Managing a project in the nonprofit sector requires the Project Manager navigate three converging points: organization culture, compliance and project activity. Organization culture includes the norms, beliefs or general practices that make up how your organization makes decisions, embraces or resists change and generally behaves. Compliance refers to internal process, legal guidelines and/or expectations of your constituents. And the project activity represents all of the work needed to successfully complete the project.
Understanding & Operating within Nonprofit Culture
No two organizations are the same. Though, there are some common characteristics across the sector. Decision-making structures at nonprofit organizations tend to be more consensus-oriented and mission-based. Acceptance of change tends to be a greater challenge as change occurs less frequently and those practices that sustain the organization today are deeply rooted in precedent. And, there is a language unique to the sector that should be considered in project communication.
Understanding and acknowledging your organization’s culture can significantly improve your chances of project success.
How decisions are made at nonprofit organizations might be the most significant distinguishing characteristic of nonprofit sector culture. Employees often choose to work for a nonprofit based on personal motivation over compensation. In return, an organization attempts to channel their energy in many ways – including, providing direct avenues (regardless of where in the organization hierarchy they might sit) to make decisions as to how to best advance the mission: to co-own the cause.
This shared sense of ownership over the mission – and the organization – is a critical success factor for your project. It is not your project. It is the organization’s – and therefore each individual staff person’s – project. If everyone is on equal footing, it falls on the Project Manager to lead and even inspire the change in others – rather than simply direct project work.
A second consideration is the frequency of change. Most of the projects I have worked on involved retiring a legacy system – often after 10, 15 or even 20 years. By way of comparison, organizations are essentially upgrading from a 1996-era flip-phone to an iPhone. Not only is the technology changing, but so too are the processes that allowed an organization in 2015 to somehow meet the demands – through workarounds, customization and sheer force-of-will – with aging technology.
It is also worth noting the importance of language as part of culture. While the parallel between sales and fundraising is undeniable, the direct-correlation in communication is rarely welcome. Organizations do not have customers – they have constituents. And profit is antithesis to nonprofit.
Understanding and appreciating language in the nonprofit sector is critical to forming effective communication in and about your project.
Defining and Ensuring Compliance
The nonprofit sector is bound by a set of laws, self-imposed ethical standards and the expectations of constituents. Laws can span state, local and federal levels, as well as reporting requirements of donors and their own boards. Self-imposed ethical standards may require alignment with the organizations’ mission and beliefs, concepts around transparency or understanding and adhering practices to align with public perception. Expectations of constituents are particularly challenging as it is common that constituent preferences are more often interpreted than explicitly stated.
A project must define and comply with a framework that can be simultaneously rigid and pliable.
On a recent project, the sponsor noted that “we hold the Ministry to a higher standard.” In just a few words, he set the tone for how project work would be executed – he communicated a deeper meaning that connected culture to compliance. If there was a judgement call, the project was to lean heavily toward what the organization would consider “right” from a moral stand-point, not simply expedient. Fully understanding and complying with this direction is as important (and arguably more) as achieving any of the project objectives.
Regulatory standards are too numerous to provide an exhaustive list here. Though, they often include privacy regulations such as compliance with HIPAA (Health Information Portability and Accountability Act) or Children’s Online Protection and Privacy Act (COPPA), IRS-designation as it relates to funding (ex. 501(c)3 vs. 501(c)4 tax status) or financial standards such as PCI-compliance (Payment Card Industry-compliance).
And, finally there is the question of constituent expectations. A common application is the effort to decipher “intent.” A donor that designates how their gift should be applied expects to be listened to. If a donor directly opts-out of communications, an organization will typically respect that indication – and ensure they are removed from communication moving forward. Though there are many trickier situations where an individual may indicate an intent that runs counter to organization practices. For example, an individual may ask not to receive mail, but give at a level that requires issuing (by mail) a receipt.
Compliance might best be defined as the intersection of organization culture with regulation and individual expectation. Understanding this intersection and aligning project objectives appropriately is a definite, though complex requirement. A project manager’s ability to navigate this complexity will ultimately become a critical metric of quality. It is not just about getting to the end of the project – it is the road taken to get there.
Setting Project Activity Accordingly
An effective project management plan will apply cultural and compliance dimensions to how the project is planned and executed. There are natural pairings and points of emphasis between culture and compliance with project management processes.
Your Stakeholder, Communication and Risk Management Plans are points of emphasis in applying culture to project activity. Stakeholder Management should map the organization structure and how you will steward the change required of the project amongst those directly impacted by the project. Communication will seek to meet organization expectations around timing, frequency, tone and content. And, an organization’s tolerance (or lack thereof) for risk directly informs how risk is to be managed on the project.
Quality, Procurement and Human Resource (HR) Management are areas of emphasis in ensuring the project is planned and executed in a way complying with organization regulations. Quality Management defines the overarching regulatory or standards framework within which the project is delivered. Procurement Management pairs with standards set forward by your organization around how goods can be purchased and vendors retained. And, HR management is of particular importance as projects typically span formal management and authority structures.
Scope, time and cost management are important because they represent the building blocks of every project. Scope Management describes the work to be completed by the project and delineates boundaries to that work. Time Management defines and manages how work will be organized in the form of a project schedule. And Cost Management describes not only the budget, but also how funds for the project will be managed.
The inter-dependency between these 3 facets is important for every organization to understand. For example, if a project timeline is most critical, there is a direct offset to scope or budget to be considered.
Summary & Conclusion
Jack Kerouac once wrote, “it ain’t whatcha write, it’s the way atcha write it.” Taking a bit of literary license, I think there is a parallel to nonprofit project management. The project must be conducted in a manner consistent with an organization’s culture and compliant with standards and regulations the organization adheres to. Understanding culture and compliance, and the impact on project activity is critical to creating a project worth reading about one day.