Welcome to Real Time, a community building blog that seeks to provoke thought, encourage conversation, and help our friends and colleagues understand what goes on "behind the scenes" at the Maine Community Foundation.
May
12
Written by:
Meredith Jones
5/12/2009 7:56 AM
"Now, here, you see, it takes all the running you can do, to keep in the same place.”
The Red Queen in Lewis Carroll’s Through the Looking Glass
In an earlier blog I commented about the need for greater collaboration among nonprofits. Yet even as I acknowledge that collaboration makes sense, I’m reminded of something I learned from Professor William Barnett at Stanford.
Barnett argues that nonprofits are in a zero sum competition when it comes to receiving grant support. Wittingly or unwittingly, foundations shape the system of competition among nonprofits. The mere act of allocating our grant dollars means we shape who participates, when the participation occurs, and how nonprofits pursue their objectives. We even determine what criteria will determine success.
Barnett goes on to argue that competition and learning are self reinforcing. Organizations are more viable if they have endured competition; they’re stronger; and they tend to stimulate change rather than ensure equilibrium. This “Red Queen” competition is the engine that drives strategic evolution, and it is through this process that individual actions accumulate into organizational capabilities.
Funders strive to design systems and solutions for tomorrow and we look to nonprofits for innovation. Does Barnett’s argument suggest that we should encourage more competition?
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2 comment(s) so far...
Re: Red Queen Competition
Watch out! The type of competition Professor Barnett is describing can be the equivilent of "mission creep" in which a non-profit's program goals and objectives are routinely reconfigured to align with what foundations appear willing to fund.
Competition for dollars certainly exists among non-profits, but I'd like to think this competition is won or lost at the community level, and that this forms the criteria upon which foundations judge non-profit competition. Is the organization engaging and retaining local volunteers to accomplish valuable work? Is the local donor base strong and dependable, albeit insufficient? Is a non-profit occupying a particular niche in the community, but failing to deliver quality services to their needy constituents? Are both mission and need authentic, not imagined or duplicative?
Foundations can drive non-profits toward higher learning curves without necessarily dictating programs, specirfic standards, or outcomes. For instance, the common question, "How do you measure success?", has driven me in the past month to spend hours in on-line research, read two books, and drive 2-1/2 hours to take a class. In this effort, I learned a lot about measuring success and communicating more effectively about the work being done. But more important, I learned how to evaluate steps/tasks that are already being done well in order to determine if they could, in fact, be done even better.
A question like "How do you measure success?" doesn't make any assumptions about the methodology employed, or the significance of the work being measured. Instead, it's the rhetorical equivilent of asking: "Do you thoroughly understand what you're doing??? Should we give you dollars???"
I hope this is what Professor Barnett meant in saying that competition and learning are self reinforcing. Otherwise, beware of mission creep if foundations are looking for anything more than a good match with a non-profit that is performing well. The only mission a foundation should be driving is its own, ably and efficiently abetted by organizations like MCF to insure that good matches bring together good folks to fulfill mutual goals.
Scootch Pankonin
By Scootch Pankonin on
5/13/2009 8:14 AM
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Re: Red Queen Competition, or Running In Place
MJ- Once again, with a mere few words, you have given us much to think about. My experience at the Davis Educational Foundation supports Professor Barnett's theories. To your question of should we encourage MORE competition, I say yes. Yes, with a particular slant. As funders, we should find ways to encourage more nonprofits to seek competitive funding. ...Love the new website!
By Leanne Greeley Bond on
5/13/2009 8:14 AM
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