Nonprofits: More Soccer than Basketball

In my favorite episode of Malcolm Gladwell’s Revisionist History podcast, he breaks down two schools of thought around educational philanthropy and compares them using a metaphor that has stuck with me ever since. He states that in basketball, most teams are only as good as their best player (i.e. LeBron can carry lesser players to the brink of a championship) while in soccer, most teams are only as good as their worst player (i.e. Messi rarely can just dribble the length of the field to score). He uses this metaphor to help break down two sides of the educational philanthropy debate: Are American Universities only as good as their worst counterpart or as good as their best counterpart? (i.e. Is education more like soccer or more like basketball?)

Ever since hearing this, I've found myself applying it to the nonprofit sector as a whole on a daily basis. Are nonprofits as a collective sector as strong as their best run organizations? or Are nonprofits collectively only as strong as their weakest counterparts?

To be honest, I was pretty quick to decide that I felt that nonprofits fell more in the “Soccer”mold than the “Basketball”. Although the success of one nonprofit often helps another, I believe the strength of the sector is based on its collective strength rather than individual efforts. Here are a few reasons why:

Guilty by association

When one nonprofit grabs headlines for mismanagement of funds or unethical behavior, it quickly erodes the public’s confidence in the sector as a whole. Although this does also happen with positive press, it’s far more damning when it’s a negative event. To this day, people still reference the Wounded Warrior Project’s fund discrepancies as a reason not to trust nonprofits.

Comparisons

Similarly to being guilty by association, nonprofits love to use each other as benchmarks for industry standards. That means that when a nonprofit is surveying comparable salaries for a new position, those low outliers weigh down the group as a whole. This goes well beyond just hiring but into diversity initiatives and much more.

Limited pool of money

Donor dollars and grants help nearly every nonprofit stay afloat to some degree but these are two limited pools of money. By taking a broader view, a dollar donated to a nonprofit poorly equipped or running a poorly designed program is a dollar that didn’t go to one with cost-effective, impactful programming.

Although I could go on, I don’t intend for this to be a bashing of the sector or its member organizations. In fact, I feel that this is quite the opposite. This awareness of ‘all boats rising together’ (or whatever aphorism you choose) is incredibly insightful while in the day to day trenches of the nonprofit world.

Here’s just a few ideas on how nonprofits can band together and lift up their fellow organizations:

Open source best practices – Oh, you have a way to package data to donors or stakeholders in a convincing way? Figure out a way to share that. Maybe not the exact presentation but could you throw together a how-to and share it in the local nonprofit network? A little goes a long way.

Collaborate – Do what you do best and partner for the rest. Figure out ways to partner with other organizations and stay open-minded to their processes and practices. You may learn something or you may see an opportunity to teach something. If you emphasize collaboration over competition, the collective whole wins.

Cross-promotion – If you have a rock star candidate for a position that you’ve just filled, take five minutes to make an introduction to a peer organization that may need a similar skill set. Odds are that even those that connections don’t lead to a new hire will lead to a reciprocal relationship and mutual trust.

Be honest and open – By approaching external communication with other nonprofits with a startling amount of transparency, you’ll quickly see that other organizations will find ways to help. Further, you’ll likely find other organizations lining up behind you with similar issues. This type of honesty will boost the sector (locally and nationally) towards its goals.

Just remember, it’s nearly impossible for somebody to score a goal in soccer without passing the ball a few times. Nobody is dribbling the length of the field and celebrating alone – and the same goes for those in the nonprofit world. Sometimes, an assist is just as good as a goal.