Infrastructure

What would happen if your CEO/Executive Director (ED) finished their lunch and left for the day…and decided not to return….Ever? And what if your only staff accountant or grant associate did the same, but your ED stayed? Which scenario would be more challenging for your organization’s operations?

If you do not have a group of people or someone within your organization thinking about your organization’s ability to thrive despite significant internal disruptions, you are missing out on opportunities to engage in comprehensive succession planning and ultimately strengthen your #infrastructure.

Today’s Fast Build Friday is about succession planning. Nic shares the first 2 of 4 key elements that succession plans miss, but should incorporate to allow organizations to show up consistently even when a key employee or leader leaves.

These 2 elements – being more than CEO/ED focused and addressing systems – can considerably strengthen your infrastructure and can help you plan for even more consistent impact.

Do you have a succession plan?

Let us know your thoughts in the comments.

You can watch Episode 30 below.

Do you ever think about how creating and protecting your organization’s #intellectualproperty can help support its sustainability?

Today’s Fast Build Friday is about using infrastructure to protect your intellectual property. Nic shares three examples to illustrate the clear link between strong infrastructure and protecting your IP to support asset creation.

When we have conversations with #nonprofit leaders and teams about organizational infrastructure, we always raise questions about their organizations’ ability to create and protect their intellectual property. If you have no intellectual property or have an inadequate way to protect it, you are impairing your value and asset creation and limiting your sustainability.

How are you protecting your intellectual property? Is your infrastructure hurting or helping? Let us know in the comments!

You can watch Episode 29 below.

Nic has listened to and helped #nonprofit leaders tell compelling stories for more than a decade. Her work has shown her that there is a strong connection between a nonprofit’s ability to say, “No,” to a grant and compelling storytelling.

Today’s Fast Build Friday episode is about the connection between infrastructure and the ability to say, “No,” to a grant. It is the final installment in our three-part series that started with Fast Build Friday Episode 24.

Having structured grants to support communities in nearly every region of the world, Nic knows the power of a compelling story. And she appreciates the connection between story telling and infrastructure. When you do not have the ability to say, “No,” it indicates that you have no convictions about the way you work, the way you are structured, or the way you should be structured to provide sustained support to the communities you are working with. Without the ability to say, “No,” it is the story you risk telling.

How are you telling your story? How are you supporting other organizations to help them tell a compelling story? We would love to know in the comments!

You can watch Episode 26 below.

As a nonprofit or social-impact #startup, how much can you do with limited capacity? With no capacity? Do you want to find out or do you want to learn how to build your capacity almost immediately?

We can tell you that without capacity, your compelling programmatic vision and strategy do not matter. As a startup, it is therefore critical that you build capacity to support your vision and strategy.

Today’s Fast Build Friday topic is again about the fundamental infrastructure considerations for nonprofit or social-impact start-ups. In it, Nic shares the second of her two fundamental considerations – capacity – and discusses three ways to build capacity almost immediately. It is part two to last week’s Fast Build Friday Episode 21.

How are you thinking about #capacitybuilding in startups? Let us know in the comments!

You can watch Episode 22 below.