Culture is the foundation of any organization, including your nonprofit.
Have you built a deliberate culture? Or has culture developed organically?
Every organization has a culture, deliberately cultivated or not, but that isn’t always a good thing. Sometimes aspects creep in that you don’t otherwise want as part of your organization, which is why intentionally building a successful culture is essential.
Most nonprofits aim to inspire, contribute, and, perhaps most importantly, meet the objectives of their mission. Here’s why and how you can build a culture of success:
Why Culture is Important for Nonprofits
Peter Drucker, one of the most prominent management consultants of the twentieth century, famously said, “culture eats strategy for breakfast.” This quote is concise in saying that you can have the world’s best strategy in place, but it does you no good if you don’t have the thriving culture to support it.
Here at Mission Met, we firmly believe that culture goes hand-in-hand with strategy and that working to improve culture should land in your strategic plan.
Organizational culture determines “how we do things around here.” It also shapes your people’s expectations, attitudes, and feelings toward your nonprofit. Culture influences all aspects of what goes on in your nonprofit. From punctuality to discussion and how your team interacts with donors and stakeholders, everything is colored by the culture. You’ve probably experienced companies with a poor organizational culture before. You can feel it when you walk into a workplace, and people are disengaged or generally disinterested in providing good service.
Paying attention to culture in your nonprofit is important because culture will develop, even if you don’t mold it consciously. It’s definitely preferable that it develops with intention! Poor cultures can lead to high turnover, poor client/donor experience, or lack of engagement. Your goal should be a workplace where people want to be and a motivated team to work toward your goals.
Culture impacts nonprofit strategy and should be part of your strategic plan
Defining Your Nonprofit Culture
Creating a definition of your nonprofit culture is an important place to start. Whether starting from scratch or working to improve your current culture, you need to know where you’re coming from and where you’re aiming.
Your mission and values are an excellent place to start. Importantly, you need the buy-in of your whole team on your values, including what those look like in practice. Some organizations will espouse values but don’t seem to live them. There’s often a disconnect between what the value indicates people should do and what they actually do in practice.
Core values should align with your mission and guide workplace expectations. For example, do you consider work-life balance and team member mental health alongside values that directly relate to your impact? A value such as “wellbeing” can be part of both your internal culture and how you work with people in the community.
You may find that it’s a helpful exercise to define each of your values, then a set of statements to go with each that elaborates on “how we do things around here.” For example, “we listen” might include statements like “all team members have a valued voice and can share ideas, without fear of judgment.” “Wellbeing” might consist of statements such as “we encourage all team members to take breaks when needed and balance work with non-work commitments.”
Another thing to consider is that if you want employee buy-in and for your nonprofit to be a desirable workplace, involve employees in this process. This way, they feel that they genuinely do get to contribute and that your organization gives more than just lip service to listening to team members.
Employee feedback can also be invaluable for assessing the current state of the culture, especially if you’re looking for any areas that need improvement. You might ask for feedback directly, or sometimes employees are more comfortable with an anonymous survey. Encourage frank feedback so that you learn “here is what really goes on around here.”
What Contributes to a Strong, Successful Culture?
While you ponder your own culture, some other well-documented attributes are worth considering.
Employees have meaningful work. Usually, nonprofits have this in spades, but be aware that too much “filler” work or work that doesn’t take advantage of the employee's strengths can be less-than-meaningful.
Leadership is unified and supportive.
Employee wellbeing is genuinely valued.
Teams feel a strong sense of connection.
Recognition occurs frequently, and you celebrate achievements.
The Role of Leadership in Culture
What is the role of nonprofit leadership in shaping organizational culture? Leadership culture contributes to overall organizational culture. Leaders help to shape and drive the desired culture, but the culture among the leaders must be consistent with what aligns with the entire organization's culture.
It’s about leading from the front. If your organization says that it values work/life balance, then your leaders need to demonstrate how they schedule and allocate work, determine leave requests, and react to such requests. Additionally, they need to live it themselves. If leaders work themselves to burnout, that behavior creeps into organizational culture. The story within the team becomes that moving ahead in the organization requires excessive hustling.
Leaders influence culture with every interaction and task. How they hire, what they accept at work, how they speak to staff, donors, and stakeholders, and how they execute business strategy all help to tell the story of “how we do things around here.”
How to Build and Reinforce an Effective Culture
You’ve defined the culture you’d like within your nonprofit, including some specific examples of how that looks. Next, you need to build on and reinforce that culture. Here are some tips to help:
Document it as part of your strategic plan. You should revisit your strategic plans often to check on progress, and by having organizational cultural goals there, you’re encouraged to review regularly.
Be a role model as a leader. This tip may involve some introspection — is there anything you do now that you need to stop or change to reinforce cultural norms?
Include cultural measures as part of performance management. For example, link organizational values with performance.
Encourage open communication and provide appropriate platforms for doing so. When everyone has access, regardless of their role, this encourages healthy communication and helps employees feel heard.
Demonstrate that what employees say matters — take meaningful action on feedback. You may not be able to implement every suggestion, but at least show that you’ll do what you can (and let people know the “why” when you can’t).
Look for reasons to recognize individuals or celebrate team achievements. Sometimes within busy organizations, recognition gets put to the side; however, it’s crucial for a strong culture that you make the time for it.
Conclusion
Nonprofit culture is a key aspect of any strategy. Even with the most well-planned strategies, success or failure can hinge on your setting up to successfully reinforce your strategy.
We strongly suggest you make cultural goals part of your strategic plan and revisit them often. Every organization has a culture, whether deliberate or not. Develop an intentional culture that serves your organization well and moves your mission forward.