My colleague Mark Holmgren (Anticipate) has written an insightful post about his experience attending an Imagine Canada Forum held in Edmonton. Imagine Canada is doing a series of Provincial forums and Edmonton was their first stop.

Here  is how Imagine Canada describe it’s cross country mission.

First, in its role as convener of a national dialogue on how to strengthen the collective voice of the sector and develop a common agenda for action, Imagine Canada will use this draft framework to facilitate a nation-wide conversation about what is driving change in the sector and what actions must be taken to maximize the contributions of the sector to Canada and the world over the next decade.

I haven’t being following Imagine Canada’s work but after reading Mark’s post, and the Framework for Action document, I’m going to delve deeper into their resources and cross Canada campaign.

Over the past few months I’ve become more aware of the huge gulf that separates the non profit sector from the business sector in the eyes of the general public, government and media sectors.

As I read the Framework For Action paper that Imagine Canada was using to engage audience’s across Canada, I felt some optimism that Canada was taking a major step to address the misconceptions about the non profit sector.

In its draft “framework for action” Imagine Canada identifies 7 drivers of change, which are:

Driver 1: The increasing importance and influence of social innovation in Canada

Driver 2: Structural shifts in the revenue base which supports the work of charitable and nonprofit organizations

Driver 3: Shortage of talent to strengthen and lead charitable and nonprofit organizations

Driver 4: Lack of growth in the number of volunteers to govern, support and promote civic and community organizations

Driver 5: Heightened demand for transparency, accountability and communication of impact

Driver 6: Growing need for transformative partnerships among charities and nonprofits and with other sectors

Driver 7: Increased use of social media and new technologies for community engagement, outreach to youth and networking

While I recognize these Drivers are important considerations, I think that it would be a useful exercise to frame them as strategic directions for organizations (large or small)  instead of prioritized (numbered) drivers of change. Mark makes a similar point in his post and I support his notion that prioritizing these drivers in terms of their importance isn’t exactly a constructive exercise.

If each driver was framed as a strategy, here’s how these strategies would look like from my perspective.

Strategic Directions: Each organization can address any one or all of these strategies to the degree they are ready and capable.

1. Foster social innovation as a cornerstone value and practice in your organization’s programing

2. Identify potential new funding opportunities that are emerging as a result of the cultural shifts in the revenue base which supports the work of charitable and nonprofit organizations.

3. Create new incentives to recruit and retain leaders that will strengthen and lead charitable and nonprofit organizations

4. Develop new models of volunteer engagement that will address the unique expectations of the emerging cohort of people interested in contributing to social causes.

5. Use social technologies to in creative ways to respond to the heightened demand for transparency, accountability and communication of impact

6. Seek out opportunities to form transformative partnerships among charities and nonprofits and with other sectors

7. With each of the above strategies, increase use of social media and new technologies for community engagement, outreach to service users, youth and networking

I like my new list of strategies because these statements can give an organization a lens to look into the future and encourage them to plot activities that will meet these current challenges.

It’s a bit like looking at the glass and seeing it half full or half empty. Or, is your organization at risk or is it at promise.

In closing I echo Mark’s comment about the need for everyday citizens to shift their understanding of the non profit (social benefit sector).

It’s not enough that organizations undergo a shift in understanding and practice about their work. All citizen’s involved in creating the future we want are needed to do re-think the role of non profit organizations.

Brent Uncategorized imagine innovation strategy