Articles
Strategic Restructuring for Community Clinics: Options and Examples
By Heather Gowdy, Diane Wong, and Melissa Mendes Campos
Published by the California HealthCare Foundation, this issue brief explores various types of partnerships now being used by California's Community Health Centers and regional consortia, including administrative consolidation and merger. It also examines what opportunities strategic restructuring might offer clinics seeking to strengthen their positions now and remain viable in the years to come. Download a PDF of the companion presentation. New companion resource: download the on-demand webinar (.wmv file) from February 4, 2010.
Surviving and Thriving in Tough Times: a Framework for Nonprofits Facing Economic Stress
Written by Scott Schaffer, Jo DeBolt, and Heather Gowdy, this article details a framework for responding to financial challenges in a systematic way. The methodology helps nonprofit leaders identify and adopt high-impact changes to an organization's business model. Download the PDF.Mergers: A Cautionary Note
By Jo DeBolt
Published by CausePlanet, this article describes how nonprofit leaders can thoughtfully navigate the buzz about nonprofit mergers in response to today's economic climate.
Don't Neglect Investing Your Message
Luis Vergara, Senior Associate and Director of Marketing, cautions readers not to undervalue your organization’s marketing and communications plan, particularly if your organization is facing a budget crisis. Whether your organization is just launching an email newsletter or considering a Twitter account, his article includes helpful tips for crafting a comprehensive communications plan.Five Myths About Nonprofit Partnerships
By Jo DeBolt
This article describes interesting trends in data gleamed from The Collaboration Prize, an initiative created by by The Lodestar Foundation. The Collaboration Prize selection process was managed by La Piana Consulting and spotlights collaborations among two or more nonprofit organizations.
Get back to basics with first principle of strategy development
Part of La Piana Consulting's ongoing CausePlanet series for nonprofit leaders, this article describes the building blocks to strategy development.Developing a lifelong, sustainable approach to leadership development
This article, published by CausePlanet, describes seven key themes to help nonprofit leaders succeed.
Reality-Based Decision-Making: How Capacity Builders Add Value in Tough Times
This article provides advice for capacity builders who are helping nonprofit organizations navigate today's challenging economy. David La Piana presented the article's concept of Reality-Based Decision-Making at the 2009 Alliance for Nonprofit Management annual conference. Reality-Based Decision-Making is a common sense approach capacity builders can use to guide difficult conversations with nonprofit clients in financial crisis.
Build your leadership capacity with development programs and learning communities
This article, published by CausePlanet, discusses the core curriculum of leadership development programs and learning communities.
Nonprofit Downsizing: The Unhappy Event
By Bill Coy
This article, published by Fieldstone Alliance, is written for the nonprofit leader contemplating the prospect of layoffs. It describes some of the critical issues and concerns you will face.
Characteristics of an investment-worthy nonprofit
This article, published by CausePlanet, discusses ways nonprofits can revisit their business models to ensure their sustainability including organizational differentiation, efficiency, and charisma.
Goals give meaning to our doing
Another installment of the CausePlanet nonprofit leadership series, this article discusses how smart goal setting and tracking of progress is essential for leveraging your organization’s ability to inspire.
What are your Competitive Advantages?
By David La Piana and Michaela Hayes
Part of the Sustainable Nonprofit Series, this article discusses how to assess your competitors and identify your advantages in comparison with those competitors.
Arts and culture mergers: Trends, challenges and benefits
This article published by CausePlanet, discusses strategic restructuring trends in the arts and culture sub-sector.
Philanthropy News Digest: Newsmakers Interview with David La Piana
With David La Piana
This interview published in the Philanthropy News Digest, discusses competition and collaboration in the nonprofit sector, the relationship between competition and nonprofit mission, the funder-grantee dynamic, and the ethical implications of a truly competitive strategy.
Putting It All Together: Refining Your Competitive Strategy
By David La Piana and Michaela Hayes
Final installment of the Sustainable Nonprofit Series, this article discusses how to refine your competitive strategy by identifying and strengthening your competitive advantages vis-à-vis other organizations, allowing you to bring value to your customers, clients, and communities.
Are You an Effective Competitor?
By David La Piana and Michaela Hayes
This is the first article in a three-part series by David La Piana and Michaela Hayes, authors of Play to Win: The Nonprofit Guide to Competitive Strategy, discuss the reality and practical nature of competition in the sector, and define the four types of resources for which nonprofits compete: customers (i.e., those who are directly served by a nonprofit); funding; human resources (staff, board members, and other volunteers); and publicity or media attention.
Build on your organization's strengths when developing strategy
Part of La Piana Consulting's ongoing CausePlanet series for nonprofit leaders, this article describes the importance of explicit decision-making criteria for developing and honing organizaitonal strategies.
What are your Comparative Advantages?
By David La Piana and Michaela Hayes
Part of the Sustainable Nonprofit Series, this article discusses the three types of competitors that nonprofits face: direct, substitutable, and indirect, how to assess your competitors, and identify your advantages in comparison with those competitors.
Administrative Collaborations, Consolidations, and MSOs
By Bill Coy and Vance Yoshida
This article about strategic restructuring describes three types of nonprofit administrative partnerships and the steps leaders can take to determine which type of administrative collaboration is the right decision for their organization.
Developing Nonprofit Leaders Using a Learning Community Model
By Liza Culick
This article describes the role learning communities play in the professional development for nonprofit executive directors and how supporting executive directors is critical to organizational capacity building.
