by Jim Radford, President

The field of literature on nonprofit organizations has grown to become quite extensive and detailed. In the area of organization development, for instance, there is a great deal of information about characteristics that tend to be exhibited by successful organizations.

Listed below are some of the most frequently illustrated characteristics of successful and, conversely, unsuccessful nonprofit organizations:

Successful Organizations Tend to Have:

• a compelling vision for the future
• clear goals
• an energizing organizational culture
• the will to succeed
• focus on a limited number of goals that are achieved with excellence
• well thought-out plans and timetables for reaching their goals
• tangible results that are mission-driven
• exciting programs
• fun and mutual trust among members
• a strong board of directors and an effective executive director
• dependable income and an adequate financial base
• up-to-date bookkeeping and solid financial controls
• creative leveraging of opportunities
• tenacity of purpose.

Unsuccessful Organizations Tend to Have:

• unclear goals and miscommunicated expectations
• lack of will and passion to succeed
• conflict of interest and conflict of purpose
• lack of vision
• no plan
• boring programs
• inaccurate bookkeeping and poor financial controls
• too little money
• too many goals
• lack of dedicated leaders
• lack of paid staff
• consistently mediocre fund raising and recruitment of volunteers.

Essentially, clarity of purpose, a sound business approach and a passionate belief in the mission all are integral elements to a successful organization. Fund raising for such a nonprofit is a natural, and significant, extension of those attributes.