I get the idea Festen is going for when he talks about instincts in the non-profit world but I feel it's selling us a little short. Yes, I use a lot of instinct day to day in this work but when it comes to strategy and developing new ideas that's all skill. Is having the right instinct a skill? Sure, but it's more than that, it's creative problem solving, it's design thinking, it's years of practice and learning in the field, AND THEN it's instinct. I also don't know if it's only in recent years that we've been challenged to defend our work. I could be wrong but I feel like most grants that have ever been given to non-profits ask you to prove why you deserve the funding then you have to show results on how the funding made an impact and some even ask you to deliver on certain metrics.
Ok so strong opinions over here just from page 1 😅
I get the sense when Festen talks about what non-profits need to do or should be doing like they've never set foot in a non-profit. I think they make a lot of good points that as someone who was just learning about what a non-profit is would find useful but for those who have been doing the work for a while now this seems like a "no-brainer".
I do agree with you Kelly, having the strategy and developing new ideas are imported skills needed to grow programs. When people have these skills and the drive to make a difference in the program it will shine. Programs were also pushed to create new ideas on how to make their programs stay alive with Covid.
ReplyDeleteI agree that instinct grows through experience. Something that came to mind is when youth workers are experiencing burn out and they rely on instinct that may not be the best at the time which can effect the youth. Evaluation is not holistic by any means.
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed reading your post. I agree with you that most nonprofit are asked to show a lot of evidence to prove why they should be funded. It makes me think of competition between nonprofit organizations instead of working together.
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