11. Scalability

Sustainable growth for programs, initiatives, and organizations

If you have ever experienced drowning you know that in that moment one cannot decipher between a life raft and a rock. When leading a nonprofit without a rapid growth plan, you can find yourself in that same moment in the deep end, grasping at anything (and anyone) that looks like help. Scaling your organization takes a driven leader who understands that the process can be tricky and doing it poorly can lead to demise of brand reliance and consumer trust. In the nonprofit world, where funders seemingly want to see organizational work and impact outpace the resources, your best floating device is to plan for scalability.

In “Tips for Scaling Your Business” Harvard Business School Professor Jeffrey Rayport writes about a “Six S Framework” in anticipation of rapid organizational growth that begins with a scaling plan. These six S’s (“Staff, Shared values, Structure, Speed, Scope, and Series X”) are an excellent structural assessment for scaling and creating a rapid growth plan is the best place to start the process. Taking that time in the business plan to address scalability that every nonprofit Executive Director (ED) should anticipate, negates a stalemate when the organization needs to move forward.

Every nonprofit in America is one endowment or grant application away from needing to double, triple, or quadruple in size overnight.

In the “Scaling Up Strategy: How to Build an Elite Strategic Plan” by Rick Crossland, SHRM, Crossland recommends taking a five prong approach in a one page scaling plan. He provides tools and guidance on how a Scaling Plan should be crafted by organizational sector. His work in scaling is informed by Verne Harnish and his renowned book “Scaling Up: How a Few Companies Make It…and Why the Rest Don’t.” Harnish focuses on four primary areas in how company’s can successfully scale: “People, Strategy, Execution and Cash.”

Using those guiding business principles, here are the five tactics I implemented to scale my statewide nonprofit from one person towards a fully functioning organization:

PEOPLE | Build the Board Committees | Committees for fundraising and board development can and should be formed to support the work of staff and vice versa. It is unreasonable for the board to expect a nonprofit ED to do all of the work without helping to secure funding and recruiting new board members. These committees can help set the organizational culture of inclusiveness, build ongoing relationships, bridge funding gaps, and create processes and tracking for associated activities. These key groups will also help lead organizational values a crucial part of employee morale that must be reinforced during rapid expansion. A positive work culture is created when employees see board members care about the mission and work for organizational success alongside them.

STRATEGY | Do a Paid Internship/Fellowship | To grow an 11-year-program with a proven history of improving community resilience and moving the organizational mission forward, I started by visiting with the partners and longtime stakeholders. That communications led to a fellowship with my alma mater that provided a grad student with a financially supported research project. The result was an aesthetically appealing and academically-based statewide guide that expanded our efforts and our excitement around the program. Working with area colleges and universities provides additional avenues for the students, a potential pipeline for employees or volunteers, and scalable growth for programs and initiatives.

EXECUTION | Get Administrative Support | A CEO, President, or ED needs administrative support. It may seem like an area to not expend on initially, but a leader needs to have that capacity to build infrastructure and chase leads. Administrative support also helps keep you and the board stay organized and scheduled with information cited. There are online options in looking for a remote administrator, like Hire My Mom. So many caretakers have enough capacity to provide that crucial administrative support, that fiscally benefits both the employer and the employee. Take the leap, it is necessary.

EXECUTION | Automate Outreach | If your organization is too small to integrate a high functioning CRM and outreach system, then start by tracking members and volunteers in a good old fashioned spreadsheet. Mailchimp, is a great solution for the first step towards a CRM where supporters can sign up, contact information can be tracked easily, while the organization is able to establish regular distribution of a general newsletter and/or communications outreach. In other solutions, I found Donor Perfect to be clunky and not intuitive. However, I loved using Hootsuite for automating social media posts.

CASH | Secure a Line of Credit and/or Nest Egg | The financial pressure of fundraising is not solely on the ED. I say this as a lesson, because I wish I had realized that when inept or corrupt members of the board and organization tried to convince me otherwise. Know your budget going into a position and gaps in it should be covered short term by a line of credit or a savings nest egg with a longterm plan to recompense those borrowed funds.?

Scaling a nonprofit takes drive, one of the three traits of leadership I studied in grad school. The leader must have vision for the next steps as well as capability to implement changes as change is happening. Starting an organization, turning an organization around, rapid growth, mergers and acquisitions, all require different approaches to leadership. The leader who has the most success in scaling an organization will be nimble, adaptable to uncertainty, and willing to take calculated risks in order for the organization to grow.?