Not our first rodeo: What can companies learn from Nonprofits?

Nonprofit leaders are frequently encouraged to look to and emulate corporate leadership- things like organization structures,  how to run “lean” teams, and how to manage employees. But what can corporate leaders learn from nonprofits? 

Nonprofits  are the pros at social impact - they’ve been doing it day-in and day-out for decades. It’s true, corporations have their own legacy of philanthropy and civic responsibility, but as the expectations change for the corporate sector, there are some great lessons they can learn from the nonprofit sector.

• Stakeholder Engagement - the engaging stakeholders and communities (like the people actually impacted), and how to do it in a genuine and non-extractive ways, that lead to improved strategies and deepend relationships.

• Investing in the data infrastructure - Social Impact needs a data infrastructure too… Excel spreadsheets will not cut it. According to KPMG, nearly half of businesses are still using spreadsheets to manage their ESG and sustainability reporting.

• Data is for learning, not just reporting - Of course we want to measure and report our impact, but we also want to make sure we’re meeting the needs in the most efficient and effective ways possible. Social Impact loves a dashboard too.

• Collaboration & collective impact - No one does this work alone, and in fact, we are more effective when we work together. The nonprofit sector has pioneered innovative and effective approaches to collective impact and collaboration. 

Obviously, this list isn’t exhaustive. What would you add?

This blog was originally posted on LinkedIn. View the original post here.