This was a major topic of discussion in the hallways and at lunch at the Washington Nonprofit Conference last Wednesday. The spark for these conversations was the keynote address from the 2 women who wrote “Forces for Good: the Six Practices of High-Impact Nonprofits.” Crutchfield and McLeod were greatly influenced by Jim Collins’ “Good to Great,” and followed a similar research methodology.
What had us talking was what they didn’t say, however. They began by saying that they only considered nonprofits with a national scope and a large ($10 million or more) budget for the study. We wondered: Why are national scope and a large budget prerequisites for impact? The consensus was, they’re not prerequisites, and that McLeod and Crutchfield should have qualified their research upfront with this caveat.
My question for you: how do you know you’re making a difference, either as a person or as an organization? I’m especially interested in how you qualitatively instead of quantitatively know you’re having an impact.
At the same conference. I co-presented a workshop about coaching called “Coaching for Nonprofit Leaders: Investing in your Organization’s Biggest Asset.” Our group of 35 or so had some fascinating discussions about what coaching is and isn’t and when it’s most useful. Here is the handout about coaching as a capacity-building tool and here for resources for nonprofit leaders seeking coaching. You can also find more resources about leadership in the nonprofit sector here.
3 responses to "How do you know you’re making a difference?"
April 16, 2008 at 10:37 pm -
Jill, the Coaching as a capacity building tool handout link above does not work. I was able to reach it from the resource list, so I guess its a typo?
great resources, I will refer people from my blog. Best, Laura
April 16, 2008 at 11:07 pm -
I updated the link – thanks for the heads up Laura!
January 31, 2010 at 9:40 am -
Hmmm… Good Question, Jill. I think my measure has always been connected to my sense of the level of energy being generated. If the conversations are alive, meaning that they are full hearted and can hold the full range of emotion, and if they seem to attract others to the process then they are likely making a difference. These lively conversations enliven the participants, who in turn are likely to invest that in what has heart and meaning to them.
Given that most conversations involve two or more, I believe that it’s not “I” that makes a difference, but “We.”