Giving Compass' Take:

• Here are five traits that demonstrate nonprofit organizations are ready for growth and to become financially stable organizations. 

• How do these traits help donors identify and support organizations that will be prosperous?

• Learn more about how your organization can scale up. 

In consulting with a nonprofit my role is to guide the organization to the next level. Perhaps they want to dramatically grow their impact or influence, or they want to develop a truly sustainable financial model, or they want to become a national player. Whatever their aim, my role is to help them figure out how to get from where they are now, to the larger, more effective, more sustainable future they envision.

In this work, I have increasingly found that there are 5 key traits that separate those nonprofits that grow their work and impact from those that don’t.

These 5 traits are:

  1. A critical mass of board and staff who want change.
  2.  Agreement about what “change” means.
  3. Belief that change is possible.
  4. Radical honesty about the hurdles standing in your way.
  5. Commitment to do whatever it takes.

The path to something bigger and better for your nonprofit is clear. Either you have these 5 traits, or you work to develop them. But without them you will remain safely and securely where you are right now.

Read the full article about traits of a nonprofit that is ready for change by Nell Edington at Social Velocity.