Results Now for Nonprofits: Strategic, Operating, and Governance Planning [Hardcover]

Mark Light (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0471758248 | ISBN-13: 978-0471758242 | Publication Date: February 8, 2011

Build your nonprofit into a high performer with this practical approach to purpose, strategy, operations, and governance

Planning is vital to achieving your nonprofit's purpose—too bad most nonprofits are strapped for time. Not anymore.

Using a lightning-fast and inclusive process, Results Now® puts purpose, strategy, operations, and governance into one user-friendly, comprehensive plan that your board can pass in a single vote and your organization can maintain as a regular part of its business throughout the year.

Results Now for Nonprofits relies on accountability and performance measurement to increase the level of effective decision-making. This "big picture first, details next" planning process helps you:

• Use the Results Now master plan as a centerpiece of board meetings and as a standard part of board meeting advance information

• Foster a welcome climate for give-and-take strategic thinking

• Clarify the organization's story for the community and keep people on point about what's important

• Develop team cohesion

• Orient newer leadership members and recharge seasoned ones

• Attract new funders who reward nonprofits who plan

A must-have for all nonprofit executives and directors, members of boards and trustees, and nonprofit managers, Results Now for Nonprofits is a results-driven, practical tool that will help your organization achieve its mission, values, and destiny.

Editorial Reviews

From the Inside Flap

Nonprofit high performance can be a challenge given the seven realities: limited time, imperfect knowledge, size of the board, composition of the board, fundability, continuity, and executive director inexperience. Not all organizations experience each of these realities at once, but it's a rare one that doesn't encounter a handful at the same time. Results Now® provides you with the tools to overcome these challenges, build capacity in your organization, achieve your nonprofit's mission, and sustain itself over the long term.

Author and capacity-building expert Mark Light employs the revolutionary Results Now planning program to help your organization develop an integrated Results Now master plan to guide the work and mission of your nonprofit. Equally beneficial for organizations that are vitally strong or those that are in dire consequences, the master plan puts strategic, operating, and governance planning together under one comprehensive program. Recognizing that informed board members make better decisions, the guide utilizes ample accountability and performance measurements to gauge your success along the way.

The flexible Results Now master plan was developed for simplicity: answer five questions about your organization, and in no time at all, you can develop a simple master plan that your company can put to immediate use, with plenty of room to refine it as you go along. It can be optimistic about where to go tomorrow while, at the same time, absolutely down-to-earth realistic about what gets done today.

Results Now for Nonprofits reveals:

• The four pillars of high performance: purpose, strategy, operations, and governance

• The five essential questions that every organization must answer

• What a well-constructed mission statement should address

• The importance of measuring success to monitor performance, achieve meaningful results, and provide significant information for fundraising

Building high-performing nonprofits provides the capacity to develop, sustain, and ensure the delivery of your mission—the foundation for lasting social benefits. Discover the fast, easy way to bolster your nonprofit's performance with Results Now for Nonprofits.

About the Author

MARK LIGHT has more than twenty years of frontline leadership experience. Known for his contagious enthusiasm, he is President and founder of First Light® Group, with Putting Your Future within Reach® and Results Now® services including coaching, presentations, and publications. He currently teaches at the Mandel Center for Nonprofit Organizations at Case Western Reserve University, where he received the 2010 Mandel Center Teaching Award. He holds an MBA from UCLA and a PhD from Antioch University.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 287 pages
• Publisher: Wiley (February 8, 2011)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0471758248
• ISBN-13: 978-0471758242
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.4 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #986,665 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Mark Light is president of First Light Group (www.firstlightgroup.com), an executive in residence at DePaul University's School of Public Service, and presents workshops and master classes around the world with an infotaining style that delights audiences. He holds an MBA from UCLA and a Ph.D. from Antioch University.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars A terrific investment that has translated into great results, June 27, 2011

By 

JMcCarthy - See all my reviews

This review is from: Results Now for Nonprofits: Strategic, Operating, and Governance Planning (Hardcover)

Results Now is an invaluable tool for successful non-profit management, governance, and cohesion between the volunteer board of directors and the professional staff of any non-profit organization. My organization is relatively small with an annual budget of just over $1 million and 13 full-time employees, serving a multi-county area in the Midwest. I was first introduced to the Results Now process back in late 2007, when my organization had the good fortune to hire Mark Light for a consultancy in which he introduced the board and the strategic managers on staff to the benefits of using Results Now to address the barriers encountered in our day-to-day work.

The process is straight-forward, extensively well documented, and reliably flexible in its approach to ensuring successful management for non-profit organizations. Relying on the rule of "What you measure is what you get," Results Now has a strong bias for accountability, is focused on making sure that the job gets done, and that the organization accomplishes its mission by asking the questions Where to go tomorrow? What gets done today? Who does what? Did it happen? Perhaps most unique is that the process is a dynamic one that we have come to use and update as a regular part of day-to-day operations.

More recently I had the privilege to participate in a cohort of local organizations who engaged with Dr. Light over a three month period looking at earned income possibilities through the Results Now process. Again, the Results Now experience was tremendous. The techniques expressed in Results Now have allowed me to strategically approach management of our existing lines of business while also growing the organization and introducing a new earned income venture that holds the promise of reducing our dependence upon government and private foundation grants.

After four years of utilizing the Results Now process, I can personally vouch for its effectiveness, clarity and ease of use. My board of directors LOVES the way in which Results Now puts purpose, strategy, operations and governance into one comprehensive plan. Utilizing the process has enabled me and the board to focus on realizing our mission while maintaining our organization's values. Simply put - buy this book and use it. You'll be glad you did.