The most successful nonprofit organizations are those that look outside their own work and become catalysts for broader social change, according to an article in Stanford Social Innovation Review.

The article notes that the most successful nonprofits aren't just those with the largest budgets or the most sophisticated organizational structures, but those that make a difference in their communities.

The article, "Creating High-Impact Nonprofits," is by Heather McCloud Grant and Leslie Crutchfield based on their upcoming book, "The Six Practices of High-Impact Nonprofits."

Grant is an advisor to the Center for the Advancement of Social Entrepreneurship at Duke University's business school and at the Center for Social Innovation at the Stanford University Graduate School of Business. Crutchfield is managing director of the Ashoka Global Academy.

The co-authors spent several years looking at the successes of 12 large non-profits, including Habitat for Humanity, Teach for America and Environmental Defense.

Their research results were "a bit of surprise," they wrote. They said high-impact nonprofits do more than build a great organization.

"Rather, high-impact nonprofits work with and through organizations and individuals outside themselves to create more impact than they ever could have alone," the authors wrote. "They build social movements and fields … they change the world around them."

The most successful nonprofits also inspire their supporters.

"These nonprofits create emotional experiences that help connect the supporters to the group's mission and core values," they wrote. "These experiences convert outsiders to evangelists, who in turn recruit others in viral marketing at its finest."

The article can be found on the Web site of the Stanford Social Innovation Review at www.ssireview.org .

— Don Kazak

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