the preceding theories of change. 

It is important to avoid exaggerating the founders’ achievements as this can lead to unrealistic expectations for future leaders and discourage potential successors — whether paid or volunteer. Additionally, idolizing founders may uncover flaws that cause more harm than good, as seen in cases like the Sacklers or other charismatic leaders whose private lives did not match their public personas. Therefore, it is advisable to record only the specific quantifiable contributions these individuals made.

2. Key Events

Knowing the timeline of key events is essential for understanding shifts in the nonprofit. For example, note when your nonprofit’s: 

• New board chairs and executives took over
• Annual budget changed
• Tax-exempt status was awarded
• First service was provided, as well as a profile of the first client to illustrate the focus of services

Documenting when these milestones happened provides an understanding of the progress or lack of progress the nonprofit made since its inception. Also, pinpointing these helps identify key questions for future strategies.

3. Programs 

A nonprofit's success relies on its service offerings, known as the 4 P’s: 

1. Product
2. Price
3. Place
4. Promotion

This framework helps ensure that communities and their needs identified in the theory of change are effectively served.

Tracking service offerings, reach — or the number served — and impact is an elemental responsibility of all nonprofits. Reports measuring progress and impact are regularly generated for the board, donors and other stakeholders. Cumulatively, these reports represent progress toward mission — the end outcome of the theory of change. Annual summaries are traditionally catalogued and these summaries over time can be used to create another critical component of institutional memory.

4. Resources

Nonprofits need both cash and non-cash resources to succeed in their missions. Their past strategies for acquiring resources — whether planned or unanticipated — determined much of their success, especially when there was a high need and demand for their services. 

Keeping track of and periodically reviewing how resources are secured helps your nonprofit to develop long-term strategies by considering the fluctuations in resource availability. It is crucial for board members and staff to understand the internal changes that affect the nonprofit's appeal to funding sources over time.

Who Retains and Keeps the Institutional Memory?

I believe the board secretary holds the ultimate responsibility of retaining institutional memory. The board secretary is likely to be most familiar with one of the sources of institutional memory — key characters. Management, on the other hand, is responsible for maintaining and reporting on the other three sources of memory — events (in conjunction with the board and its secretary) as well as programs and resources. 

The board secretary should also ensure there is an institutional memory book. For most nonprofits, board secretaries are at least responsible — if not the author of — board meeting minutes, but I see no reason not to add “keeping and updating a memory book” to the board secretary job description. 

If that’s not possible, have the executive committee or a special ad-hoc committee enter updates throughout the year. Keep in mind that commercial or custom-designed board portals now provide an excellent vehicle for creating and mainlining a nonprofit’s memory book.

When Can Institutional Memory Matter?

Of course, a nonprofit’s memory book should be made available whenever desired, but the board, management and staff orientations should include reviews of this resource. The memory book is also a resource for major celebrations and can serve as a recognition gift for those who have provided service.

When preparing board members and others for making donor asks or taking on speaking engagements, a quick review of the memory book can be quite rewarding.

Those completing funding requests, which often inquire why a nonprofit is in business, will find another opportunity to refer to the memory book.

And finally, the memory book can provide fodder, giving context and direction in all generative and strategic discussions and decision-making.

But if institutional memory is lost, a nonprofit can be lost while working arduously to find its way. The institutional history or memory of a nonprofit chronicles characters, events, activities and resources. Over time, these reflect what a nonprofit has done and how it has performed in the pursuit of its mission. 

This tool can take the form of a memory book, accessed through the board’s portal. The memory book is the quintessential resource for onboarding, strategic decision-making. framing proposals and making resource asks.

As Winston Churchill and George Santayana are both attributed to stating, “Those that fail to learn from history are doomed to repeat it.”  For nonprofits, I propose a modified statement: If we remember our history, we will continue to move that which has worked forward.

The preceding content was provided by a contributor unaffiliated with NonProfit PRO. The views expressed within may not directly reflect the thoughts or opinions of the staff of NonProfit PRO.