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How Do I Build Our Organization?

Meeting and sustaining a high standard of organizational excellence is a fundamental and difficult challenge, but the experiences of other nonprofit leaders, supported by a wealth of evidence-based research and analysis, offer useful insights that can serve as guides for leaders looking to improve the effectiveness of their organizations. We've collected some of those insights here and recommend the following articles and audio presentations as an essential foundation. Then take a look at the Deeper Dives section to learn more about specific topics.

Getting Started:

Effective Nonprofit Organizations Achieve Superior Results

(The Bridgespan Group; Kirk Kramer)

Drawing on years of client experiences, data-driven research, and an evidence-based framework originally developed by Bain & Company, Bridgespan partner Kirk Kramer talks about what it takes to develop and sustain an effective organization.

Related Content:

The Effective Organization 

Five Questions to Translate Leadership into Strong Management

(The Bridgespan Group; Kirk Kramer, Daniel Stid)

Building on the results of a diagnostic survey of 42 nonprofits, Bridgespan partners Kirk Kramer and Daniel Stid offer concrete managerial advice for strengthening five core organizational elements—leadership, decision making and structure, people, work processes and systems, and culture.

Leadership Priorities

What Facets of Management Shouldn’t You Delegate?

(The Bridgespan Group; Jeffrey L. Bradach, Kirk Kramer)

Delegating some responsibilities can help nonprofit leaders manage a daunting managerial load, but Bridgespan research points to two critical areas that uniquely require the top manager's attention: aligning staff and other stakeholders around a common set of priorities and developing the organization's leaders.

Deeper Dives:

For more articles and reports concerning the various segments of the framework, click on the links below:

Leadership
Decision Making and Structure
People
Work Processes and Systems
Culture




Creative Commons License This work by The Bridgespan Group is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License. Permissions beyond the scope of this license may be available at Bridgespan's Terms of Use page.

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