Forces for Good: The Six Practices of High-Impact Nonprofits

by Leslie R. Crutchfield

An innovative guide to how great nonprofits achieve extraordinary social impact. What makes great nonprofits great? Authors Crutchfield and McLeod Grant searched for the answer over several years, employing a rigorous research methodology which derived from books on for-profits like Built to Last. They studied 12 nonprofits that have achieved extraordinary levels of impact—from Habitat for Humanity to the Heritage Foundation—and distilled six counterintuitive practices that these organizations use to change the world. This book has lessons for all readers interested in creating significant social change, including nonprofit managers, donors and volunteers. Leslie R. Crutchfield (Washington, D.C.) is a managing director of Ashoka and research grantee of the Aspen Institute. Heather McLeod Grant (Palo Alto, CA) is a nonprofit consultant and advisor to Duke University’s Center for the Advancement of Social Entrepreneurship and the Stanford Center for Social Innovation. Crutchfield and Grant were co-founding editors of Who Cares, a national magazine reaching 50,000 readers in circulation between 1993-2000.

Genres: Business, Nonfiction, Leadership, Professional Development, Management, Social Change, Audiobook

313 pages, Hardcover

First published October 19, 2006

About the author

Leslie Crutchfield is an author, Executive Director of the Global Social Enterprise Initiative at Georgetown University’s McDonough School of Business, and a leading authority on social change.

Leslie’s first book, Forces for Good: The Six Practices of High-Impact Nonprofits with Heather McLeod Grant was recognized by The Economist on its Best Books of the Year list. She then coauthored Do More Than Give: The Six Practices of Donors Who Change the World with John Kania and Mark Kramer of FSG, Social Impact Consultants where she serves as Senior Advisor. Her third book is How Change Happens (forthcoming/Wiley April 16, 2018).

Leslie was previously a managing director at Ashoka, the global venture fund for social entrepreneurs, and she cofounded a U.S. nonprofit social enterprise in her 20s.

She has contributed to Fortune, Forbes, The Washington Post, The Chronicle of Philanthropy, and Stanford Social Innovation Review, and has appeared on programs such as NPR and ABC News.

Leslie has served on nonprofit boards including SEED Foundation and Kiva, and she volunteered with Crossroads Africa in The Gambia. She holds an MBA and BA from Harvard, and resides in the Washington, D.C. region.

Reviews

[Amora · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book tells the story of several non-profits going from completely unknown to well-known and the principles they followed to expand. I’m starting a non-profit myself and the principles mentioned in this book have been of tremendous help in spreading my name around. There’s a lot of data and graphs in here but this book but it’s still readable for someone that is a new face to non-profits. This book can get repetitive at times but the content is quite good.

[David · Rating 4 out of 5]

The six practices of high-impact nonprofits are:
1. Advocate AND serve. You need to add advocacy to have high impact. Leverage your message toward governments, policies, other powerful networks, etc….
2. Make markets work. Tap into the power of self-interest and economics rather than pure altruism. For instance: Earned income ventures?
3. Inspire evangelists. Your volunteers need to be evangelists for your cause.
4. Nurture non profit networks. Real collaboration means helping other organizations and not viewing others as competitors, freely sharing information and resources with peers.
5. Master the art of adaptation. Listen, learn, and modify your approach based on changing situations.
6. Share leadership. Empower others, especially second level leaders. You must have strong succession plans. See page 178.

[Adelaida Diaz-Roa · Rating 4 out of 5]

The first half of this book is 100%! 5 Stars, I loved it. If you're thinking of investing in a non-profit or starting one, I highly recommend the first half of this book where they cover the 6 practices.

The second half... meh... 3 stars, feel like you don't really learn much more and it's just examples that support those 6 practices.

[Ivan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lots of new categories that I had not considered before. Good read, with many actionable items.

[Ian Morel · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was very much a “Good to Great” for nonprofits. I found it helpful in creating space to think about unique challenges we face in the nonprofit world.

Definitely worth a read for new people in the nonprofit world.

4/5

[Robert · Rating 5 out of 5]

As is true of several other outstanding business books, the work on this one was driven by a question: What makes great nonprofits great?” What Crutchfield and McLeod learned is shared in this volume. They assert that high-impact nonprofits demonstrate all or most of six practices: They both advocate what is urgently needed and commit resources in response to that need; are “pragmatic idealists” who combine social values with business “smarts” to “make markets work”; build a community of evangelists as a powerful force for social change by communicating their mission, vision, and values as well as creating meaningful experiences; adopt and maintain a network mind-set to share resources and empower other organizations; constantly adapt and modify their tactics and initiatives while maintaining “the balance between stifling bureaucracy and unbridled creativity”; and support growth by developing high-impact leadership internally, widely distributing authority as well as responsibility among those involved in the given enterprise

Crutchfield and Grant devote a separate chapter to each of these six, then suggest in Chapter Nine how to put them in action. By now they have answered the original question. Great nonprofits are great because they are “working with and through others, as counterintuitive as that might seem. It’s about leveraging every sector of society to become a force for good…. high-impact organizations bridge boundaries and work with others to achieve greater levels of change than they could accomplish alone.”

What about all the other nonprofits? How can they make what Collins characterizes as a “leap” from being only mediocre or good to great? Stated another way, how can these other nonprofits also become effective agents of change and have high-impact? Those who lead them “need to bridge boundaries and understand how to influence without authority. They will need to see the larger system and their role in it – not just their own interests…[They must] be influential enough to convince the CEOs of global corporations to change their ways, and to make the business case, as well as the moral case, for doing so…Above all else, nonprofit leaders must learn how to share power an empower others – if they aren’t already doing so.” The six practices can help to guide and inform the change initiatives that are needed. What to do and where to start? Please see Figures 9.1-9.6 inserted sequentially throughout pages 214-220.

[Alex · Rating 5 out of 5]

I often find books by nonprofit consultants too obvious, but this is one of the best I've read. Despite looking a multimillion dollar organizations, I found the advice relevant to small nonprofits, and was especially pleased to see them analyzing very different types of organizations--from the Heritage Foundation to Teach for America. I particularly appreciated the advice on inspiring evangelists and the benefits of prioritizing the movement over just the organization (while recognizing that an organization needs to be planned and run as such).

[Cathy · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a must-read for anyone who works for a nonproft, for foundations and businesses that support nonprofits, and generally for the do-gooders in the world.

It identifies six common practices identified in 12 effective nonprofits that have had national impact. The group is diverse, ranging from Habitat for Humanity to the Heritage Foundation.

We are using it for our Board retreat in a few weeks. Highly recommended.

[Anne · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was very motivating for me. There were parts of this book where I almost couldn't concentrate on what I was reading because I was so busy with thoughts on how to apply these practices with the non-profit I'm involved with. Also, reading about several of these organization I had never heard of before, I'm so glad there are people out there doing such good work in spaces that really need progress. But be warned, this book is dry, academic and long, and probably not applicable if you aren't really involved in a non-profit, or if you aren't considering becoming more involved. The authors say that if you're a donor or volunteer this book can help you choose better non-profits to contribute to, but I feel like this book is too in depth for that audience.

Also, this book is really focused on mega-nonprofits with multimillion dollar budgets. Even in the abridged edition where they profile a few small non-profits, I don't think they're that small at all. As someone working with a 300K budget non-profit, I almost spit out my coffee when reading sentences like "with a modest budget of $1.5mil...".

And finally, I really hope that these authors or others in the space can help create guidance for non-profits that do work internationally in specific communities. I think there are unique challenges with applying these 6 practices when your work is in another country than your supporters (e.g. how do you advocate for policy in a culturally sensitive way in another country? how do you create meaningful sticky experiences between your donors and your cause when not everyone can realistically travel to another country?).

[Kelly · Rating 3 out of 5]

High impact nonprofits do this:
- Work externally with all sectors of society
- Use leverage to change entire systems
- Do whatever it takes, short of compromising core values
- Advocate for policy change and run programs
- Harness market forces and work with businesses
- Engage outsiders in meaningful experiences; build long term relationships
- Nurture networks of nonprofits; build the field
- Constantly adapt and balance creativity with structure
- Empower others to lead and take action
- Invest in the basics: people, fundraising, and systems
- Focus on impact and measure progress against results or larger systemic change

[James Evans · Rating 3 out of 5]

This very interesting scholarly work gives those interested in nonprofit management and leadership some very good imperial advice. The study follows along the lines of Jim Collins' book, Good to Great.
Large, successful nonprofits recognize that they are catalysts for a movement, not just a "business" operating in a market niche. They tend to be "messy" in organization and operation, but they are driven by market forces; i.e., recognized, but unfilled social, economic, or political needs that require the organization and channeling of volunteer forces and funds.

[Ray · Rating 3 out of 5]

The book wasn't terrible but it wasn't terribly interesting either.

The things great nonprofits do:
1. Great nonprofits serve (help people directly) and advocate (policy making)
2. Partner with businesses when appropriate
3. Inspire evangelists to get out there and spread the word of your cause
4. Create great networks of people
5. Keep changing and improving their programs
6. Share leadership. Don't have a single point of leadership, empower your people.
7. Hire amazing people and pay them well

[Chad Manske · Rating 4 out of 5]

Well researched with a solid analytical methodology, the authors looked at high performing non profit organizations loosely using Jim Collins’ Good to Great evaluative process used to grade the best for-profit companies. Derived from this are 12 high performing non profits for which the authors extracted six common best practices leading to their success. These six practices became recommendations by the authors and a lens through which all non profits could learn and apply. Exceptional checklists and considerations for leaders of any non profit will benefit from the wisdom herein!

[Alexandrea · Rating 3 out of 5]

2.5 rounded up to 3 stars

I'm glad I read "Good to Great" by Jim Collins right before reading this, because the two books are fraternal twins practically. The research and gathering of information, and the way the information is broke down is identical to each other.

Forces for Good has a great idea. It's implementation of what makes a great non profit if sterile and feels unoriginal. I think this is a good guideline book to refer back to every once in a while, but it's not ground shattering and doesn't provide any real revelations on how to make an impact in your community.

[Apoorv Gupta · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not a great read, but a good resource book for people invested in any work with direct impact on society. Best is to look at the six principles every morning and bring them in practice every day.

Although, I believe, one is better off finding exemplars of the principles in community right away rather than obsessing over the case studies presented in this book, because unfortunately, that set is quite limited in it's geographical & cultural diversity as far as this book goes.

[Liz Curfman · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a good read for non profit leaders, as well as funders. Boiling down 6 definitive attributes of high impact non profits was really interesting. Also appreciated the updated version of the book included smaller non profits implementing the 6 attributes. Would recommend it to non profit leaders and board members wanting to scaffold out an organization’s impact or really take a look at how to get things moving in the same direction.

[Kalyn Barrick · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book was very difficult to get through. It was primarily information about the twelve non-profits studied and how they performed the "6 practices." I found that I skimmed 90% of the book due to this. The 6 practices themselves are good advice but this book could have been 40 pages instead of 440.

[MICHAEL · Rating 2 out of 5]

interesting concept, with what appears to be a solid methodology. I heard the author speak at a conference so picked up the book. Might be good for some readers, but did not address a burning need of mine, so I lost interest about a third of the way through. Nothing wrong with it, just targeting a subject I was not concerned with, at this time.

[Mark Bailey · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is one of those books where the critical ideas could be spelled out in a five page memo. To the authors' credit they do summarize in the early chapters. In addition to their stated service and mission the highlighted NGOs are effective because they leverage their mission by collaborating with NGO peers and by advocating with the public and to government for improved laws and policies.

[Sara · Rating 4 out of 5]

Overall I liked the book. The six practices presented are explained well. I wish they included smaller non profits in their study sample as I strongly believe that would have resulted in slightly better set of practices.

[Palak Madan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Bit repetitive and extrapolated cherry-picked patterns. Particularly focused on non-profits in the States.
Overall good but six practices that are mentioned could be applied to all kinds of companies, not particularly specific to impact making non-profit organisations.

[Javiera · Rating 4 out of 5]

Instructive case studies that demonstrate how you successfully merge fund development in strategic organizational scaling to high-impact nonprofits. Absorbing and a must-read for anyone working at a nonprofit.

[Luke Paul · Rating 5 out of 5]

Read this because I’m in an Intro to Nonprofit class for school. Such a great read - gave me a better understanding of how the Nonprofit sector should work. Full of examples and explanations on why things work and don’t work. Very engaging and an easy read.

[Rachel · Rating 3 out of 5]

A bit dated, nevertheless a few points to carry through time. The stories of specific non-profits were my favorite points as they brought home the key points, and I got an insight into a few organizations I'm unfamiliar with.

[Dain Johnson · Rating 2 out of 5]

Of course, there were a few good points, but they were tucked in a lot of unnecessary fluff. The very last chapter is the only one that is needed, and includes some really good checklists that can provide a nice roadmap for any nonprofit of what to work on next.

[Anne Marie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Read more like a textbook so not the most enjoyable read BUT it was SO insightful. I think anyone involved in the social sector—whether that be staff, volunteer, donor, board member, corporate partner—would benefit from reading this one!!

[Alison Palumbo · Rating 4 out of 5]

An informative read. A little repetitive, but repetition is good when you’re learning like I am.

[Login PC · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting book, but took a long time to say some basics and some stories felt irrelevant.

[Seth Mcdevitt · Rating 5 out of 5]

Lots of really solid advice in this one. Will def keep close as a reference.

[Leo Walsh · Rating 3 out of 5]

Tried reading but didn’t finish. Some good stuff in there if you’re looking to enter or are already in the nonprofit sector, but too dry for me. Probably more of a reflection of me than the book :/