Why Our Nonprofits Need To Network (With Other Nonprofits)

I have a problem with today’s cerebral palsy (CP) interventions and treatments: they’re barely making a difference. Typically they result in only 4-10% lifetime gains or improvements* and that’s not good enough. I want to see those numbers doubled or tripled -- pronto. 

But -- 

Can anyone tell me who’s in charge of upping the percentages? With whom should I get in touch? 

One might guess that the responsible party is one of the twenty-five (25) or so US-or-Canada-based nonprofits whose mission has to do with improving outcomes as they relate to CP. The fact of the matter, however, is that no single organization is responsible. Nor could it be. The challenge – how to dramatically increase the effectiveness of our interventions – is way too complex. Too many layers and uncertainties are tied to it.

It’s actually a great example of the kind of “wicked” problem that’s best tackled by a network. One of countless such problems our special needs communities face.

Wicked problems don’t have one right solution. They’re solved through trial and error, consensus decision making, and experimenting-and-learning your way to what works. Networked collaboration is the most efficient way to share the associated costs, risks, resources, etc. And our new digital infrastructure can make it all the more efficient.

The great promise of networked collaboration is that everybody wins. Each participant “gets better faster” by working with other participants. The objectives of all stakeholders are advanced while the larger issue /shared problem is addressed. The authors of The Power of Pull also stress the value of long-term relationships that are often fostered: "As participants get to know each other and find that they share similar ways of looking at their endeavors, they start to trust one another, which prompts even deeper levels of collaboration (and tacit knowledge creation) around the difficult challenges they share." 

Of course, success depends on how well you collaborate, i.e., on how well the work itself is orchestrated. There are plenty of big thinkers out there sorting out the various management approaches being taken, trying to uncover best practices, etc. Here, in closing, are two good examples and potential resources for you:

• The Tapscott Group is actively exploring methods for making collaboration happen both within organizations and via multi-stakeholder networks. 

• FasterCures has been studying ways that networks of organizations are collaborating to expedite biomedical research. Its Consortia-pedia provides an in-depth look at the "research-by-consortium" trend and is loaded with information meant to help guide and inform emerging and existing collaborative efforts.

*  *  *  *  * 

Nonprofit networks are among the most powerful forces that an organization can channel for the greater good.

Forces for Good: The Six Practices of High-Impact Nonprofits

*per Dr. Iona Novak, Head of Research at CP Alliance

MY TWO CENTS_15A

Digital technologies are changing how we travel, plan, stay informed, bank, read, entertain ourselves, etc. But they don’t, in balance, seem to be significantly changing how organizations in and around the CP sphere are getting things done. I’m with Lucy Bernholz who writes in her Philanthropy and the Social Economy: Blueprint 2014:

…most of what we see are “add-ons” to old ways of doing work. We try to use e-mail or Twitter solicitations to replace or amplify our direct mail efforts (and find it doesn't yet work very well). Mobile credit card readers supplant online “donate now” buttons, and nonprofits add PayPal or Google Checkout options to their online donation options, but that’s about it.

Low-or-no-cost and proven-effective tips, techniques, and tools for being more digitally productive are readily available. (That's what this series of posts is ostensibly about.) I want the leaders of our organizations* to be aware of them, and to master them. I want them to succeed.

In the mean time, however, we parents and family members can’t afford to sit around and wait. There’s much work to be done. And though it may be daunting, there’s this good news, too: 

Doing work these days “no longer requires,” in the words of Nilofer Merchant, “a badge and permit." The tips, techniques, and tools that are there for our organizations’ taking are also available to us individuals. Opportunities and the means to make a difference are every bit as much ours as they are theirs.

What good can one person do? I’ll offer my two cents on the matter in the next set of posts.

*numbering in the hundreds? hundreds of hundreds?

My Two Cents_14

Notice that my solution for beating CP has, to this point, said nothing about advocacy, nothing about government funding, nothing about stem cells, nothing about disability rights, nothing about assistive technology, nothing about neurorehabilitation. Inarguably, that’s where a lot of the action is. Organizations working in those areas have pivotal roles to play. 

What I care about is how effectively they're pursuing their respective missions. 

My solution has largely to do with how well they get things done with and through "outsiders." In my opinion, they need to get better at working with and through individuals, e.g. the parents and family members of the millions of children in the US with neurological disorders. They also need to get better at working with and through other organizations – other nonprofits, for example. That's a topic I hope to explore later on.

How best to do these things are management matters. Making the smartest possible uses of the world’s available brainpower should be our leaders’ top priority. Their job is not to advocate, research, educate, etc., but to orchestrate talent. They need to understand that. As do their board members and other stakeholders. 

*  *  *  *  *

Actually, it's unfair to put the onus just on them. We’re all responsible. I’ll start pointing the spotlight at us parents and considering what we may be able to do to move things along in the next set of posts.