If your nonprofit has a weak theory of change, with outcomes supported by little data, you are struggling to create revenues and a board capable of leadership, and your current strategy feels like it is one step forward and one (or more) steps backwards, it is time for nonprofit leadership and board members engage in five critical conversations now. 

If you are cutting programs, staff, or infrastructure, you certainly can’t add “new” revenue generating strategies. Cutting programs won’t rescue you either. It’s time to think differently about your organization’s future. Whatever your issue area is you are not alone. Other are working on the same issues and, because you are not alone, the conversations must shift.

It may be easy for us to see that the detrimental impact of consolidating retail power at the national level but it is important to zoom into the hyperlocal context to see how the loss of a one-stop shopping store closure harms a neighborhood economy. Let’s imagine if the city invested resources similar to those invested downtown to offset an anchor store closure in an already disenfranchised neighborhood. Let’s imagine if we had a vision for economic and social equity and the political will to carry it out.

When the meeting stakes are high, trust or social parity between members is low, and/or process skills are weak the need for an outside facilitator increases. Unfortunately, the idea of paying for facilitation clouds the judgement of teams to self assess their objectivity, equity, and process skills. As a result applying routine “we can do it ourselves” facilitation skills to high stakes meetings, at best, cheats the process, and at the extreme, results in bad decisions.