An innovative guide to how great nonprofits achieve extraordinary social impact.

What makes great nonprofits great? Authors Crutchfield and McLeod Grant searched for the answer over several years, employing a rigorous research methodology which derived from books on for-profits like Built to Last. They studied 12 nonprofits that have achieved extraordinary levels of impact from Habitat for Humanity to the Heritage Foundation and distilled six counterintuitive practices that these organizations use to change the world. This book has lessons for all readers interested in creating significant social change, including nonprofit managers, donors and volunteers.

Leslie R. Crutchfield (Washington, D.C.) is a managing director of Ashoka and research grantee of the Aspen Institute. Heather McLeod Grant (Palo Alto, CA) is a nonprofit consultant and advisor to Duke University's Center for the Advancement of Social Entrepreneurship and the Stanford Center for Social Innovation. Crutchfield and Grant were co-founding editors of Who Cares, a national magazine reaching 50,000 readers in circulation between 1993-2000.

Customer Rating:
Summary: A book that will change how you think about nonprofits
Comment: I finished reading Forces For Good a few months ago. Yet I hadn't written about it, because I was observing how the concepts captured in it started to sink in and permeate into the way that we manage our own work in the Diabetes Hands Foundation. I am seeing the truth in the six forces described by Ms. Crutchfield and Ms. McLeod.

1) Advocate and Serve: trying to go beyond serving others to try to affect change at a level that will impact the lives of many more through activism.
2) Make Markets Work: work WITH, not AGAINST the private sector with mindset of trying to help private companies win too, while you help permeate their view of things.
3) Inspire Evangelists: very much aligned with the thoughts by Guy Kawasaki of developing people who will very much preach to others about the work your organization does.
4) Nurture Nonprofit Networks: believing that there is so much room and space for all and that united we stand a bigger chance of growing and accomplishing our goals.
5) Master the Art of Adaptation: change is the only constant... deal with it.
6) Share Leadership: don't become fixated (as a founder) on retaining all power... there are different leaders for different times.

In the end, applying these thoughts and learning from the loads of practical examples offered by the authors, it becomes clear how a nonprofit can have a sustained high impact.

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Customer Rating:
Summary: Forces For Good
Comment: This book is one of the bet I have read re nonprofit organizations. Some eye opening observations by the authors. I especially liked the summaries at the end of each chapter as well as the chapters at the end that provide a checklist of "To Do" items. Well worth the read if you are just beginning a nonprofit or are an established organization.

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Customer Rating:
Summary: Work Smarter - Not Harder!
Comment: Forces for Good is an extremely readable book about what makes a great non-profit GREAT, and it is written by Leslie Crutchfield and Heather Grant, the two women who did the research and put their findings on paper so all involved in the non-profit sector might benefit from their conclusions.

Based on several years' research involving twelve of the most successful nonprofits in recent U.S. history, Forces for Good looks closely at the six practices that high-impact non-profits use to maximize social change.

What makes the book so engaging is that it is NOT about America's most well-managed non-profits, nor is it about America's best-marketed organizations with the most recognized brands. It's NOT even about the groups with the highest revenues or the lowest overhead ratios.

Rather, Forces for Good is about one dozen exemplary organizations that have created real social change - organizations that can be considered cousins to companies like Google or eBay in what they have accomplished. Very exciting stuff!

The best news is that the book is well-written and engaging - with several good stories and logical explanations, as well as authentic suggestions and even fantastical ideas (for those real dreamers out there who still like to read.) If you are a leader in the non-profit sector, I believe you will agree with me that Forces for Good not only makes sense, it opens up the mind to new ways of thinking and acting. It is a blueprint for turning your non-profit into a force for good.

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Customer Rating:
Summary: Beyond Mission and Vision
Comment: Proving that it takes more than a compelling vision to have great impact, the authors use persuasive stories gleaned from their research of 12 high-impact nonprofits to bring to life the six practice framework they identify as necessary to generate "Forces for Good" when creating societal change. As identified by authors, the six things that great social sector organizations do are:

1. Advocate and serve
2. Make markets work
3. Inspire evangelists
4. Nurture nonprofit networks
5. Master the art of adaptation
6. Share leadership

While these six practices, by name, are hardly specific enough to show the way for everyday application, the examples from the 12 organizations get beneath these generalizations, and the final chapter provides useful checklists for `How to Start' when putting the framework into practice. All-in-all, a well written, and thought provoking book that anyone involved with a nonprofit organization should take the time to read, as well as a book that offers thoughts for leadership of most `for profit' organizations.

Dennis DeWilde, Author of "The Performance Connection"

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Customer Rating:
Summary: A great asset for non profit leaders
Comment: Leaders of non profits are constantly asking themselves, how can we make our organization more effective and more secure. The authors set out to find commonality among disparate non profits, each of whom however is successful and highly effective. They succeed marvelously. From The Heritage Foundation to Environmental Defense (can you think of two more different non profits?), the six practices they outline can be models for each of us as we seek to make our organizations better, more effective, and more sustainable. It's an easy read. The concepts are clear and understandable. It's changed the way I look at my non profit leadership.

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