3 Lessons Businesses Can Learn From Nonprofits

By Lisa Brown Morton

Nonprofits are regularly called on to act more like businesses. However, consumers and stakeholders are increasingly placing a premium on social impact, the territory that nonprofits know best. Whether they define themselves as social enterprises, socially conscious companies or startups changing the world, for-profit businesses are recognizing the value of fostering community, being part of a larger conversation and putting people before profits -- or at least equal with them.

While companies like TOMS, which make charity an integral part of their brand identity, immediately come to mind, other companies have been quick to build community around other causes. Disruptive upstarts like Uber and AirBnB engage in their own forms of activism as they seek to alter laws and regulations. Their effectiveness and success depend on the ability to engage communities around a common cause.

This is what nonprofits do best, and there is much that businesses can learn from nonprofits about how to make a difference. Read on for three essential lessons that can be drawn from the nonprofit experience.

1. Engage your stakeholders and understand their needs

It’s not activism if it’s only for your benefit, and it’s not going to make a difference if it’s not an appropriate solution to the problem you’re trying to solve. Our admirable desire to address problems often compels us to do something, anything at all, to feel as though we’ve made an effort to help. But as the laundry list of bizarre items that are donated to disaster relief efforts attests, good intentions can lead us astray.

Don’t assume that you already know the problem you’d like to address before you’ve made a thorough effort to assess the actual needs of your stakeholders -- whether this is your customers, whom you intend to serve and advocate for, or a separate population you intend to help. Nonprofits do extensive assessments of their targeted population’s needs and often find the needs of a community was presumed to have are, in fact, symptoms of a deeper, more urgent need and require substantial adjustment and oftentimes a different course of action.

2. Tell a powerful story

Nonprofits are master storytellers out of necessity. The story -- of what they do and why they do it -- is the reason for the nonprofit’s existence, and it’s through that story that they raise awareness and attract supporters, resources and institutional backing. In that sense, it’s the nonprofit equivalent of an investor and sales pitch in one. For a business looking to make an impact, it should command just as much attention, because the story is how you generate public interest and support for your efforts.

A powerful story identifies the affected community, the problem, the solution and the role that your company’s efforts will play in making a difference. When Warby Parker talks about its “buy one give one” program, it highlights the number of people who lack access to eyewear, and how obtaining eyewear changes their lives. When Uber talks about its legal wrangles with government, it talks about giving people choice and convenience.

3. Create a community around your work

Nonprofits rely on the communities they serve to be a force multiplier and vital source of new ideas. They have to, because many nonprofits operate with just a small core of dedicated staff. But ultimately activism, public engagement and other attempts to make a social impact are community efforts, and their success is inseparable from their ability to bring people together, sustain effort over time, and ultimately see change.

Think of the community as a shareholder. Your customers have a substantial stake in your work, and you are accountable for delivering value to them. Whether you build your community in person or digitally is less important than creating the ability for affected and involved individuals to feel like they are participating in something larger than themselves. When the Red Cross collects blood, it does so in coordinated drive events and gives people stickers to wear for the rest of the day. For an individual, this makes their connection to the community and the larger purpose very real.

Nonprofits are the original social enterprises, and if your business is looking to make an impact, take a few pages from the nonprofit playbook.

Image credit: Reynermedia, Flickr

Lisa Brown Morton is the President and CEO of Nonprofit HR, the only human resources firm in the country focused exclusively on nonprofit organizations. Lisa has worked with some of the most prominent nonprofits in the country, from Amnesty International to the Aspen Institute, and is a vocal advocate for the advancement of the nonprofit sector.