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Five Nonprofit Trends and Their Implications for Capacity Builders - Fieldstone Alliance

Five Nonprofit Trends and Their Implications for Capacity Builders

by Bryan Barry, author of Strategic Planning Workbook for Nonprofit Organizations.

The Alliance for Nonprofit Management asked Bryan Barry to identify trends that will affect how capacity building work is done in the future and the implications for capacity builders (i.e., how might we respond?). Following are the trends that Bryan presented at the Alliance's 2004 Midwest Regional Conference in Chicago.

Trend	Will lead to...	Implications for capacity builders
1. Growing focus on impact and scale	Larger, multi-organization initiatives Clear community improvement goals and measures New structure options, "virtual" organizations	Capacity building with clusters/networks of organizations to achieve these goals Clear success measures for capacity building work Capacity builders need to model these approaches in our industry
2. "Implementation" of devolution--effective community action	Stronger local organizing, planning, and response Multi-sector responses--more work with business, community groups, faith communities, local government Financing from multiple sources	Need new view and vision of the appropriate role of the sectors, their contribution, and social compact Need to help package and finance these larger initiatives and help them succeed New forms of capacity building needed
3. Globalization and immigration patterns	An increasing number of NPOs and immigrant-led groups with specific capacity building needs and resources More work that links action across U.S. and other regions of the world	Need to understand these needs, cultures, and traditions—and how to be helpful New staffing, relationships, and alliances
4. Aging of baby boomers and concurrent economic trends	Transfer of wealth Growing gap between the very wealthy and middle class people in a survival mode “Venture philanthropy”, social entrepreneurship	Educate the stewards of this new wealth and get them into the game—i.e., their wealth, their skill, their networks Help NPOs learn how to appropriately connect with and tap these resources Need for concrete outcomes, less jargon, moral and pragmatic rationale, and clear understandable strategies
5. Continuing rapid development of information technologies	Many new ways to build and share knowledge Information overload Digital divide	Appropriate use of these technologies in capacity building work—e.g., partnership web sites, e-tools for very large projects, “blended solutions”