I was sitting in a meeting of young professionals last week and the subject of nonprofits, grant funding, grant writing, and fundraising arose. In addition, the continued subject of interest to me (ethics, governance, and accountability) was also mentioned. But, I found the thoughts of the group of young professionals to be fascinating, well-timed, and very thoughtful: those nonprofit organizations that are ‘irrelevant’ or ‘duplicative’ are no longer needed in our communities, are drawing funds away from other, arguably more viable, needs and should not be expected to survive.

Nonprofits come in all sizes and exist for an endless number of reasons. Whether you provide educational, cultural, spiritual, recreational, health or social services; you are big, small, a start-up or established, you have recognized a need and exist to fill it. Running and growing a nonprofit is a complex and challenging task. Ever changing boards, staff, social and economic conditions, even competition, present obstacles. You have many inside and outside forces working against you. As a nonprofit leader, your vision is the fuel that drives the organization.

Reading Millard Fuller’s obituary, he founded Habitat for Humanity, reminded me that it takes just one person to care deeply to start a nonprofit. Maybe your organization, like others, began with a founder’s passion. Moving beyond that point requires getting others to share the vision. A mix of people willing to give time, money and talent must join in the quest.

There is no question that it takes more than a vision to grow an organization but, I don’t think, you can argue the reverse: You can’t grow an organization without a clear vision.

However, the focus of this article is leadership development, and in workplace giving campaigns there are campaign events known as “charity fairs.” In a charity fair, selected charities from the workplace giving catalog are invited to come to the organization’s offices, and staff a table with their representatives, give out their materials, and answer any questions that the potential donors might ask. One of the biggest “hidden treasures” of workplace giving campaigns is that they can be the ideal “practice field” for emerging non-profit leaders.

Should we ponder merging similar nonprofits?

Most discussions that I have been involved in over the years that concern ‘duplication’ of activities among similar nonprofits have predominately centered on the issue of ‘job protection’ for the executive director. While this is entirely predictable, it should be recognized that the issues driving the missions of nonprofits are not easy to solve and there may never be enough people to get the job done. Accordingly, the merging of similar (duplicative) programs and agencies seems to be a very reasonable way of addressing the community needs and the individual protectionism among executive directors and even board members who have long-standing ties with certain organizations, despite the possibility that those organizations are now either ‘irrelevant’ or ‘duplicative’ to the objective reviewer.

So, where do we go from here?

Without a doubt, the discussion among the young professionals in the meeting I attended was thought-provoking. There is no better time than right now for nonprofits to look internally, get their house in order, cooperate with their peer organizations, and conduct themselves in a manner consistent with the privilege awarded them through their IRS charitable designation

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