Olympic Mindsets for Nonprofits: Collaboration or Competition
When I first start working with a new nonprofit, I always start with what I call “Finding Your WHY.” Many nonprofits are really good at articulating WHAT they do, but not so great at articulating WHY they do it. But the WHY can be a key factor in differentiating your nonprofit from others, especially when others may do a similar WHAT but for a different WHY.
When I work on finding an organization’s why, I ask two questions that always, always get push-back:
Who are your collaborators and how do you lend value to their work?
Who are your competitors and how are you different?
I find some nonprofit leaders bristle at collaborators: No, we stand alone! Others wince at the mention of competitors: What kind of us vs. them mindset are you promoting, Kelly?
Well, there’s a reason I ask these questions together…because often the answers overlap. The very people we collaborate with are those we compete with.
Of course the Olympics are such a great display of that tension as well, and that got me thinking about how we can bring the mindset of the Olympics to our nonprofits. In many ways, the Olympics are a competition…everyone wants to win and bring home the gold, right? But it’s also a beacon of international cooperation: nations from around the world coming together to celebrate what we have in common - the love of competition, the love of the game, the striving for peak performance.
You see, competition and collaboration can be balanced and held in the same space. In fact, I think we’re stronger as a sector when we do. When considered in tandem, we realize that everyone is potentially a competitor, but by the same token when we look at everyone with the lens of a collaborator, we can get further. When we look at our competition as someone else serving our community, we can find ways to serve everyone better together.
Let me give you an example of how one of my clients worked this out. They are a nonprofit delivering hip-hop based arts education to public schools in New York City–or they were when I started working with them. When I posed this collaborators/competitors conundrum to them, they said, “Well, honestly, we have a lot of competitors in the hip hop arts space in NYC.” Okay, good to know.
Now, is there a lot of wealth in NYC? Absolutely. Do I believe there’s plenty of funding to go around if funders and donors give it away? Completely. But do I also think that if there are multiple nonprofits in the same space we should rethink how necessary our nonprofit is? Yes, yes I do.
Once we started digging into their WHY, it came more into focus how my client stood out: using hip hop arts to support youth with disabilities. Have you ever seen beatboxing used to support kids with speech and communication disorders? WOW. We realized they were not “just another” hip hop based arts organization in NYC—they were taking the lead, leveraging hip hop arts education to support youth facing intellectual and physical challenges! With this new clarity, the organization re-focused their efforts on beatboxing and speech therapy, partnering with universities and app developers to deliver their impact to more kids. It felt like winning the gold! They also handed off their programs serving youth without disabilities to another organization with that express mission, which was something I’ve never seen an organization willingly do before. But once they knew which lane they needed to be in, they were determined to stay in it.
By understanding their place in the constellation of nonprofits that work in their field–by thoughtfully considering their competitors and collaborators, and then recognizing that many organizations sat in both categories–they figured out their Olympic-sized strength as an organization.
As we watch athletes from around the world coming together to celebrate their love of their sport, we see a valuable example of how collaboration and competition fit easily together. Moveover, that tension can create incredible moments that live in our memories for decades.
How do we take a page out of the Olympic playbook as nonprofits and encourage more collaborative competition?
YOUR HOMEWORK
Maybe you’re not in a position to completely change your organization’s focus, but no matter where you sit, if you are a fundraiser, understanding the tension and the clarity that comes with identifying your collaborators and your competitors is powerful.
So spend your next 45 minutes thinking about:
Who are your collaborators and how do you lend value to their work?
Who are your competitors and how are you different?
Given these lists, how can you articulate the value of your mission and your organization to prospective funders and donors?
Write down an elevator pitch for a prospective donor using what you’ve figured out from examining this duality. How does that make your case for support stronger?
