I help organizations run effectively through operations coaching, workflow optimization, and talent development. I gain a lot of personal satisfaction from making other people’s work lives more productive, satisfying, and under control. On a personal note, I’m a mom with 4 kids juggling life, work, family, and community involvement.
Deena Englander
Karma: 809
Hiring Right: Webinar Recap and What’s Coming August 11th
We’ve Just Launched Our Grant Readiness Course
The Infrastructure Gap: A Better Model – Trust-Based Philanthropy with VC Standards (Part 3 of 3)
The Infrastructure Gap: Why Smarter Funding Means Stronger Impact (Part 2 of 3)
The Infrastructure Gap: Why Smarter Funding Means Stronger Impact (Part 1 of 3)
Introducing Our 2026 Nonprofit Webinar Series (free)
Ops Accelerator Applications Closing Soon
I so love seeing this post—I’m thrilled with the direction Coefficient Giving is going in. I strongly agree with the part about funding service providers; that’s the biggest bottleneck to organizational success (and why I founded WorkStream Nonprofit). Org leaders commonly don’t know:
- what norms they should be following
- what type of expertise they should be requesting and paying for
- whether it’s responsible to use funder dollars to pay for these supporting services.
Between all of that, they’re not engaging with the right kind of (or any) support, and that significantly hurts impact. (See my past post on operational norms.)
I think that you, as funders, are the best positioned to help encourage best practices amongst your grantees, and I’m loving that you’re making that a priority this year!
Ready to Grow? Explore Our Upcoming Events & Programs
I love this—I would love to see more people taking action, and more funding dollars directed towards action. Research is less impactful now—now we need to do things that can make a change, and there are a variety of ways to make that happen.
Applications Open: A 6-Month Cohort to Strengthen Your Nonprofit’s Operations
I think you’re totally on target with your thought—being an effective operator is very different than being an effective entrepreneur. They need each other. I personally always think operations and efficiency should be a part of the conversation (not just in growth mode), but by design needs to involve someone other than the entrepreneur to implement it.
Nonprofits Deserve Better Operations
About WorkStream Nonprofit: Building Stronger Nonprofits Through Better Back Office Support
Registration Open for 2 Operations Programs
The Narrative Behind Your Impact
Here’s the link to the summary and updates
https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/Er4duMaar9u8mju4Y/fundraising-and-marketing-webinar-recap-the-takeaways-from?utm_campaign=post_share&utm_source=link
Thanks for this post! I agree with your points, especially the part about investing in operational scaffolding. It gives the smaller orgs the chance to grow and succeed; currently it’s very difficult for startup charity entrepreneurs to succeed. Some of that is due to lack of management experience, and some of that is due to a pattern of funders investing in startup costs for orgs but not continuing support 6 months later due to a lack of proven impact. My main complaint with that pattern is that I’d like to see funding focused on helping them build a pathway to success, not just dropping seed funding and expecting great outcomes.
Regardless, making sure M&E is implemented from the beginning and operation scaffolding is built in, and then adding in a diversification layer are all really critical components of building healthy and impactful organizations.