The culture and mindset of a startup is different from that of a more seasoned company, and sometimes for the better. While both startup and traditional company cultures have their advantages and disadvantages, startups typically value passion, collaboration and fast, constant innovation.
Implementing the ideals and practices of a startup can benefit your nonprofit organization, whether you’re well-established in your field or just starting out. Below, a panel of Forbes Nonprofit Council members share how your nonprofit can adopt a "startup" mentality and invigorate your organization.
1. Adopt A Constant Growth Mindset
In our world of agriculture, we know that when you're green you grow, but when you're ripe you rot. We have to always have a growth mindset. Whether that be how we raise money, how we market our efforts or how we envision the future. In the words of Dave Anderson, "We can't let the pats on the back turn into massages." Always be asking, "What's next, and how do we get there?" - Aaron Alejandro, Texas FFA Foundation
2. Eat Your Own Dog Food
Emulate the behavior you are asking from your grantees. If you want them to tackle big challenges, engage constituents in solutions and be great stewards of your resources, then reflect all that (and more) in the way you operate and engage your communities. Be clear in articulating these expectations and hold everyone to the same standard. Do these things and you will lead by example. - Thom Ruhe, NC IDEA Foundation
3. Promote A Mission-Aligned Culture
The heart and soul of a nonprofit is its mission. The more a nonprofit enterprise advances a mission-aligned culture of responsiveness for everyone, the more energy it creates. But culture alone without a way forward creates dissipation. A CEO has to own strategy that is shared by all and nurtures a productive culture. Strategy is fueled by a productive culture that creates momentum for success! - Jesse Bethke Gomez, Metropolitan Center for Independent Living
4. Reward Creativity
Nonprofits can address gaps in services by asking their staff to present solutions in a “Shark Tank” format. Encourage creativity and reward them with prizes for unique solutions. When a solution is agreed on, commit to implementation with an agreed-upon review date. Until that date, run the new team with a startup mentality to achieve optimal results. - Elizabeth Kumbhari, Cultural Vistas, Inc.
5. Prioritize Employee Engagement
We are living in this "norm" of unhappiness and lack of fulfillment in the workplace, which leads to lost productivity. Startups are addressing that by hiring teams that align not only with their needs, but also with their life goals. And we should do the same. We should prioritize employee fulfillment and offer teams the opportunity to achieve personal goals and dreams at work. - Leticia Gonzalez-Reyes, 109 World
6. Look At Your Entire Business Through A Client's Eyes
Do you know how you stop noticing the tear on the corner of a rug until you're preparing your home for visitors? Our organizations are the same way. In the donated goods retail business, we're always checking our stores for cleanliness and shop-ability, but what about our training or job placement services? No matter the mission, look at your products or services as new clients would. - Kimberly Lewis, Goodwill Industries of East Texas, Inc.
7. Think Big, Start Small
One of the things startups do best is "do things that don't scale." While keeping the big picture in mind, start by implementing ideas and strategies to focus your impact on a controlled group or audience. The advantage is you can easily measure your impact, learn quickly from your mistakes and grow credibility. Once your model is perfected, you can explore growth strategies to scale. - Deboshree Dutta, Women in Product | PayPal
8. Think Like A Disruptor
Make the choice to embrace disruption! When we think like a disruptor, we cultivate new perspectives on ways to invest in the organization. We consider where we can innovate and apply design thinking, and where there might be revenue streams we didn’t consider before. Most importantly, we learn how to leverage our collective internal intelligence to generate fresh ideas and approaches. - Peggy Smith, Worldwide ERC
9. Rely On Your Passion
At successful startups, the team adopts a "do whatever it takes" attitude and works together to make the organization succeed. This is a culture that easily translates to the nonprofit space, where often passion is high and resources are low. - Kym Frank, Geopath
