Scale is Not the Enemy -- Part I
Youth Today’s excellent June cover story entitled, “Growing Ambitions” describes how several national youth-serving organizations are pursuing “ market-penetration plans with the zeal of Coca-Cola and Starbucks.” As reasons, the article cites, “ a rise in government funding of after-school programs, an increasing propensity among foundations to fund brand names like the YMCA, and a changing organizational culture in which top executives bring more of a business perspective to the nonprofit world.”
The central questions raised by the article are whether local unaffiliated organizations will be able to compete with the dynamics fueling this growth and, if not, whether innovation will suffer. Clearly the mantra is that big is better. Scale is the holy grail.
Which, of course, makes it all so easy to bash. Arguments against scale in the nonprofit sector claim that it’s not right for every organization or idea, that it squashes local leadership, that our sector shouldn’t treat folks like widgets to be manipulated with the likes of any market penetration plan. I’d argue that, since we also romanticize the community agency and its leaders who make fishes from loaves every day, it’s hard to stomach national organizations which often seem to have so many more resources.
Obviously scale isn’t right for every program (or even more than a minority.) Obviously local leadership proportionately loses its clout when diluted by regional and national constituent groups. And there is obviously a difference between treating folks like human beings and treating them like growth indicators. But that doesn’t make the instinct to scale an enemy.
I’m not arguing for all scale, all the time, but tomorrow I will cite two personal examples of why I believe trends described by the Youth Today article point the way to greater dollar-per-dollar impact.
P.S. Lest there be any confusion, I hold these opinions despite the fact that I detest Hummers and the way that Wal-Mart systematically shortchanges its workers.
Posted at 6:15 AM, Jul 19, 2007 in Philanthropic Strategy | Permalink | Comments (3)