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Social good organizations innovate out of necessity, and more than many other types of organizations

Innovation and Disruption: The Way of the Social Good Organization

Over the last decade, social good organizations, and the nonprofit sector as a whole, have changed profoundly. The sector has grown well beyond the old charity scheme, the wealthy giving to the poor, even if some in the nonprofit-industrial complex still think in those terms. At thedotgood, we consider that the words charity (still used in the official British register), nonprofit organization and nongovernmental organization no longer cover the reality we observe. We prefer “social good organization,” or SGO. We explain why in The Definition of an NGO.

by The [.] Newsroom
From thedotgood's Editorial Desk
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Why social good organizations innovate

SGOs are a special kind of organization, because they combine an unusual mix of features. They are often undercapitalized and underfunded. They do not distribute financial profits. They aim to deliver social profit, an objective as demanding as any quarterly earnings report. And their relative freedom and capacity to adapt push them to think harder about the most effective answer to the problems they address. Being an SGO can be both exciting and stressful.

Innovation is familiar territory for business, where research and development, innovation and disruption have long been core to the narrative, and have found their place in organizational charts. For SGOs, innovation has entered their DNA out of the need to survive, even though most of them do not build a narrative around the word. Very few SGOs can introduce you to their director or vice president of innovation. Yet SGOs do innovate, and more than many other types of organizations.

Where innovation comes from

Our assumption is that the discipline of innovation in the social profit world takes many forms. So where should we look for evidence of it: on the problem side, or on the opportunity side?

The sources of innovation are many. A genius out of a lamp can make it happen, and sometimes does. But mostly, innovation comes from hard work on a few kinds of opportunity: unexpected occurrences, incongruities, process needs, and changes in context. Those include changes in an industry or a market, in the social, political and intellectual environment, and in demography and migration. Peter F. Drucker described these sources in “The Discipline of Innovation” (Harvard Business Review). He defined innovation as the means by which one “either creates new wealth-producing resources or endows existing resources with enhanced potential for creating wealth.” Replace “wealth” with “social benefit,” and we have a definition for the social good sphere.

Very few SGOs can introduce you to their director of innovation. Yet SGOs do innovate, and more than many other types of organizations.

Innovation in social good organizations: a few examples

  • Cure Violence Global looked at violence with a doctor’s eye and decided to treat it as an epidemic. It applied public health methods to violence in Chicago. Today Cure Violence works around the world against many forms of violence.
  • APOPO saw what others did not: rats have an extraordinary sense of smell. Its trained rats detect landmines so that humans can remove them, and they are now also trained to detect tuberculosis.
  • Child & Youth Finance International (CYFI), founded by Jeroo Billimoria, wanted children and young people around the world to have access to financial services and education. It made central bank governors its priority and turned them into the strongest advocates of financial empowerment. CYFI became a systems-change organization: its Global Money Week is now organized by the OECD International Network on Financial Education.
  • What connection is there between a school principal and a CEO? Most people would not make one. Citizen Leader Lab in South Africa, formerly Symphonia for South Africa, pairs principals of schools in under-resourced communities with business leaders, for the benefit of both, with students as the primary beneficiaries.

Why innovation weighs most in our assessment

Innovation is one of the three pillars through which thedotgood assesses social good organizations, with impact and governance (see our methodology). It carries the largest share of points. That is a deliberate choice. An organization’s ability to innovate plays a critical role in its ability to thrive over time. It also means that size and big numbers alone do not decide who leads our rankings, from the World 200 to our national lists.

Ten questions to test your innovation

These are the questions we find useful when looking at an organization’s innovative approaches, ideas, processes and assets. Each answer is stronger when backed by data.

  1. What is your economic model, and how does your organization generate revenue?
  2. Which networks help your organization create value?
  3. Where are the core innovative ideas in your work?
  4. How did you arrive at these ideas, and where did you meet adversity and resistance when building your plan?
  5. How do you measure the success of your innovative ideas in terms of social profit?
  6. How can you preserve the advantages your innovative assets give you?
  7. How protective are you of these ideas? How, if at all, do you share them with others?
  8. Do you foresee a time when your innovative assets will no longer deliver the results you see today?
  9. Where are your next challenges in terms of innovation?
  10. Do your innovative ideas pose a threat to other organizations, private or public?

If your organization wants to share how it innovates, write to us at info@thedotgood.net.

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