The Preemptive Nonprofit

Do you know Matt Manos?

You should know Matt Manos. He’s the Founder and Managing Director of a verynice design studio, but more than that, he’s someone who is using his time, talent, and cachet to create a movement around social impact, excellence, and innovation.

In his latest book, Toward A Preemptive Social Enterprise, Manos points out that a lot of businesses, especially nonprofits, are reactive, and don’t spend much time thinking about what various futures might look like, let alone planning for them. He has created a manifesto, complete with a rallying, bold font, that asks for social entrepreneurs to stop reacting and start creating the ideal future.

Reaction vs. Preemption
So what does preemptive social entrepreneurship look like? What does it mean to preempt the future? What does he want me to do, spend time planning for The Great Robot Takeover?

I had the good fortune to meet up with Matt recently and I asked him about this. He explained that “the future” can be 100 years away, but it can also be next week or next year. And being preemptive is about solving for the root of a problem, instead of coming up with band-aids.

You can see examples in our current political landscape. On the Republican side, Donald Trump sees a few Mexicans causing problems related to drugs and crime and decides that we should build a wall. Issues with terrorism? Ban Muslims. Something happens and he reacts. These are band-aids that may thwart some terrorist attacks or prevent some crime, but will mostly not do much more than make America look fearful, ignorant, and extremely undiplomatic.

On the Democratic side, we see a great example of preemptive thinking with Hillary Clinton’s plans for coal. No matter who is president, coal will remain a dwindling resource and will continue to cause problems around health and the environment. Knowing that is the case, her plan includes making sure “coal miners and their families get the benefits they’ve earned and respect they deserve, to invest in economic diversification and job creation, and to make coal communities an engine of US economic growth in the 21st century as they have been for generations.” This is preemptive thinking that works to solve the problem of what happens when you take away a huge economic engine from an already ailing area.

Regardless of your political leanings or the candidates’ abilities to make any of this happen, you can see a clear distinction between reacting to current issues and creating a preferred future.

The Preemptive Nonprofit
While I am a huge fan of social enterprise, I always like to look at things from a nonprofit perspective. What does a preemptive nonprofit look like?

The world is changing rapidly. Now, during this period of great fluidity, is the perfect time to spend real energy on designing our future.

While there are large issues we could focus on (ending homelessness, for example) let’s take a look at a future that’s already beginning to take shape in the form of traditional individual giving. What if nonprofits spent time thinking about a future without it?

While there are still plenty of philanthropists that give major gifts, the landscape is undeniably shifting. Where nonprofits once held the market on feeling good, donors have plenty of ways to get the same rush they do from giving and often get even more in return. Consider:

• Social Enterprise. Think about TOMS shoes. You can donate a pair of shoes to a person in need AND get your own shoes.
• Crowdfunding. You can help a worthy project get off the ground AND get a fun reward.
• Social Status. You can donate to every friend that is running a marathon for a cause AND get public validation that you are a good person by those friends and others via “likes”, comments, retweets, etc.

I can easily foresee a future where it’s very difficult for a nonprofit to receive a donation without giving something tangible in return. Yet many nonprofits have not planned for that. Nor have they planned for a world where foundation and government funding is completely different.

Change is happening right now. The 2016 Edelman Trust Barometer shows that for the first time, the general population is looking to businesses to solve social problems. A recent study by UCLA shows $1 billion less in giving in Los Angeles over the last 10 years.

What if nonprofits spent time thinking about a future without 501(c)(3) organizations? What if they were replaced by social entreprenuers? What if all business had a triple bottom line?

What if, what if, what if? Where would we be if we spent the necessary time on this?

Taking the Time
In his foreword, experiential futurist and design professor Stuart Candy says, “If you wish to realise a changed world, it is important to invest in imagination.”

Spending time thinking about different futures is not just a good idea, it’s integral to your success. Candy says, “Just having a wider context of possibilities, because you bothered to take a small amount of time to imagine several, possible, and preferable futures creates better preparation for whatever future emerges. It makes you more nimble and clear as the future unfolds and helps you to meld your own goals and missions with markets, industries, and organizations as they change.”

With very real financial and human capital constraints, it’s easy to think that while all of this preemptive business is nice, it’s too complicated and time-consuming a task to take on.

Not so. Manos has made that easy too. His book includes an introduction to Models of Impact, which is an exhaustive look at all of the various impact and revenue models that can be used to do business for good, as well as a workbook to get you thinking. Spend an hour with this portion of the book and see where it leads you.

Creating The Future
Can your nonprofit afford to ignore the future? Can business? (Hey, let’s ask Blockbuster!) Probably yes, for a while. But you might notice that it gets harder and harder to get things done, to get things financed, to keep good staff, to keep customers.

Change is a given. Let’s not only prepare for it, let’s create it.

You can get Toward a Preemptive Social Enterprise here.