Philosophy of Practice

Philosophy

RQG’s philosophy of practice is driven by three underlying assumptions;

  1. Nonprofits are not solely business models, but rather community models. While they all have inherent business models that need to be maintained, success is reliant on more than the financial bottom line.

  2. Leadership is the most important resource in a community model and key performance indicator for nonprofits

  3. The current landscape mandates that all businesses need to embrace a commitment to  sustainability with the goals of addressing the challenges we face in achieving social and environmental  justice.

Community

Unlike most traditional businesses, nonprofits have a more complex model by which they approach success. As if financial success weren’t difficult enough, nonprofits are required to show impact and performance in other ways in order to be successful. Performance is driven by a complex relationship between mission and financial success.

In this way, nonprofits are not simply business models but rather a complex combination of both community and traditional business models. No nonprofit organization can survive without a healthy community in terms of both defining its desired impact as well as its need for support.

Community models also mandate different approaches to developing strategy and decision making. Decision making in particular is very different in the nonprofit model for it requires the engagement of stakeholders towards the goal of coming to consensus in most important decisions. This is just as true in strategic planning as it is in selecting the next leader. Without effective community engagement decision making can be both challenging and ineffective.

For this reason, understanding the role of building and developing an organizations complex community structure is a critical component of developing a strategy for success, whether in designing effective programming, a profitable fundraising campaign, or a successful executive search

 

Sustainability

The link between nonprofits and sustainability

Like businesses focused on sustainability, nonprofits have a more complex model by which they approach success. As if financial success weren’t difficult enough, nonprofits are required to show impact and performance in other ways in order to be successful. Performance is driven by a complex relationship between mission and financial success. In sustainability this is referred to as “an integrated bottom line.”

An integrated bottom line mandates that success is reliant on more than financial health. In sustainability terms this includes an environmental and/or social impact. In nonprofits, the definition of success differs for each nonprofit’s mission, but success always includes some level of community impact.

In this way nonprofits have been leaders in understanding how to create sustainable communities that address a more complex concept of the bottom line.

“Integrating financial, environmental, and social costs and benefits into a unified measure of business activity.” Theo Furgusson

“Blends traditionally separate financial, environmental, and social assets and liabilities into a unified measure of financial success.” Hunter Lovins

While nonprofits have always understood the importance of community success in their own success, for-profit business has finally come to understand the importance of developing strong community models to build customer loyalty and financial success.

Leadership 

Leadership represents the most important resource in a community model

Just as nonprofits are economic drivers in a community they are also leadership drivers. As such, they serve as engines of growth in terms of generating effective leadership in a community. In this manner, leadership serves is a critical indicator of a nonprofit’s success. The evidence of this is that most funders include leadership within their assessment of an organization’s health and in term its eligibility for financial support

While leadership has always been an important link to an nonprofit’s community and its success, many nonprofits do not recognize the importance of investing in its leadership resources.   Leadership isn’t simply something an organization comes by. Nor is it a static quality that once developed stays forever. Leadership is dynamic and like all resources, leadership needs planning and like all sustainable  resources it needs continual development, management, assessment and a clear picture of drivers and motivators. Organizations that devote the necessary time and resources to this process will benefit from stronger performance and success.