Nonprofit Lifecycles: Stage-based Wisdom for Nonprofit Capacity

Description

by Susan Kenny Stevens with a foreword by Paul C. Light
Throughout the country, foundations, nonprofit managers, and board members are realizing the relationship between organizational competence or capacity and a nonprofit’s ability to accomplish its mission and deliver important services. Yet, current definitions of capacity generally describe one-size-fits-all practices and protocols for mature organizations. The fact is that not all nonprofits are mature. Some are start-ups, others are in rapid growth, and still others are undergoing organizational regeneration.

Nonprofit Lifecycles: Stage-based Wisdom for Nonprofit Capacity weighs in with a developmental perspective on nonprofit capacity and its relationship to increased organizational performance. Offering practical insights and thought-provoking case illustrations, this book presents seven nonprofit lifecycle stages and the predictable tasks, challenges, and inevitable growing pains that nonprofits encounter and can hope to master on the road to organizational sustainability.

More than ten thousand nonprofit and foundation officers have attended the Growing-Up Nonprofit seminars in which Susan Kenny Stevens originally introduced the hands-on wisdom of lifecycle theory. Now, as foundations and nonprofits seek to understand the principles of capacity and capacity-building activities, Stevens again showcases the lifecycle approach she pioneered more than two decades ago, and has since served as the cornerstone of her own successful consulting practice.

Reviewers are calling Nonprofit Lifecycles “seminal wisdom” and a must for:

Nonprofits seeking an overall understanding of the predictable characteristics and challenges they will face at various stages of organizational development.
Foundations interested in making capacity investments that add value, hit the mark, and effectively strengthen nonprofit capacity.
Consultants, evaluators, and academics seeking to diagnose and assess organizational challenges and performance against normative patterns of organizational development and maturation.
The capacity-building field as a whole to embrace a common language and set of definitions about the lifecycle dimensions of nonprofit capacity.

The lessons contained in Nonprofit Lifecycles are timeless. Learn for yourself the stage-based wisdom from this nationally-recognized expert on nonprofit capacity.

8x10 format; 140 pages

About the author

Susan Kenny Stevens, Ph.D is a nationally recognized consultant, author, and lecturer on financial, management, and organizational issues pertaining to philanthropy and the nonprofit sector. Her books and case studies are used throughout the country by nonprofit managers, foundations, evaluators and academics to strengthen their understanding of nonprofit dynamics. Her other books include All the Way to the Bank, Investing In Capacity, and Budgeting Your Way to Financial Stability.