Powerful Words from Dan Palotta at the Washington State Nonprofit Conference
The Washington State Nonprofit Conference was a more than a hit, it was a home run.
What did you take away from the conference?
What inspired you and how do you plan to apply what you learned in your organization?
I took away three key ideas from Dan Palotta’s keynote speech that can transform our sector:
- Reeducate the Public and the Media So They Know Your Organization’s Impact: We must work to reeducate the public about what it means to be “successful” as a nonprofit. Measuring a nonprofit’s credibility and worth by what percentage of its donations goes towards overhead does not do it justice! We need to measure the impact of the work we do, and communicate that overhead is necessary to achieving greater and larger scaled impact.
- Invest in Our Organizations: We must see our nonprofit organizations as businesses. Running a successful business requires investment. Starving your organization of important investments may make you look better on paper but will not produce a greater impact. We must invest diligently and wisely, but must not be afraid to invest.
- Innovate: Always measure the impact of what you do, but take risks and try new things. Trying something new and measuring the failure will teach others and increase your chances of success the next time. Communicate to your investors and donors your plans and get them excited about your innovation.
These key ideas that Dan touched on challenge our entire paradigm of charity and service. But they will transform our organizations for the better. Dan Palotta also talked about the traditional puritanical values that have undermined our society, because we have separated ‘business’ from ‘charity’ and have made the two mutually exclusive. Our society holds the value that to work in charity should be self-sacrificial and that one should never profit off of it. He directly challenged these values and asked the question, why are capitalist ideas off limits when it comes to addressing the most pressing social problems in our society?