Save the World, Make a Buck: Seven Ideas From the Nonprofit Sector

Marty Rosenheck, Roy Strauss, Kirsten D'Aurelio and John Rosenheim - 10/3/08

Nonprofits have borrowed from corporate models for years. But when it comes to training and performance improvement, for-profit organizations can learn from nonprofits.

Developing Leaders at Amnesty International

Amnesty International USA (AIUSA) faces many of the  challenges that are common to nonprofit and for-profit organizations.

Nonprofit organizations have been borrowing from corporate models for years. But when it comes to training and performance improvement, for-profit companies can learn a lot from nonprofits.

Part of Sarah Clark’s role as managing director of outreach and training at Amnesty International USA (AIUSA) is to enable people to perform their jobs effectively in support of the organization’s strategic goals. To accomplish this, she must take on seven daunting challenges:

1. Align learning with the
organizational mission and goals.
2. Motivate people to learn and perform.
3. Develop effective leaders.
4. Provide measurable results.
5. Deploy the best mix of media
and methods.
6. Focus on job role success.
7. Encourage diversity.

Even though AIUSA — known for defending human rights worldwide — is a nonprofit organization, its counterparts in the for-profit sector face the same challenges. We’ve observed that while nonprofit and for-profit organizations differ in many ways, learning leaders in both types of organizations have many training issues in common — and can share solutions.

Long-Term vs. Short-Term Training
One key difference between nonprofits and for-profits is the focus of training. While both sectors aim to maximize the training function to enable their people to achieve organizational goals, nonprofits tend to have a long-term focus since they are not judged on a short-term quarterly profit basis.

As a result, nonprofits are practiced at dealing with issues that span years or even decades, giving them an opportunity to incorporate capacity-building initiatives. On the other hand, private companies must maximize their profits in the near term, and this can lead to a myopic approach to training. Interestingly, though, this trend is starting to reverse, as nonprofits increasingly are being held accountable to funders for short-term results, and more successful companies are focusing on the long term. Consequently, the implication for training is that it must support both long-term capacity building and short-term results.