ARTICLE
Great Nonprofits Are In The Forever Business
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Updated - 04/25/2025
One of the most complimentary phrases is “built to last.” It highlights something specially designed or constructed with the intention of enduring for a long time. It can apply to relationships, structures, or items that are reliable and sturdy. In the context of organizations, being “built to last” means constantly adapting and improving while maintaining a fixed core ideology.
It has especially profound meaning in the nonprofit sector where benefits are by nature typically intangible instead of things that you can touch or hold in your hands.
The first “modern” nonprofit is considered to be the Peabody Education Fund, founded in 1867 with the purpose of integrating poor white and formerly enslaved people in the South. In 1881, Clara Barton founded the American Red Cross, pioneering large-scale disaster relief efforts.
Relatively speaking, nonprofits have only recently become an omnipresent part of American society. As recently as 1940, there were only 12,500 secular charitable tax-exempt organizations. Today, there are more than 1.5 million tax-exempt organizations in the nation. This includes all 501(c) designations such as churches, cultural centers, food banks, disaster relief organizations and many others.
What distinguishes nonprofits that are built to last? Based on four decades of experience, having the privilege of leading advancement for three institutions of higher education, and working with organizations of varying sizes, missions, and locations, the following 10 well-earned qualities and attributes come quickly to mind.
- Missions: Put yourself in the shoes of donors. You’re forced to make excruciatingly difficult decisions not between the good and the bad, but between the good and the good. Your nonprofit must be able to articulate how it improves the world in ways that all the other good causes don’t.
- Leadership: The social sector is suffering from extreme turnover challenges. Strong CEOs, Executive Directors, Board Chairs and others who lead by example inspire momentum and empower the organization to overcome obstacles. This is also true for development officers with an average tenure of perhaps two years. Not only is replacing them an expensive and time-consuming proposition, but there is a huge loss of “trust capital” in the friendships they’ve developed with major gift donors.
- Revenue: Depending too much on single sources, whether they are government, individual philanthropists, corporations, or foundations, is inviting financial problems. The current clouds of uncertainty over government funding are a vivid reminder.
- Morale: Nonprofits energized by pride, camaraderie, and a shared sense of purpose are well positioned to perform at the highest possible level. They are willing to go the extra mile, fill gaps, and extend a helping hand when and where necessary. During crunch times, this makes all the difference.
- Long game: Moving the needle in serving as a genuine agent of positive social change doesn’t happen overnight. There are no quick fixes. It takes a sustained commitment with a laser-like focus day in and day out, year after year, to achieve crucial goals and objectives.
- Continuous improvement: High-performing organizations are never satisfied with the status quo. They don’t rest on past laurels in operating effectively and efficiently. Innovation opens huge doors of opportunity. Fundraising in particular is an ultimate process improvement discipline. Every interaction with donors, whether the response is yes, no, or we need more time, is a teaching moment to acquire new insights, experience, and levels of comfort to raise more money.
- Volunteers: To put it bluntly, nonprofits could not achieve anywhere near their current impact without the precious gifts of time. More than 75.7 million people — or 28.3% of Americans — formally volunteer through organizations, giving more than 4.99 billion hours of service with $167.2 billion of economic value. Research also indicates that twice the number (80%) of volunteers donate to charity compared to people who don’t volunteer (40%).
- Debate: Different perspectives and disagreements are not only okay, but healthy. They enable decision makers to understand all sides of an issue and reach the strongest possible conclusion. It’s absolutely critical that discussions are conducted in a respectful manner, concentrate on the business at hand, and avoid personal attacks.
- Collaboration: It couldn’t be timelier for nonprofits — especially those sharing similar mission space — to collaborate, communicate, and coordinate for mutual benefit. There are a variety of both formal and informal ways to do so. An effective strategy is making joint requests that funders welcome receiving, joining forces on providing programs and services, and sharing back-office operations.
- Celebration: Joyfully acknowledging victories of all sizes and recognizing as many parties as possible is an essential component of keeping morale high. Let’s face it, nonprofit work is hard. Celebrating the acquisition of new donors and the launch of new programs and leaders is well worth the investment of time and effort to pause and salute the value added to advancing the mission.
Great organizations — for-profit and nonprofit alike — don’t emerge haphazardly. They are the culmination of great cultures. Especially in the nonprofit sector, such cultures develop from enormous commitment, discipline, unity, and passion for a grander vision. Great nonprofits in the forever business know when they do well, we all do well.
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