How To Talk About Growth Beyond Just Numbers

Summary

Nonprofit Mastermind Podcast: Episode Summary

Title: How To Talk About Growth Beyond Just Numbers
Host: Brooke Richie-Babbage
Release Date: December 3, 2024

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Introduction

In this insightful episode of the Nonprofit Mastermind Podcast, host Brooke Richie-Babbage delves into the nuanced topic of organizational growth within the nonprofit sector. Drawing from her extensive 25-year experience as a social justice lawyer, two-time nonprofit founder, and growth strategist, Brooke emphasizes the importance of redefining growth beyond mere numerical expansion to foster meaningful and sustainable impact.

The Pitfall of Number-Centric Growth

Brooke opens the discussion by highlighting the common tendency among nonprofit leaders to equate growth with increasing numbers—be it the number of people served, programs run, or geographic expansion.

Brooke Richie-Babbage [02:01]: "It's the easiest to describe and to measure. And for that reason, it's also often what the folks on our leadership team go to in their work plans."

She points out that while numerical growth is straightforward and often favored by funders, it doesn't always align with the organization's true mission or the depth of impact they aim to achieve.

Redefining Growth: Beyond Numbers

Brooke introduces a comprehensive taxonomy of growth modes, encouraging leaders to consider various dimensions that reflect the true essence of their organization's mission and impact.

1. Numbers

While acknowledging that numerical growth is a fundamental metric, Brooke advises organizations to use it as just one of several indicators of success.

Brooke Richie-Babbage [05:23]: "We know that one, you're going to reach more people. That's growth."

2. Variety

Expanding the variety of services or programs offered can enhance the quality and relevance of support provided without necessarily increasing the number of beneficiaries.

Brooke Richie-Babbage [05:31]: "Maybe you're going to do more with them, right? You're going to expand the way that you serve them."

For example, a nonprofit focused on pre and perinatal health might add additional support services tailored to the evolving needs of the community.

3. Depth

Focusing on depth means engaging more profoundly with each individual or community, fostering long-term transformations rather than short-term metrics.

Brooke Richie-Babbage [06:39]: "That is a way to talk about growth in terms of depth."

This approach emphasizes sustained impact and meaningful change over the duration of engagement.

4. Influence

Enhancing an organization's ability to shape perceptions, decisions, and systems is another critical growth dimension. This is especially pertinent for organizations involved in policy change or advocacy.

Brooke Richie-Babbage [06:41]: "This is where you are increasing, growing your organization's ability to shape perceptions, decisions and systems through your work."

5. Amplification

Amplification involves leveraging partnerships and collective action to magnify the organization's impact within a broader landscape without necessarily increasing its own workload.

Brooke Richie-Babbage [07:08]: "You're amplifying changes in, in a community at a system level or across sectors."

This strategy allows nonprofits to drive significant change by working collaboratively with other stakeholders.

6. Organizational Resilience and Sustainability

Focusing on internal capacity building ensures that the organization can sustain its operations and mission over the long term. This includes strengthening infrastructure and enhancing organizational longevity.

Brooke Richie-Babbage [07:32]: "You can also talk about growth in terms of resilience and sustainability for your organization."

Aligning Growth with Mission

Brooke stresses the importance of aligning growth strategies with the organization's core mission. She cautions against altering programs or expanding reach merely to satisfy external expectations or funding requirements.

Brooke Richie-Babbage [02:29]: "Identify and confidently identify, plan for, and tell the story of the type of growth that is actually meaningful to your organization."

By doing so, nonprofits can ensure that their growth fosters genuine impact and remains true to their foundational goals.

Navigating the Reflection and Refinement Stage

Brooke also addresses periods when organizations may not exhibit traditional growth but are instead in a phase of reflection and refinement. She likens growth to a step function rather than a linear progression, where periods of expansion are followed by stabilization and strategic recalibration.

Brooke Richie-Babbage [03:18]: "Growth is not linear, it's more like a step function."

This perspective encourages leaders to recognize and value growth in various forms, even when it doesn't involve numerical increases.

Conclusion

In this episode, Brooke Richie-Babbage provides a compelling framework for nonprofit leaders to rethink growth. By exploring diverse dimensions such as variety, depth, influence, amplification, and resilience, organizations can cultivate more meaningful and sustainable impact. Brooke's insights empower nonprofits to craft growth narratives that truly reflect their mission and the transformative work they strive to achieve.

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Notable Quotes:

• Brooke Richie-Babbage [02:01]: "It's the easiest to describe and to measure. And for that reason, it's also often what the folks on our leadership team go to in their work plans."

• Brooke Richie-Babbage [05:23]: "We know that one, you're going to reach more people. That's growth."

• Brooke Richie-Babbage [06:39]: "That is a way to talk about growth in terms of depth."

• Brooke Richie-Babbage [07:08]: "You're amplifying changes in, in a community at a system level or across sectors."

• Brooke Richie-Babbage [07:32]: "You can also talk about growth in terms of resilience and sustainability for your organization."

Additional Resources

For more insights and resources related to this episode, visit brookerichiebabbage.com/podcast. Subscribe to Leadership Ford 321 newsletter by texting the word impact to 66866 to receive extra tips and materials that build on the podcast discussions.

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This summary encapsulates the key discussions, insights, and conclusions from the episode "How To Talk About Growth Beyond Just Numbers" on the Nonprofit Mastermind Podcast. It is designed to provide a comprehensive overview for those who have not listened to the episode.

Transcript

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As you're thinking about next year and.

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What progress and growth might look like.

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I'm going to share how you can.

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Avoid boxing yourself in to only thinking and talking about growth in terms of bigger numbers.

[Brooke Richie Babbage]

Welcome to the Nonprofit Mastermind podcast. I'm Brooke Richie Babbage. I've been in the social impact game for 25 years as a social justice lawyer turned two time nonprofit founder and leader turned growth strategist and coach for leaders around the country. I grew my nonprofit from me and an intern in a tiny closet to a high impact seven figure organization.

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And along the way I learned so.

[Brooke Richie Babbage]

So much about how to build an organization that has real impact and how to do it without burning out. In this podcast I share the nuts and bolts of all of it so you can do that too. We dive into the mindset, strategies and tactics of how to scale a high impact organization and how to do it in a way that's truly sustainable.

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As we near the end of the year, my mind has been going to.

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Sort of quicker topics and thoughts and.

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Conversations that I've been having with the leaders in my program and the folks that I coach and about how I can share some of their experiences and.

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Learnings with you all.

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My podcast community.

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So I'm experimenting with a new sort of shorty format. One topic, quick and dirty. And this week I want to talk about growth and more specifically how easy.

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It is to find yourself.

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Changing how you work, changing how your.

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Programs are structured, even changing how you.

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Talk about your mission because you think you have to talk about your work or growth in terms of numbers.

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Now our mind naturally goes to numbers.

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When we think about growth more, right?

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More means numbers reaching or serving more.

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People, running more programs. It's the easiest to think about and.

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It'S the easiest to describe and to measure.

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And for that reason, it's also often what the folks on our leadership team go to in their work plans. It's often what funders ask about or emphasize. But and this is really, really important, particularly as you are thinking about what you want next year to look like and what impact actually feels meaningful to you. It is so important that you clearly.

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Identify and confidently identify, plan for, and tell the story of the type of.

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Growth that is actually meaningful to your organization. And what that means is that it doesn't have to be about bigger and.

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More in terms of numbers. It can be, if that makes sense for you.

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But what if the work that you.

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Do with people or communities or issues.

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Doesn'T lend itself to quantifying growth that way? I work with a lot of growing organizations that are contorting themselves into talking.

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About their impact and their growth in terms of serving more kids, being in more communities, expanding nationally.

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But that isn't actually how they measure outcomes.

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That's not really the kind of transformation.

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That they are aiming for or that.

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Is exciting or meaningful to them or.

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Their team or their stakeholders. Sure, they can change their programs to reach more people, but that's not really what they're trying to do. Ultimately, another situation that comes up a bunch where playing the pure numbers game may not fit. You're in a reflection and refinement stage of your growth. I always remind the leaders that I work with that growth is not linear, it's more like a step function. You grow, you expand, maybe you build your team, you add people to your board, and then you have to level off, right?

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There's a flattening. And it doesn't mean that you aren't growing in other ways.

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It means that you are reflecting, you are adjusting, you are refining, you are.

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Taking in what you've learned from your.

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First growth or expansion and deciding the next best step to keep your impact.

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Mission aligned and to keep your organization stable. So if you're in that stage of.

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Growth, how do you talk about that to funders, right? If actually we're not going to add more programs, we're not going to reach more people. And finally, another area where this comes.

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Up a lot is that quite a.

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Few of the organizations that I work.

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With do policy and systems change work.

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Organizing, legislative advocacy, etc. Etc.

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Talking about growth in terms of numbers.

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Sometimes fits, but it's often besides the point, right?

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You can talk to funders about reaching.

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More legislators or having more people at a rally, but that's not the point, that's not impact. So in having these conversations with the folks that I've worked with, I have.

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Landed on and pulled together here a.

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Brief list of modes of growth, sort of like a taxonomy, a way of, of organizing how we talk about growth.

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Think about where you fit and what kind of story of impact you actually.

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Want to tell what feels right and.

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Meaningful to you, not just what you.

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Feel like you're being pressured into talking about.

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So the first one is numbers, right?

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We know that one, you're going to reach more people. That's growth.

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A second is variety. Maybe you meet the same number of.

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People, same number of communities, but you're going to do more with them, right? You're going to expand the way that you serve them, right?

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Maybe you're going to work at different skill levels, you're going to address different interests, you're going to provide wraparound services. And this is often in response to.

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What you are learning about the needs of your community. So let's say you work with moms around pre and perinatal health outcomes, right? And one of your core programs provides breastfeeding support and you are realizing that there are other types of support that.

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Moms who are breastfeeding need.

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So you're not going to work with.

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More moms, but you're going to do.

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More with them, right? With the moms that you work with. Variety, third depth. You're going to reach the same number of people, you're going to do the same amount of work in terms of numbers, but you're going to go deeper in each community, with each person in each family, and you're going to focus on longer term, deeper transformation. That is a way to talk about growth in terms of depth.

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Influence is another great one.

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This is where you are increasing, growing your organization's ability to shape perceptions, decisions and systems through your work.

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So this is a great one.

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If you do systems change, policy change work, non direct service program work, for example, another one that's great if you do any kind of work in a community. But definitely systems level work is amplification.

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This is a way of talking about.

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Growth where the work that you do will amplify impact within a landscape through, say, partnerships, collective action, right?

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You're amplifying changes in, in a community at a system level or across sectors. So you're not doing more work, but.

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The work that you're doing will amplify the changes that you care about.

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And finally, and this is a really.

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Important one to understand as valid, you.

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Can also talk about growth in terms of resilience and sustainability for your organization. You can focus on strengthening internal capacity.

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Internal infrastructure, and increasing your longevity.

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So those are the ones that I would encourage you to think about. There's definitely numbers.

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You can always talk about numbers. It's an easy one to measure. It's a really great go to and think about whether variety or depth or influence amplification or organizational resilience also fit.

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How you are thinking about your growth.

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And your impact in the coming year.

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I'll see you next week for more.

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Mastermind.

[Brooke Richie Babbage]

Thanks so much for joining me this week. If you enjoy this podcast, I would love for you to leave a rating and a review. I read every single one and they really do matter. I also share extra tidbits and resources building on what we talk about here in my newsletter, Leadership Ford 321. You can sign up by texting the word impact to 66866. And finally, definitely check out the links and resources that I mentioned this episode@brooke richiebabbage.com podcast see you next week.