The Tenth Annual Nonprofit Leadership Conference: April 1, 2004. Meydenbauer Center, Bellevue

Choosing to Adapt: What Does it Take and Why it’s Important

Notes by Trisha Mattieu

Panelists: Linda Nageotte, Food Lifeline, Liz Vivian, Seattle Youth Involvement Network,

Carolyn Cunningham, United Way of King County

What’s “Out”

Being: sturdy, resilient, predictable, well-ordered, self-contained, well-behaved

And: having all the answers

What’s “In”

Being: extroverted, in pursuit of change and flux, connected to networks, inquisitive, a learning organization, willing to take risks

And: making systemic change, learning from the external environment

Four Basic Components of Adaptive Capacity

External Focus
Network Connectedness
Innovation
Inquisitiveness

External Focus

Adapt to the environments but also adapt environments to them.
Through external interactions organizations are influence and can influence. System-wide behavior.
Organizations are means to an end—they are mission directed. Accomplishment of th emission occurs outside organizations.
Be connected and engaged—not isolated and insular.
Internal, make your staff and board ready and able to “go external”

Network Connectedness

Organizations are neither the only nor necessarily the best containers in which to locate tasks—the architecture that drives organizational performance is networks.
The fullest realization of organizational potential occurs when non-profits occupying special niches create the potential for system-level effects that advance their missions more effectively than would be possible in isolation.

Innovation

Adaptive Capacity is to change in order not only to survive, but also to create.
Learning Organizations continually expand their capacity to create their future.
Innovation embraces dramatic new programs as well as improvements to existing processes.
Innovations mean not only creating something new but also challenging accepted wisdom.
How to encourage innovation: commit time and $ to experimentation; promote diversity; articulate new challenges; “seed” the organization with new thoughts and ideas.

Inquisitiveness

Organizations must be voracious learners. Seek out data, information and knowledge and then apply it to their work.
Value the process of self-evaluation.
Use data to improve performance and embrace change.
Must be part of the organizational culture—not just the leader’s personality, but nurtured throughout the organization.

FOOD LIFELINE

Summary

WA State has the 5^th worst hunger problem in the nation. It’s an invisible problem. A tagline they use: Hunger: “the sooner you believe it, the sooner we can end it.” Food Lifeline is a food distribution center that stocks other nonprofits with food to distribute to hungry people. Their job is to raise food donations. To do this, they partner with manufacturers such as Kellogg’s, retailers such as Safeway, and local farmers.

They need to change as the industry changes. Recently, they have had to undergo a major change in the way they do business. There are two reasons for this. First, there have been a lot of mergers—with only 3 major chains and WalMart remaining. Second, the types of food people buy has been changing. People used to buy more non-perishables. Now, they buy more meals-already-made, fresh fruits and veggies. This is a HUGE shift from nonperishable to perishable foods. Food now has to be moved in 24 hours as opposed to 6 months. Because of this difficulty, donors, concerned about items spoiling, now only want to donate items such as bread.

A new alliance was created to respond to this new need for donations. The “Grocery Alliance”. They want to be able to donate to NPs in the same way, with the same standards that they stock their grocery stores. As a result, they need Food LifeLine to change in a way to make this happen, so spoilage is not something to worry about.

Kroger Approached Food Lifeline and asked them to set up a changed distribution system—which in the end changed the way they and the 250 organizations they supplied and received from did business.

Big Picture

Be willing to ask tough questions, put risky options on the table, play devil’s advocate, dream big, and rise to the occasion.
Look outside the organization for ideas and answers—don’t assume you posses the necessary knowledge or the best approach. Research best practices from around the country; complete a colleague-competitor scan.
Expect to be treated as an equal player; develop strategic partnerships accordingly. Define what you can and cannot do, what you need and want, and communicate this openly.
Leadership is key: build a capable workgroup, define a common goal, create a plan, hold the process, keep it moving and follow it through.
Be strong stewards for the organization: stay focused on the mission.

Nuts and Bolts:

Time

18 months beginning to end, 6 months intensive work.
10 hours a week for ED on top of basic work.
2-10 hours a week for key managers and department staff.

Money

Received $183,000 in corporate/foundation funds to cover project start-up costs.
Developed annual holiday promotion with key for-profit partner—now raising 400,000 lbs of food/$85,000 annually.

Core Team

President & CEO
Key Managers (Operations, Food Resources, Agency Relations)
Developed Grocery Rescue Project Workgroup made up of 7 staff.
Hired full-time program administrator—have since added 2 additional program staff (drivers)

Positive Outcomes for the Organization

Program recognized by parent organization, America’s Second Harvest, as a National Best Practice
Developed a new organizational standard for program development, including: clear, comprehensive, mission-driven program business plan; communication plan; project management template.
Developed full program documentation to facilitate program expansion and replication.
Staff is reinvigorated
Stakeholders and wider community are newly committed to the organization
Tangible results—2 million lbs of food for hungry people at current program levels—expanding to 5.6 million over the next 2 years with current partner.

Greatest challenges for Executive Director

Time and timeline: balancing on-going work with new project development; balancing donor needs against agency capacity.
Internal and external communications with stakeholders.
Knowing when to push, when to back off.

YOUTH INVOLVEMENT NETWORK

Summary

The Seattle Youth Involvement Network, founded in 1991, connects youth with elected officials with real decision-making power. It has formed several programs, such as a Mayor’s Youth Council, and Youth Volunteer Corps and has traditionally put on a Youth Involvement Day every year.

However, Seattle has been changing, and the organization has realized that they also needed to change. They have had to confront some real questions about whether this organization was something that should continue, or whether it had done the job it set out to do.

They followed the trends and realized that youth voting has dropped 15% since 18 year olds first got the vote compared to 4% for the overall rate for all ages. Surveying youth, they’ve discovered that youth simply don’t know what to do when it comes to voting.

They have therefore decided that the greatest impact they can have is in getting young people involved in politics. And they decided to take the program statewide. This has been a whole new strategic direction for the group. Are now brainstorming new name for group, trying to find funding.