Good to Great · Aperio book club
Our March 2021 book club selection—Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap and Others Don’t—by Jim Collins, is one of those books I’ve been aware of for years. I’ve seen the cover a million times. Every friend I have that has an MBA also has this book. It’s not a coincidence. People love this book. Who wouldn’t want to know what it takes to take your company from good…to great? While there are definitely no silver bullets to greatness, the insight our book club derived from Jim Collins’ words is a framework for nonprofit fundraising success.
Let’s dig into the four key takeaways from our book club discussion that directly relate to fundraisers.
The hedgehog
I know what you’re thinking - what do hedgehogs have to do with fundraising? This seemingly silly concept is actually quite relevant to the everyday life of fundraisers. Collins postulates that in order for your company to be great, you need an overlap of these three things:
What are you passionate about?
What can you be the very best in the world at?
What can make you money?
The intersection of these three elements is your hedgehog. Great companies (and nonprofits) all have their hedgehogs.
What the hedgehog stands for is simplicity and awareness. It’s actually impossible to do every single thing really well. It’s easy to be a jack of all trades and master of none. The hedgehog is being a master of one: What is the one thing in this world that you can do better than everyone else, and it works every time?
When your nonprofit is perfectly in sync, you are in alignment with the hedgehog. When decisions are being made are they because of ego or because of the hedgehog? The greats are doing what they are best at and are also aware of the things that they cannot be the best at.
Hire the right people; focus on the opportunities
One of the most important decisions, if not the most important decision, leaders make is who to hire. Sure. You want the most qualified, the best, and the brightest. You also want to be sure that those folks are on board with your hedgehog.
Once you have the right people in place it is also imperative to put them on your biggest opportunities, not your biggest problems. “Things being on fire” is often not an “if” in nonprofits, but a “when.” If you have spent more than five minutes working in nonprofits you know talented fundraisers who have burned out trying to put out fires, but great leaders recognize this.
Great leaders instead present opportunities to get involved in something that can change their lives.
Further, there are dots to be connected between donor retention and employee retention. According to The Chronicle of Philanthropy, on average fundraisers stay in their jobs for 16 months. Donors can view employee retention as a measure of the organization and its long-term stability. Having committed long-term employees can translate to committed long-term donors.
Culture of discipline
This is definitely a portion of the book that I read with raised eyebrows. There are many different office/work cultures that you can create. Discipline sounds so…frigid to me.
Is discipline something that I have to value? Turns out, yes.
The way that we can leverage discipline is in keeping yourself on track so that all of your resources go toward your area of strength. That seems simple enough. What’s getting in the way of discipline for nonprofits right now? A lot.
What discipline means in this context is that we should invest those resources in what we do best. What one of our book club attendees noted was, “if nonprofits want to solve the type of problems that we undertake and achieve our lofty missions, we would operate more like businesses and we would be more bold.”
We’re terrified of making decisions that would cost us one donor. As fundraisers, we often find ourselves making the safe decision from a place of fear.
To grow, we have to say no. We may have to disappoint some people and we have to get rejected sometimes. Fundraisers are trained to be okay with hearing the word no, but we’re also afraid of hypothetical rejections from certain stakeholders. Which leads to us underinvesting in donor retention.
When trying to grow their giving programs, nonprofit leaders often talk of finding new donors and don’t put enough money into retaining donors. What we, as fundraisers, have to realize is that is that we are preventing ourselves from being ambitious because we are afraid of what donors will think.
We’re trained that the donor always leads, but we have to accept that we know the path forward. If we are to be successful as fundraisers, we have to find a way to strike that balance.
You’re More Than Your Leader
My favorite quote from a book club member comes from this section of the discussion, “if it can’t be great without you, then it’s not truly great.” True words! If your organization was only successful because of the mad genius running it, then the second the mad genius leaves, it will fall apart. That’s not greatness. A great leader is an important piece of the puzzle, but it’s not the only piece.
One of the bigger flaws in the nonprofit industry is that we are hardwired to put the wrong people in leadership roles in fundraising. People assume that because you are good at fundraising, you will also be good at leading the fundraising team. While there are certainly good fundraisers who are also good leaders, being a good fundraiser and a good manager are often not the same skill set.
There is also a strong desire in fundraising to disrupt the current system in order to take things in a new direction/make their own mark on a fundraising program. While there are certainly programs that need an overhaul, it’s not necessary to reinvent the wheel every single time just for the sake of ego. A truly great leader sees and aligns with the hedgehog but doesn’t hide behind shiny objects and innovations.
We are an industry that loves a new, shiny object. I can’t tell you how many times a few years ago I had to have discussions with board members about implementing a “peer-to-peer program like charity: water’s.” What charity: water has done is great and innovative, but it’s not the right path for every nonprofit. There is much to be said for doing the thing that you and your organization are best at.
But what do you do if you are not the leader?
Use your voice to do what you can - call out what’s working and what is not. Progress is not a moment, it’s momentum. You can always focus your energy on being a good colleague. Help foster a culture of mentorship and focus on the part that you play in giving your colleagues a good experience on your team, even if you’re not their direct supervisor.
Above all, overall sustainability for the organization is essential. That’s why it’s important to hire the people who are aligned with your hedgehog.
Ellen Claycomb
Ellen specializes in major gifts, middle giving, special events, and stewardship. Before joining Aperio, she served organizations such as the American Red Cross, True Colors United, and the New York Foundation for the Arts.