Nonprofit Founders, Passion Got You Here. Structure Will Take You Further.

I love working with founders.

I love what they all bring to the table: a real solution, a purity of passion, an absolute commitment to the mission. It’s like they walk through walls without seeing them. It’s this universal refusal of founders to accept the status quo that makes them a joy to work with. 

Most nonprofit founders encounter at least one of four tipping points when it’s clear some help is warranted: when fundraising must level up; when scale without a slowdown is required; when it’s time to encourage decision-making autonomy with senior staff; and when focus is needed. It’s been a real pleasure for me in partnering with founders on these kinds of journeys.

Let’s examine each of these inflection points in a little more detail.

Fundraising has to shift from scrappy to strategic

Founders often start organizations with an influx of cash (sometimes their own) and a big vision — but a few years into the endeavor, reality quickly becomes a more expensive proposition than anticipated. Simply put, big dreams don’t come cheap. The greater a founder’s ambition, the more investment is required. 

I’ve had founders fixate on the idea of the magic donor, that one imaginary mega-wealthy philanthropist ready to write a check for $200M so they never have to fundraise again. Most often, however, I’ve seen the opposite: scrappy founders exerting a lot of time and energy on a volume strategy, attempting to fill the coffers with a ton of small gifts. Sometimes they pursue the wrong people altogether because they don’t know the way to properly evaluate a prospective donor.

In every case, the founder — and truly, the mission itself – benefits more from having professional fundraising expertise at the ready. That fundraising resource does the research, determines the right philanthropists to approach at the right levels, helps get the meetings, and guides the founder and staff on connecting authentically.

It’s the difference between intentionally raising the sights on pursuing targeted gifts and throwing spaghetti at the wall in the hopes that something sticks. One path is calm, strategic and fruitful — and the other is frenetic and frustrating.

Scale must deliver without creating a bureaucracy

After founders help their organizations reach a reasonable operational rhythm, they often find the people are in place but key roles, processes and infrastructure either don’t exist or aren’t as sturdy and built out as required. 

This is the time when structure must be added. That can come in many forms, from expert guidance on board evaluation and governance to ensuring standard industry accounting practices and controls are rigorously followed to identifying personnel gaps and creating the right roles to fill them.

Sometimes founders read this next step as an unwelcome application of bureaucracy but it’s necessary for the organization’s maturation. In fact, implementing reasonable structures at the right time can actually avoid unforced errors and slow-downs later (e.g., tax issues, lack of governance). Think of it as scaffolding that protects the organization from weaknesses – and also allows it the strength to climb even higher,

Decisions can no longer hinge on one person

Founders are so used to relying on themselves – their vision, energy and focus – that they sometimes don’t see how to empower their people for speed and impact. Ideally, the right people would have decision-making autonomy so that the founder doesn’t inadvertently become a bottleneck.

To do that, the founder must have confidence in those key team members. Part of their hesitation comes from not feeling that staff have the same commitment and diligence that they themselves do as social entrepreneurs.

The fix is twofold: supply context and listen more carefully. 

In terms of context, a founder’s staff must see how their work explicitly connects to outcomes that support the mission. I often have conversations with founders around how this communication and contextualization must continue over and over again. Otherwise, you’re pushing staff relentlessly, giving them all slog and no support, no reason why they should continue to be excited and work hard. When founders do more consistent internal storytelling, not only do team members stay bought in – but founders themselves gain confidence in the team because now they can see the staff gets it.

The other part is listening to staff. Sometimes being so laser-focused on one path, one way, one answer means founders can overlook the creativity and experience of people in the room. That is nearly always to their detriment — and the organization’s. But when a founder gives people the room to run with their ideas, they get the very thing they’ve wanted so dearly: an organization that moves with agility and speed. 

Get out of the way (just a bit)

At a certain point, founders need some ballast. For those who aren’t boat people, ballast provides weight that improves the boat’s stability (not to be confused with anchors that pull them down!). I often find that founders appreciate their own unique characteristics — being high energy, big picture people — and at the same time, recognize the need for help to stay focused. It’s all too easy to get distracted by the next fire, that shiny new opportunity, or simply the random pop-up task of the day. 

At that point, useful help (the ‘ballast’) can look like someone who:

• Encourages you to get comfortable letting staff use your name and network to set up the gift — and bring you in for the close

• Politely redirects you when you pull others away from the task at hand (“Give them an hour so they can complete the last thing you discussed.”)

• Keeps you focused by being very direct (“Hey, I really need you to send those three emails in the next two hours.”)

• Makes concrete changes to help operations run smoothly and continually (“We’re going to improve our board governance in these three ways.”)

Founders have so many gifts to offer the world. Fresh thinking. Bold convictions. Unassailable confidence. That’s why I find it so personally rewarding to work directly with them. It’s because by bringing some structure and setup – an operating budget, regulatory requirements, donor strategies and staffing plans – founders can have all of what they dream of and more.

A nonprofit on a growth trajectory.

An organization that’s self-sustaining and taken seriously.

Impacts that lead to legacies.