Ops is important

Effective operations are an important part of any impact-focused organization, and even more so for resource-constrained nonprofits. I don’t think anyone will argue that point, and I’ve seen a trend in increased realization of the importance of having a strong internal infrastructure.

Beyond just a “feeling,” or common sense, there’s a lot of data supporting the fact that a well-run organization has increased impact. This study randomly selected organizations from a set of 454 nonprofits. The orgs that received capacity-building support experienced significantly higher levels of growth than the orgs that didn’t receive that level of support. The big consultant groups (McKinsey, BCG, Bain) all have dedicated programs to strengthen nonprofit infrastructure, recognizing that organizational health drives mission success. Specifically, McKinsey's research found that healthy organizations deliver 3x the returns of unhealthy ones. In nonprofits, 91% of staff at healthy organizations say they're achieving their mission, versus just 60% at struggling ones.

But implementing good operations isn’t as simple as it sounds - it requires:

The ability to think in operational systems
Knowledge of how others can help
Experience dealing with similar challenges
Understand available resources
Being aware of best practices
Having the talents and abilities to implement all of them.

But there are too many barriers to success

And that means that there are too many barriers to effective operations. Primarily:

People don’t know what effective operations actually means
People think they can do it on their own, start from first principles, and be as successful as those with robust experience
Organizations lack the funds to bring in specialists.

It’s a challenge - and one I believe that’s worth fighting for. Every step that each organization takes to improve internal operations is a leap for that organization’s impact.

Currently, nonprofit ops isn’t doing so well

In my work, I get to interact with many nonprofits and operations professionals. And what I’ve seen isn’t so encouraging - only a quarter of our nonprofits are operating with excellence. We need to do better. We owe it to our causes. Of 41 organizations that I work with and am familiar enough with the operations to grade, only 25% are operating with excellence, and 51% are below an acceptable level (C and below).

My nu...

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