1. Cultivating an Entrepreneurial
Nonprofit Culture
SUZANNE SMITH, MBA
SOCIAL IMPACT ARCHITECTS
SUZANNE@SOCIALIMPACTARCHITECTS.COM

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3. Why?
• The picture's pretty
bleak, gentlemen ...
the world's climates
are changing,
the mammals are
taking over,
and we all have a
brain about the size
of a walnut.
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4. Definitions
• Culture
– From Latin word “cultura” meaning
“to cultivate”
– “An energy force that becomes
woven through the
thinking, behavior, and identity of
those within the group.” – Debra
Thorsen
– Visible
• Dress
code, titles, relationships, vocabulary
– Invisible
• Values, rules, attitudes, standards, ritual
s
– Vision & Mission ≠ Culture
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5. Definitions
• Entrepreneur
– From the French word
“entreprendre” meaning
“to undertake or to set out
on a new mission”
– “An entrepreneur always
searches for
change, responds to it, and
exploits it as an
opportunity.” – Peter
Drucker
– Work is more than a
job, it’s a lifestyle
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6. Profile of a Typical Nonprofit Culture
Mission-
Focused
“We must reject the idea – well-
intentioned, but dead wrong –
that the primary path to
greatness in the social sectors is
Risk Focused on to become “more like business.”
Avoidance Payer Model* Most businesses – like most of
anything else in life – fall
between mediocre and good.
Few are great.” - Jim Collins
Resource Consensus-
constrained driven *DEFINITION: Focused on who
gives them money as a key driver
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Analysis conducted by CASE/Duke University

7. Profile of a Social Entrepreneurial
Culture
Keep mission first, but
know that without
money, there is no
mission
Willing to take risk on “Innovative often means little
Weigh both social &
behalf of those they more than “well implemented.” -
financial return
serve Christine Letts, William R.
Ryan, & Allen Grossman
Source: Brinckerhoff, Peter
Understand that all C. Mission-Based
resource allocation are Looking for new ways to Management: Leading Your
really stewardship serve & add value Not-for-Profit In the 21st
investments Century. Hoboken, NJ: John
Wiley and Sons, 2009.
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8. Four Key Elements
Results & Learning
Openness Adaptability
Rewards Organization
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9. Openness
• The promise
of negative
consequences
can be highly
motivational.
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10. Openness
• Definition: “Describes active imagination, aesthetic
sensitivity, attentiveness to inner feelings, preference for
variety, and intellectual curiosity”
• Tips
– Open your door
• Be available for brainstorming
• Participate without controlling
– Open your mind and close your mouth
• Listen first and share last
• Foster intellectual dialogue and promote open debate
– Share information and lessons learned widely
• Create an environment where people share success and failure
• Create “bumping into” spots for information exchanges
• Share information about the organization, so employees understand
the “big picture”
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11. Adaptability
• Combining a
raft with a
trailer to make
a Redneck
houseboat.
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12. Adaptability
• Definition: “The ability of a nonprofit organization to
monitor, assess and respond to internal and external changes.”
– Monitor performance
• Measure performance and identify both problems and possibilities for improvements
– Customize to your clients
• Understand how well clients served and what changes need to be made to improve the
quality of service
– Inertia kills innovation
• Use the organization’s people and knowledge to create new ways to solve the same issues
– Treat your employees like owners
• Create jobs and organizations where staff and volunteers see the results of their work – the
foundation for motivating people
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13. Results & Rewards
• The tallest
blade of grass
is the first to
be cut by the
lawnmover.
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14. Results & Rewards
• Frontliners know best
– Push responsibility and accountability downward to employees on the
frontlines
• Measure outcomes, not activities
– Establish clear performance goals and expectations
• Reward employees when you notice the “right
behaviors”
• Encourage employees to “fail early, fail fast, fail
cheap”
• Reward “organization citizenship”
– Encourage team players or employees who collaborate outside their roles for
the betterment of the organization
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15. Learning Organization
• Putting the
learning
disabled in
YeILD.
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16. Learning Organization
• Definition: Organizations where people continually expand their
capacity to create the results they truly desire, where new and
expansive patterns of thinking are nurtured, where collective
aspiration is set free, and where people are continually learning to
see the whole together. – Peter Senge
– Create a vision that inspires action (“shared vision”)
– Create a “we’re all in this together” attitude (“team
learning”)
– Understand how your organization and its environment
works (“systems thinking”)
– Encourage employees to grow and learn without fear
(“personal mastery”)
– Challenge ways to thinking and working (“mental models”)
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17. How to Change?
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18. OCAI Assessment – Homework &
Handout A Flexibility & Discretion
CLAN ADHOCRACY
Personal place; Dynamic &
extended family entrepreneurial
Nurturing environment Risk taking
Values participation & Values innovation &
consensus creativity
Internal Focus & External Focus &
Integration Differentiation
HIERARCHY
Favors MARKET
structure, tradition, & Results oriented
control
Values competition &
Values achievement
coordination, stability, &
efficiency Source: Adapted from
Robert Quinn and Kim
Stability & Control Cameron
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19. Exercise – Handout B
• Spend 10-20 minutes
thinking about questions
and filling out your answers.
• When you are ready, work
with a partner or lunch table
to share your ideas.
• Share and discuss
situations, good ideas, and
problem solve.
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20. More about Suzanne
Managing Director, Social Impact Architects
National Member
Board Member, Social Enterprise Alliance
Consultant Member, Society for Organizational Learning
Research Fellow, Center for the Advancement of Social Entrepreneurship at Duke University at the
Fuqua School of Business
Adjunct Faculty, University of North Texas
Local Leader
Dallas, Texas - Texas Social Innovation Initiative, Dallas Social Venture Partners, & Social Enterprise
Alliance DFW Chapter
Cincinnati, Ohio – Leadership Council of Human Service Executives, Flywheel Social Enterprise Hub
Durham, NC – Bull City Forward (Social Innovation Initiative) & Social Enterprise Network of the
Triangle
suzanne@socialimpactarchitects.com
www.socialimpactarchitects.com
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