Future of the NFP Sector

Posted by Erin Green on 26 February 2010 | 1 Comments
Tags: not for profit, innovation, social impact, measurement, collaboration

On Thursday I attended the Not for Profit Community Service Sector Forum in Adelaide.
Hosted by partners Anglicare and Flinders University, the forum brought together leaders from the not for profit (NFP) and government sector to talk about the future of the NFP sector.

There were some standout sessions but perhaps the most useful and enlightening for me was the fantastic presentation by Robert Fitzgerald on issues arising from the Productivity Commission’s Inquiry into the contribution of the Not for Profit sector. Having looked at the 550+ page document with something akin to dread it was fantastic to hear from the horses mouth (as it were) some of the key findings from the study.

Information like the fact that volunteering is on the rise generally for the NFP sector but is steadily diminishing in the social services part of the sector. In fact, the general trends around the what, how, why, who and when of volunteering was fascinating (this may be my own volunteering sector background coming in to play) – particularly around engaging with youth and the community in a new way as volunteers move away from forming physical groups or demonstrating on the streets to new technology answers to activism and volunteering. The ‘new volunteering model’ isn’t new to me (nor to most of the audience) but it was great to see the statistics proving the anecdotal evidence true. This sparked some interesting debate about why volunteering is dropping in the social services sector when it is on the rise elsewhere with issues such as stricter requirements for volunteers working with vulnerable clients and the growing professionalisation of the sector (leading to more staff and less volunteers) as two of the strongest contenders.

I highly recommend checking out the Productivity Commision summary document as a starting point – for all kinds of other goodies and insights.

Five very different perspectives were shared during a session on the transformation of the NFP sector by 2030 ranging from moving back to a more activism based model, social enterprise model and the highlight for me - an insightful (and speedy) snapshot of client driven funding models by Robbi Williams (CEO Julia Farr Association) complete with attention grabbing duck references (you really had to be there but it certainly highlighted what works in developing a catchy presentation).

There was some great conversation around innovation in the third sector but I was strongly aware that the focus was mostly on incremental innovation (as opposed to disruptive innovation). This seemed to be based on reflection around the rigidity of funding models that can limit both innovation and effectiveness and also general confusion around appropriate models for measuring impact.

It begs the question – could we get a universal system for measuring social impact off the ground and, in practice, how could we make it flexible enough to fulfil the needs of such a diverse range of organisations as the loosely grouped ‘not for profit’ sector? I certainly think social impact measurement is one of the big questions the NFP sector is facing right now.

So, as you can probably tell, it was a great forum. Thought-provoking and, as AnglicareSA CEO Lynn Arnold quipped, exhausting in a good way. Now we just need to see what impact this kind of forum has on turning ideas into practice -  the level of thoughtfulness, genuine discussion and refreshed ideas buzzing in the brains of participants is certainly a good sign that, as far as the future of NFPs are concerned, we're  on the right track.