Giving Compass' Take:

• Continuous process improvement can help maximize philanthropic resources by utilizing tools that are proven to help organizations innovate. 

• What are some examples of innovative processes in philanthropy that have strengthened organizations? 

• Read about these funder lessons from philanthropic failure. 

The work week should be over, but the office is buzzing, and the chief financial officer is making the rounds one more time. Foundation policy says grantee checks must be in the mail by end of day Friday, and there are still dozens of outstanding items. Everyone is staying late, because if those checks don’t get out, grantees can’t act on their programs. People can’t get help. And the foundation board is sure to hear about it.

If that scene sounds uncomfortably familiar, you’re not alone. Philanthropic organizations are built around the idea of partnering with nonprofits, and they make a commitment to their board to deliver social impact for the communities they serve, yet their own processes sometimes build roadblocks to delivering on that commitment.

Some philanthropic organizations might not even recognize the challenges they face. Even ineffective processes can seem the only possible option when they’ve been in place for years. They linger because nobody can imagine a different way, and over time an approach that might have been perfectly suitable when an organization was starting out is made obsolete by growth, changes in focus, or evolutions in technology.

Continuous process improvement uses proven tools to maximize existing resources and solve the pain points philanthropic organizations experience every day. Where traditional process improvement is built on tweaks, automation, and applying bandages as cracks appear, continuous process improvement focuses on process control and improvement to build the organizational muscle you need in order to innovate.

Through continuous process improvement, philanthropic organizations can:

  • Recapture hundreds, even thousands of work hours,
  • Be error free for multiple years,
  • Deliver better or faster on grants or donor acknowledgments, and
  • Maximize help you get your bearings and move forward with a new outlook.

Read the full article about continuous process improvement in philanthropy by Lee Kuntz at PEAK Grantmaking.