Social Startup Success: How the Best Nonprofits Launch, Scale Up, and Make a Difference

by Kathleen Kelly Janus

Overview

With business advice from an expert entrepreneur, learn how to identify and leverage the key factors that will bring sustainability and success to your startup.

In order to make a difference, any modern nonprofit needs to achieve multimillion-dollar annual revenues. After surveying more than 200 high-performing entrepreneurs across the country—including the leaders of Teach for America, City Year, Donors Choose, charity: water, and Hot Bread Kitchen—Kathleen Kelly Janus is here to show you how to reach and sustain lasting organizational growth. Janus asked a simple question: “What is the key to nonprofit success?” The answers she received reveal five key strategies responsible for the most successful social startups:

• Testing Ideas
• Measuring Impact
• Funding Experimentation
• Leading Collaboratively
• Telling Compelling Stories

In these uncertain times, we need every bit of creativity and determination to find better solutions. The stories in Social Startup Success and the tools it recommends will help you to make your organization—whether a fledging startup or a large, well-established operation—thrive.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780738234816
Publisher:	Hachette Books
Publication date:	06/01/2021
Pages:	272
Sales rank:	505,889
Product dimensions:	5.40(w) x 8.20(h) x 0.80(d)

About the Author

Kathleen Kelly Janus is the Senior Advisor on Social Innovation to Governor Gavin Newsom.  As a social entrepreneur, author and lecturer at Stanford University’s Program on Social Entrepreneurship, she is an expert on philanthropy, millennial engagement and scaling early stage organizations.

Table of Contents

Introduction ix

Part 1 Testing Ideas

1 The Discovery Phase 3

2 Engaging All Stakeholders 24

3 Reframing Failure as Learning 33

Part 2 Measuring Impact

4 Crafting a Compelling Theory of Change 51

5 Maximizing Use of Data 65

6 Making Your Data Tell a Story 82

Part 3 Funding Experimentation

7 Laying the Foundation to Experiment with Earned Income 97

8 Testing Earned-Income Strategies 107

9 Optimizing Fundraising Efforts 121

Part 4 Leading Collaboratively

10 Cultivating Collective Leadership 145

11 Bringing in Senior Leadership Early 164

12 Building an Active Board 173

Part 5 Telling Compelling Stories

13 Creating a Compelling Narrative 188

Conclusion 201

Acknowledgments 203

Appendix A Cast of Characters 207

Appendix B Methodology 222

Appendix C Additional Resources 231

Notes 236

Index 244

Editorial Reviews

"The pressing social problems we face today require creative leadership. This book will teach you what you need to know to be a good social entrepreneur."—Muhammad Yunus, Nobel Peace Prize winner and author of the New York Times bestseller Banker to the Poor

"Shows how to scale an impact organization and, in so doing, change the world for the better."—Charles Best, Founder and CEO, DonorsChoose

"An invaluable resource for the next generation of changemakers."—Wendy Kopp, Founder, Teach for America, cofounder and CEO, Teach for All

"An inspiring must-read, with an empathetic voice, for all of us aspiring to maximize our social value through our organizations, work, and lives."—Laura Arrillaga-Andreessen, Founder/CEO, laaf.org, author of Giving 2.0, Founder/Chairman, Stanford Center on Philanthropy & Civil Society, Founder/Chairman Emeritus, Silicon Valley Social Venture Fund

"Reveals the secret sauce behind the most influential nonprofits of our time, telling their stories in memorable ways that every nonprofit leader can learn from."—Darren Walker, President, Ford Foundation

"Social Startup Success is a marvelous compilation of stories of some of the most inspiring leaders of our time."—Bill Drayton, CEO of Ashoka: Everyone a Changemaker

"An insightful and highly useful guide that breaks down how organizations maximize their impact and create lasting change. An important contribution to the field."—David Bornstein, author of How to Change the World:Social Entrepreneurs and the Power of New Ideas

"Social Startup Success covers all of the important building blocks...necessary for early stage organizations to succeed and build a strong foundation for further scale."—Heather McLeod Grant, Cofounder, Open Impact, and author of Forces for Good

"[A] no-nonsense, energetic guide...Kelly hits her target perfectly, and this is a must-read for anyone who wants to combine a lucrative career with work for the greater good."—Publishers Weekly

"Social entrepreneurship's essential playbook."—Midwest Book Review

From the Publisher

11/06/2017
Asking why some social-justice startups flourish and others fail, Kelly, cofounder of a nonprofit that promotes gender equality, presents the trends unique to successful organizations in this no-nonsense, energetic guide to building a startup that both does well and does good. Kelly conducted a survey of newly founded organizations and tracked which ones reached organizational sustainability, which she defines as annually raising about $2 million. She found five key strategies responsible for the success of effective nonprofits: they all tested ideas thoroughly before seeking funding, measured impact from day one, funded experimentation through diversification, led collaboratively, and told compelling stories. Surprisingly, none of the successful startups indicated that their success was driven by a single brilliant idea or charismatic founder. Packed with clear, concrete advice and illustrated with profiles of effective leaders, Kelly provides comfort and direction for do-gooders leading startups, such as with reminders that they’re not alone in their challenges. Though the audience is necessarily niche, Kelly hits her target perfectly, and this is a must-read for anyone who wants to combine a lucrative career with work for the greater good. (Jan.)

Publishers Weekly