My Review for – The Future of Nonprofits: Innovate and Thrive in the Digital Age
May 17th, 2011 Filed under: Marketing Manager Job Description — Business Author
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“The creaky wheels of the nonprofit industry are about to get the grease they need! The Future of Nonprofits combines twenty-first century innovations (social media, alternative currencies, digital channels) with enduring success strategies of the best nonprofits (hiring killer talent, structuring smart). Moreover, David and Randal lay out a formula for organizational innovation–the Holy Grail of the nonprofit world. This is the playbook every nonprofit soldier needs to make it in the Digital Age.”
–Beth Kanter, coauthor of The Networked Nonprofit
“The Future of Nonprofits is a must-read for anyone looking to go beyond the status quo and instigate sustainable change in an organization. Moss and Neff translate decades of hard-earned experience into an action-oriented book. The rapid rate of change brought on by digital technology has rendered the word ‘innovation’ a broadly defined clich. The Future of Nonprofits reclaims meaning for this word.”
–Kevin Dugan, Director of Marketing, Empower MediaMarketing
“If you work in nonprofits, I believe that this is the book that will eventually be sitting atop your desk highlighted, underlined, and dog-eared. Fostering workplace innovation and creativity is a lofty goal that all of us in the nonprofit world desire, but few of us know the secret formula to achieve. The Future of Nonprofits provides that formula, and I’m excited to put it to use to help Best Friends achieve our mission of No More Homeless Pets.”
–Gregory Castle, CEO, Best Friends Animal Society
The Future of Nonprofits helps organizations capitalize on internal innovation and predicting future trends to remake and reshape their culture, structure, and staff. By applying the strategies laid out in this book, nonprofit professionals of all levels can prepare their organizations to take advantage of future trends and develop innovative “internal entrepreneurs” that will grow revenue and drive their mission.
- Provides nonprofits with a comprehensive playbook on how to create a new, more flexible, innovative organization.
- Provides nonprofits a look at the future of fundraising and communications trends into 2016.
- Case studies highlight successes and failures.
- Highlights the power and strength of Social Media.
- Hightlights how to hire, train, manage and inspire “internal entrepreneurial” employees.
- Features actionable advice on creating an organization that is primed to grow and thrive in the immediate and long-term future.
This game-changing book reveals how every nonprofit can put technology, innovation and future trends to work to reach their mission and grow revenue.
Review:
Full disclosure: I know David Neff. Actually, I’m pretty sure that at least 60% of Austin knows David Neff, who is one of the most gregarious people I’ve met. He’s constantly on social media, he was named the 2009 AMA/AMAF Social Media Marketer of the Year, and he is famous for his annual Mustache and Bad Sweater Party. He’s spoken to my classes once or twice. And he’s very passionate about nonprofits.
So I was happy to hear that David had teamed up with Randal Moss, with whom he had worked at the American Cancer Society, to write a book on the future of nonprofits. The Future of Nonprofits is definitely worth reading – not just for those in the nonprofit sector, but for anyone who is interested in opening their organization’s culture up to innovation. Neff and Moss take a strategic approach, illustrated with cases from their own work and interviews with innovation leaders at nonprofits.
The authors cover a lot of ground here: they define innovation, discuss how to measure it, discuss how to build it into the organization’s culture, and describe upcoming social and technological trends that will impact it. They give us lots of resources, from basic processes to sample job descriptions to advice on how to set up an innovation “Skunkworks.” Their cases, interviews with innovation leaders in the nonprofit sector, and other examples are all illuminating. And the writing style makes the book a page-turner.
Although the authors talk about strategy, future trends, and principles, they also cover nuts-and-bolts decisions and resources. The book’s not just full of ideas; it also covers practical issues and gives plenty of guidance.
With lists that predict trends of the next five years, obviously parts of this book will have a short shelf life. That just means you should buy it quickly. The other parts will age more gracefully, I think, and the book as a whole should be useful to nonprofits – but also to other organizations that prize high constituent engagement. If you’re in the position to hire, innovate, or engage in your organization, consider picking it up.
