Managing a baseball team has a lot more in common with managing an organization than you might think. We fondly recall Gene Mauch, a manager known for innovation and season-ruining catastrophes. We can learn from summers past.
Read moreStrategic Planning Retooled
Conventional strategic planning in the nonprofit sector is often ineffective. PIMG's Data-Driven Strategic Planning approach aims to remedy this gap. Rather than focusing primarily on alignment of people within the organization, it’s principally about identifying a strategy that will focus the organization on successful performance. Informed by hard financial and market data, nonprofits are empowered to move confidently toward ambitious, attainable goals.
Read moreUpdates from The Front
In a recap of exciting client updates, we cover a range of projects, from the opening of new health and hunger solution centers, to organizations scaling up through merger, restructuring and business model assessments.
Read moreIntroducing Grounded Solutions Network: a New National Organization Promoting Inclusive Communities
A newly formed national nonprofit, Grounded Solutions Network is the result of a merger between the National Community Land Trust Network and Cornerstone Partnership. Grounded Solutions Network ensuresthat communities across the U.S. are inclusive across all income levels for generations to come.What made the merger process so successful? Learn more...
Read moreMoving Past Vanilla, and Opening the Door to a Wide Range of Organizational Partnerships
Organizational partnership is a time-tested mechanism for nonprofits to attain many benefits of scale. In fact, there are many flavors of partnership, most of which are not widely understood. Read more about PIMG's latest white paper Emerging Nonprofit Partnership Models: Two Alternatives to Traditional Merger...
Read moreWorkshops to Help Your Nonprofit Scale-up
Check out upcoming offerings including Strategic Partnerships for Nonprofits: Fresh Approaches to Building Scale, Impact and Sustainability” and “Business Planning as a Strategic Tool for Fundraising.”
Read morePilot Study Yields Benefits for Oregon Nonprofits
In partnership with the Nonprofit Association of Oregon, PIMG completed a pilot study of the new Success Factor Analysis methodology for assessing nonprofit organizations. Participating nonprofits found the process valuable in crafting strategies for improvement. Further, the data collected in the project sheds new light on which practices are and are not associated with organizational success.
Read moreThe Essence of Effective Organizational Strategy
Having a strategic plan in and of itself does show a statistical correlation with success. Public Interest Management Group has studied a variety of nonprofit organizational success factors, part of our Success Factor Analysis methodology. The most successful organizations are clear about what they’re trying to accomplish and why, and the validity of the methods they’re employing.
Read moreClient Focus: Washington Water Trust – Scaling up, Fighting the Effects of Climate Change
PIMG client Washington Water Trust is an organization that uses creative approaches to preserve streamflow, restore habitat and fight back against drought conditions. The nonprofit's leadership has recognized a need to grow to meet needs that are expected to increase in the years and decades ahead. Public Interest Management Group worked with the Water Trust to develop a business plan for growth through the sizzling summer—a backdrop that could not have been more dramatic.
Read morePartnerships are Good. Says who?
Working together may generally be effective for nonprofits, but it's not the best approach in all cases. Collaboration and partnership are means to ends, not ends in themselves. The generalization is just a starting point, and key is to do some critical thinking, and be sure any partnership is set up for success.
Read moreScaling Up vs. Staying Small
Is bigger always better? It depends. Based in part on Public Interest Management Group's Exploratory Analysis of Nonprofit Success Factors report, this blog explores the impact benefits of scaling-up while considering the ways smaller nonprofits excel. One size does not fit all.
Read moreHow do we know what works? Introducing “Organizational Assessment 2.0”
In an effort to help Public Interest Management Group clients understand what actions can most productively move their organizations forward, we sought an objective basis to determine needs and the importance of different practices in promoting the success of a nonprofit. The result is a fresh approach to organizational assessment. We detail our methodology in a just-released paper, Success Factors for Nonprofit Organizations.
Read more“Business Model Makeover” and Strategic Partnerships Seminars kick off 2015 in Portland and Seattle
New workshops explore the economics of nonprofit organizations and several practical techniques for assessing the strengths and weaknesses of business models. Nonprofit business models are more complex than those of for-profits. In our sector the formula can be multi-faceted, with some services subsidizing others by design. Nonprofits need to be intentional and shrewd about how the model is assembled.
Read moreClient Focus: Food Lifeline is Thinking Big about the Future
Food Lifeline is Washington State’s largest hunger relief agency, and a leader in antipoverty strategies in the Pacific Northwest. Public Interest Management Group has supported this effort by helping Food Lifeline secure a site that will meet operational needs for decades to come, and develop partnerships with organizations that can complement Food Lifeline’s capacity. The new site is just south of Seattle, in the Riverton District. Projected to open in mid-2015, Anna Constant, Food Lifeline’s Director of Operations, is excited about the new facility and the larger concept of the Hunger Solution Center
Read moreClient Focus: Oakland Startup Takes a Fresh Approach to Academic Achievement
Starting and growing an organization is no simple matter. Learn how Public Interest Management Group helped Harold Pearson, founder of Student Program for Athletic and Academic Transitioning, use financial modeling as part of a strategic planning process. Thanks to financial modeling, Pearson could chart a successful and sustainable course for his new organization dedicated to enhancing high school graduation rates for student athletes and preparing Oakland youth for college.
Read moreData for Decisions—a Search for the Third Dimension
Nonprofit leaders are bombarded with information throughout each day. Some of it is important, some is interesting, and a lot is neither. Information is only as good as what we get from it. Unfortunately, a lot of what we get is noise. The problem is that the more background noise, the harder it is to hear the important idea or the cry for help. The key is to identify three-dimensional metrics that help tell us the real story about the organization and where you’re headed.
Read morePartnership Models for Social Ventures: a Range of Alternatives
Nearly every nonprofit has realized a need to form partnerships to meet their mission. These partnerships can enable organizations to serve more people, serve them better, operate more efficiently, or raise the profile of important issues. Partnerships can also be frustrating, time-consuming and sometimes ineffective.
Read moreWhat Makes Great Nonprofits Tick?
New analysis by Public Interest Management Group offers insights—and a few surprises—on what nonprofits really need to succeed. Based on data from over forty nonprofits, this study explores 28 organizational facets correlated to overall success, including organizational strategy, culture, operations and overall business model.
Read moreBusiness Planning vs. Strategic Planning
Nonprofit leaders have expressed frustrations about strategic planning, for example that it is often time-consuming, overly-vague, and quickly out-of-date. While newer techniques address some of these concerns, the real issue is too much time spent on strategic planning, and too little (or no) time spent on business planning.
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