May 18, 2008 | Read Time: 1 minute
Mike Burns, a nonprofit consultant, is questioning the advice offered by the book Forces for Good.
The book examines several nonprofit groups and suggests six practices that helped them to be successful. On his blog, Nonprofit Board Crisis, Mr. Burns summaries and critiques the suggestions.
For example, “Work with government and advocate for policy change in addition to providing services (sure and why not although lots of nonprofits think this is a problem and many can not handle the competing demand for resources to do both activities)” and “Build and nurture nonprofit networks treating other groups not as competitors but as allies (hm, like Habitat [for Humanity] did with the founder’s spin-off and yet Habitat made the list).”
In all, he says the authors are on the right track, but may have left out some crucial ideas.
“Ok — so I agree with the authors — many not so easy [practices] and maybe all important but I miss two ingredients in particular — great management and great governance. Can any of this be possible without?” he asks.
Read The Chronicle’s article about the book and its advice.
What do you think of the book’s suggestions? What practices would you add to the list?
