Sustainability:The Practices & Leadership It Requires

Jeanne Bell, CEOCompassPoint Nonprofit Services

2008 2009 2010 2011 2012

$17,094 ($52,543) ($220,757) $2,753 ($220,436)

YEAR-END RESULTS FOR MY TENURE SO FAR

The ‘Givens’

• Active Finance Committee• Skilled CFO• Annual Budget Approval• Financial Statement Review• Audit Committee• Funder Compliance

The ‘Givens’ do nothing to achieve SUSTAINABILITY.

WHAT IS SUSTAINABILITY?

SUSTAINABILITY encompasses both the financial and

the programmatic.

FINANCIAL SUSTAINABILITY:the ability to generate resources to meet the needs of the present without jeopardizing the future

PROGRAMMATIC SUSTAINABILITY:the ability to develop, mature, and cycle out programs to be responsive to constituencies over time

SUSTAINABILITY is an orientation not a destination.

8 Stances & Practices

Demand and invest in financial literacy organization-wide.

1

Normalize the assumption of profit.

2

Name and study the performance of business lines.

3

Business Line Imperatives

(200,000) (150,000) (100,000) (50,000) - 50,000 100,000 150,000

-

1.00

2.00

3.00

4.00 Environmental Education

Restoration & Reforestation

Nursery Resource Library

Site Rentals

Direct Mail

Major Donors

Annual Event

Profitability

Impa

ct

Example: Environmental Organization

Develop a business model statement to complement your mission statement.

4

Mission Statement

CompassPoint intensifies the impact of fellow nonprofit leaders, organizations, and networks as we achieve social equity together.

Business Model Statement

CompassPoint retails skills building and consulting services directly to nonprofit organizations and partners with philanthropy to subsidize intensive, cohort leadership development programs.

Rigorously foster a culture of philanthropy.

5

Shift from episodic planning to real-time decision making.

6

Re-think Planning

Develop a set of lead indicators and engage everyone in executing to them.

7

Focus on the fifth quarter.

8

“ Instead of maintaining norms, leaders have to challenge ‘the way we do business’ and help others distinguish immutable values from historical practices that must go.”

-The Work of Leadership (Heifetz et al)

About the Speaker

Jeanne Bell, MNA is CEO of CompassPoint Nonprofit Services, a national, nonprofit leadership and strategy practice headquartered in Oakland, CA. She is the co-author of Nonprofit Sustainability: Making Strategic Decisions for Financial Viability (Jossey-Bass) and Financial Leadership for Nonprofit Executives: Guiding Your Organization to Long Term Success (Wilder). In addition to frequent speaking and consulting on nonprofit strategy and finance, Jeanne has conducted a series of research projects on nonprofit executive leadership, including UnderDeveloped: A National Study of the Challenges Facing Nonprofit Fundraising and Daring to Lead 2011: A National Study of Nonprofit Executive Leadership. Jeanne is on several boards, including The Nonprofit Quarterly, where she is also a contributing editor, the Alliance for Nonprofit Management, and Intersection for the Arts.