An Interview with Hildy Gottlieb, The Community-Driven Institute

Beth Kanter — Tue, 17 Mar 2009 10:22:32 -0500

1. Tell me about you

My background is varied - politics, community work, business owner. Immediately prior to this work, my business partner Dimitri Petropolis and I ran a business turnaround firm. When we had the opportunity to buy the business, we wanted our skills to do more than just help others make money - we wanted to make a difference. The logical result was the consulting firm Help 4 NonProfits.

2. Why do think nonprofits need to be re-invented?

Every movement for changing this sector over the past 20 years has been motivated by the same question: “If this is the sector that was supposed to change the world, why is the world not changing?” Consider the motivations behind just some of the movements this sector has seen:

• The Measurement / Evaluation Movement

• The Capacity Building Movement

• The Social Entrepreneurship Movement

These movements came from dissatisfaction with what the sector has achieved. If there had been massive improvement in social conditions commensurate with the growth of the sector, many of those reform movements would not have happened.

So the simple answer to your question is the same as it has been for all those other reformers: We believe organizations need to be reinvented so they can aim every aspect of their work at creating significant, visionary improvement to the quality of life in our communities - so we can create healthy, compassionate, resilient, vibrant places to live.

3. Why the term "community benefit organization" versus "nonprofit"?

I believe that strength builds upon our strengths, not our weaknesses. If we are feeling weak, we cannot accomplish very much!

Organizations in this sector feel weak all the time; the scarcity mindset rules this sector’s work. Not enough money or volunteers or - well - anything!

The word “nonprofit” reinforces that. It is a word that tells us what we are not.

Imagine using such a term to describe Americans as “non-Canadians.” Imagine that Christians are to be called “Non-Jews.” It is preposterous.

Any group that is defined by what it is NOT winds up immediately defending itself against the group it is named against. “I’m a non-Canadian, but I’m just as good as a Canadian - really!”

In our sector, that song often sounds like this:
“Well it’s not that we’re NONprofit, because we can of course have a profit, and we do need to be profitable to survive - it’s just that that’s not our main reason for being and etc. and etc.”

The term Community Benefit Organization states what we are. It is a term that powerfully and boldly focuses on our reason for being. We provide benefit to our communities, and when we proudly proclaim that in our name, we feel stronger. And strength builds upon our strengths.

4. Tell us a little bit about your new book, The Pollyanna Principles?

The book addresses the question, “How can we make visionary community change practical and doable?” It uses case studies to show what happens when day-to-day internal functions (governance, planning, program development, resource development, etc.) are aligned behind the assumption that the organization will aim its work at significantly improving the community’s quality of life.

The principles focus first on the end results community organizations have the potential to achieve. From there, they focus on the means to create those visionary end results.

Here is just one practical example, related to the first two principles - the ones that address end results.
#1: We accomplish what we hold ourselves accountable for.
#2: Each and every one of us is creating the future, every day, whether we do so consciously or not.

5. I often get questions on Twitter like, "I'm interested in starting a nonprofit, where can I get advice." Not the question, "Should I start a nonprofit?" What is your answer to the second question?

First, I understand why social entrepreneurs want to start new organizations. It comes back to your other question above: If folks already saw dramatic community improvement, fewer individuals would be inspired to do something about it themselves. Their desire to start an organization is driven by the sense that “Someone should do something about this!”

Therefore, my response to new social entrepreneurs acknowledges their desire to make a difference. I encourage them to begin by doing their homework, to determine what next steps they should take (answering both “Should I?” and “How should I?”).

The homework I suggest is a process we call “Community Sleuthing” - engaging community members by asking strategic questions.
The answers they find will help them determine whether or not to start a new effort.

It will help them find potential partners and advisors for moving forward. And the process of engagement itself builds their next steps on an engaged base of support.

From there, if it makes sense to start a program, I urge folks to build it by sharing resources - determining the program’s various functions and sharing as many of those portions of the program as possible. If they need a warehouse, who is already doing warehousing? Instead of building a board and accounting systems from the start, can they team with a fiscal sponsor for those components? And etc.

Lastly, I am always dubious of the suggestion that there are too many organizations. I simply have no idea if that is true or not. How many is too many? Is it 1 or 3 or 7? If there is still child abuse or hunger or drug abuse, is it possible we don’t have ENOUGH organizations?

In my mind, the only question that matters is this: “Is the community improving, and if not, what can be done to create a better future?”

6. What are the best nonprofit blogs written by women?

I tend to read blogs by people who are relentlessly asking inventive questions, aiming at creating a bigger difference in our world.

Of those, the ones I enjoy that are written by women include the conversations Jill Finlayson hosts at Social Edge. I also enjoy some of the thinking Britt Bravo is doing re: visionary work.

One of my favorite bloggers is Jeane Vogel. Jeane’s past life is in fundraising and grant-writing, and she now makes her living as an artist. At her blog, she asks provocative questions about the value of art and its power to transform individuals and communities. The arts are often the me-too step-sister of the community benefit world, and Jeane’s blog tackles that issue brilliantly.

Beth Kanter, BlogHer CE for Nonprofits, writes Beth's Blog

BlogHer - An Interview with Hildy Gottlieb, The Community-Driven Institute - Comments

An Interview with Hildy Gottlieb, The Community-Driven Institute