How to Innovate in a Non Profit
If you're a nonprofit looking to leverage your volunteers for innovation, you're in the right place. But let's get one thing straight: you can't approach this like a for-profit corporation. Those guys have resources to burn and can afford to throw a bunch of teams at a problem until something sticks. You, on the other hand, need to be smarter about how you innovate.
So, how do you do it? Here are eight steps to follow:
Create a strategy with SMART goals. You know what you want to achieve, but not how you'll achieve it.
Recruit volunteers who are eager to learn. These are the brave souls who want to try new things and gain new skills. Use the benefit of adding new skills as a recruitment tool.
Create an environment of experimentation. Give your volunteers the freedom to fail without shame, but provide clear guidelines on where they can experiment and what is off-limits.
Create an easy-to-use data capture system. If you don't capture the results of your experiments, you're not learning. Make data capture part of the workflow and recognition process, and keep it lightweight. We recommend VIMS. Read more about how you can streamline your data capture using VIMS.
Iterate to improve the data capture and the learnings. Ask your volunteers for feedback and adjust accordingly.
Launch the new process. Use what you've learned to create a final process with detailed instructions and training.
Recruit volunteers for normal tasks. Now that you have a solid process in place, you can recruit volunteers who don't want to experiment and streamline the data capture process.
Keep learning and improving. Innovation is a process, not a one-time event. Keep experimenting and iterating to stay ahead of the curve.
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