Giving Compass' Take

• Jenn Taylor reflects on the nonprofit sector's proclivity for constant change and the downsides of never reaching a maturity or maintenance stage.

• How can you evaluate the pace of change in your giving? Are there old changes or innovations that you should revisit?

• Read about how missions are critical to nonprofit work.

The problem with the fetishization of constant innovation is we’re often swept into the next big idea before allowing the changes from the last one to take root or provide valid information to guide the next change.

I have been guilty of (unintentionally) doing my utmost to keep the whole organization in my comfort zone — forever moving through innovation and implementation, never touching down in maintenance. My comfort zone causes people to spend a lot of energy regaining their bearings if it doesn’t happen to overlap their comfort zones.

Organizations, programs, and projects go through a lifecycle that begins with invention and moves through implementation toward maintenance. . In the nonprofit world in particular, many organizations never get more than mid-way through implementation before they’re shoved back into invention mode.

There are many forces that prevent nonprofits from reaching maintenance or maturation. Time-limited funding and philanthropy’s general preference for funding new ideas are big contributors to this situation. I believe that internal change-insisters — like founders and board members — also unintentionally keep organizations in early stage activities.

Read the full article about challenging constant change in the nonprofit sector by Jenn Taylor at Medium.