Strategies for Instilling and Maintaining a Strong Corporate Culture

As the founder of a nonprofit, you are responsible for so many things. One of these things is corporate culture. That’s exactly what myself and Jake Wood discuss on episode 39 of the Lead with Heart podcast.

If you want to check that out, I’ll add the episode player below so you can tune into the full episode where we explore scaling your nonprofit and the future of philanthropy.

During our conversation, Jake pointed out just how important a strong corporate culture is at your nonprofit. So, in this article, we’re going to learn more about:

1. Creating a Shared Company Culture?
2. Defining Culture
3. Creating a Strong Internal Company Culture
4. Focusing on Culture Rather Than Policy

Jake is a Marine Corps veteran and the founder and CEO of Groundswell - a software company that enables companies to help their employees become modern philanthropists by providing tech-enabled donor-advised funds. Before launching Groundswell, he served as the founder and CEO of Team Rubicon , a disaster response organization that is widely considered one of America’s leading nonprofits.

1. Creating a Shared Company Culture

Jake explains that within a nonprofit, no one has ownership. Nobody has equity.

“Obviously, everybody's sharing in the success and the outcomes that are being delivered through the mission itself.” - Jake Wood

But there is nothing tangible that each individual owns.

“What you can give them is shared ownership of the culture.” - Jake Wood

?There is a huge amount of value in this.

“Most people, whether they want to admit it or not, want to be a part of a strong, powerful culture, a tribe, a community of like-minded people. Give them ownership of shaping that, and then they'll ruthlessly protect it.” - Jake Wood

2. Defining Culture

Jake shares the definition of culture that he used at Team Rubican.

“Culture is what guides people's decisions in the absence of orders.” - Jake Wood

This is the lens that he continues to see leadership through.

“When people don't know explicitly what to do, your culture is what's going to guide them to a consistent decision, behavior, or attitude. And if it's a good culture, then they're going to consistently end up in the right place, right? Not every time. It's not perfect, but consistently.” - Jake Wood?

3. Creating a Strong Internal Company Culture

During the early stages of growth at Team Rubicon, Jake recalls people asking him if the victim of growth was going to be culture.

“Can our culture scale as the rest of the organization's operations scale? And I tried to reframe that question for people that would ask it. And I would say the only way that we scale is because of our culture. Our culture won't be the victim of it, it'll be the catalyst for it.” - Jake Wood

Jake shares a piece of wisdom that a lot of leaders don’t get right.

“It's incumbent upon a CEO, not just to define the values of an organization to the culmination of your culture, but to then ensure that every element of how you operate reinforces those values.” - Jake Wood

Jake explains that there is sometimes a disconnect between the written values of a business and how the business is actually run.

“It's really easy because a lot of those business elements are the things that get outsourced. Those are the things that you delegate. And so if an executive is not closely keeping their finger on the pulse of those elements and identifying those contradictory processes or practices, then your culture just falls apart because it's not mutually reinforcing.” - Jake Wood

4. Focusing on Culture Rather Than Policy

At Team Rubicon, Jake shares that one of the things they were so good at was NOT being a policy-driven culture.

“A policy is an explicit order on what to do when you encounter any specific situation. So companies or organizations that are very policy-driven, are either highly regulated, in which case, you can't get around it. Or they have really weak cultures.” - Jake Wood

Jake explains that because they don’t trust their culture, they jump straight to policy making.?

“It's not necessarily written down on paper, right? It's shared across the consciousness of your people. You don't trust that to guide people to the right decision. So every time somebody screws up, you create a policy so that it doesn't happen again.” - Jake Wood

Jake shares that at Team Rubicon it was really hard to pass a policy.

“If somebody came to the executive team with a recommendation for a policy that wasn't driven by some state or federal regulation, you're going to have a hard time getting people to agree. So I can tell you the strength or weakness of any particular culture, by how easy it is to pass a policy.” - Jake Wood

In conclusion, a strong corporate culture is so important not only for the people that work with you but for the long term success of your company. Make sure this is something that you work on from the beginning. Jake provides some great tips to get you started.

Nonprofit teams often work in silos, which can lead to staff burnout and donor attrition, ultimately, hurts the people we serve. I help nonprofits raise more money through fundraising training, “done for you” fund development strategy, and campaign implementation.?

?? If you want to learn more about ways we can collaborate and work together, please visit my website, https://thesavvyfundraiser.com/ .

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