Author: Peter Cantelon, Executive Director
Ah growth – the ever-present challenge of any organization, especially the non-profit.
Grow too fast and structural needs outpace resources (not unlike the cycle of cancer). Grow too slow and you could end up withering on the vine, or worse, maintaining the organization on life support like some form of zombie…barely able to act upon your mission and vision.
Finding the sweet spot for growth in an organization is a little like walking a tight rope – you are constantly micro-adjusting muscles to accommodate for regularly changing conditions. Over or under-adjust and you could fall into the abyss.
So, what’s the secret to successful growth? Well, there are a lot of ingredients that go into it:
- Clarity and focus of vision
- Stability (funding/revenue and staff)
- A strong board of directors
- A plan for the future
As an organization grows it is critical it maintain focus on its vision and mission. When funding an abundance of funding surprises us (as it sometimes rarely does) it can become tempting to go on a bit of a “shopping spree” to rapidly implement aspects of vision and mission before the funding runs out.
But like a dehydrated person stumbling across an oasis in the desert, if you drink too fast and too much you will become sick. In these instances, it is important not to ramp up capacity too quickly but slowly to ensure capacity keeps pace.
Sometimes when growth comes fast an organization begins to experience scope creep. This is when resources are so abundant there is a feeling that the original mission and vision are too constrained and we can do more.
When this happens members, clients and partners can become disillusioned and feel the organization has lost sight of the original vision which is what attracted them in the first place. You run the risk of alienating the very foundation for your success if you are not careful.
Long-term growth requires an organization to pace itself. Growth is welcome and sign of a living and healthy entity but it must keep pace with organization capacity and the reality that the market is fickle and a period of growth is often followed by a period of retraction or decline.
In light of this taking some of your resources and investing over the longer term in things like a contingency fund, an agency fund with the local foundation, or simply rainy-day savings is important to ensure stability.
One must also consider staff capacity. Growth often does one of two things – burdens existing staff with increased responsibilities and duties or rapidly adds staff without consideration for ongoing resources to sustain that new investment.
A medium-term solution to growing capacity without committing resources over the long term you may not have is engaging with outside consultants and service providers to shore up current staff capacity. Over time, as you are able to ascertain the certainty of ongoing resources you can transition to permanent staffing and away from external consultants and service providers.
Ultimately having a strong, knowledgeable, and committed board of directors is key to growth and long-term sustainability. While it sometimes doesn’t feel like it, the board of directors is responsible ultimately for leading the non-profit on behalf of the membership.
Without a strong board an organization can be left floundering and growth will not come or can be managed poorly even with the best of staff. The board is responsible for keeping the organization on task and within budget.
Growth is a good thing. Growth should be pursued and welcomed. Just remember to manage it so that you can sustain it over the long term.