What I think these organizations mostly lack is a clear incentive structure. Money flows in on one end and is spent on... stuff.
There's not a strong incentive for tracking performance or impact. If you spent the money, got something out of it and didn't kill anybody in the process, you're gold. Actually, most non-profits I've worked with are very averse to the idea of measuring the impact of their activities.
There's also the problem of failure; most just don't recognize failure as a necessary step to success. I regularly see complete failures being spun into successes. The very admission of failure is enough to get you fired or shunned.
I'm actually looking at what comes out of YC (e.g. Watsi, Bayes Impact) to see if a new model of non-profits emerges, one that moves fast and embraces result-driven approaches.
What I think these organizations mostly lack is a clear incentive structure. Money flows in on one end and is spent on... stuff.
There's not a strong incentive for tracking performance or impact. If you spent the money, got something out of it and didn't kill anybody in the process, you're gold. Actually, most non-profits I've worked with are very averse to the idea of measuring the impact of their activities.
There's also the problem of failure; most just don't recognize failure as a necessary step to success. I regularly see complete failures being spun into successes. The very admission of failure is enough to get you fired or shunned.
I'm actually looking at what comes out of YC (e.g. Watsi, Bayes Impact) to see if a new model of non-profits emerges, one that moves fast and embraces result-driven approaches.