National Association of Nonprofit Organizations and Executives (NANOE)

Various kinds of recognitions will occur.
1. Members’ efforts to further their growth and professional development in various areas of capacity building will be recognized. NANOE will offer some opportunities to earn certain capacity building certifications, and will form partnerships with other agencies for other certifications. Resources will be created to support members’ knowledge development for the certifications created by NANOE. Past years of exemplar experience will also be honored as part of this certification process. In the future, an internship initiative may be established to provide opportunity for already employed nonprofit leaders to shadow a recognized nonprofit leader for a period of time.
2. Members will be asked to identify key sector leaders who have made a difference in their thinking and practice, particularly where their nominee has made a significant difference in their organization’s ability to build capacity, grow, and increase impact;
3. Members from the philanthropic community will be asked to identify nonprofits that have made significant impacts in their community, state, region or nation. Some of the nominations will be honored through appropriate mediums, including at the national convention.
4. Members, and NANOE board and staff will identify those nonprofits that have engaged in research and evaluation that clearly shows effectiveness and impact. Their stories will be highlighted in NANOE publications and some will be honored at regional or national conventions.
5. For profit businesses that provide goods and services to nonprofits will be honored at national conventions and their businesses highlighted in NANOE publications and conventions.
6. Selected philanthropists and foundation leaders will be honored for their efforts to build nonprofit organizational capacity so that they reach a significant scale, and have notable impact on the issues addressed.

Initially, NANOE will sponsor research that aims to a) identify the effect of organizational practices on growth and impact; b) examines capacity building practices and effects; and c) examines the effects of capacity building on increasing public trust. In some cases, NANOE members will also conduct their own research on leaders’ intentions to build capacity and its effect on growth and impact. The intention is to provide research-based evidence of capacity building effects on growth, effectiveness, and impact.

Currently there are several standards/guidelines/booklets publicized by various national technical assistance nonprofit organizations that are focused on advocating leadership and management practices thought to be the foundations of an effective nonprofit. A culture has been established, almost without question at the national level, but certainly is questioned at the local level. Some practices sound good, but are very hard implement or sustain.
NANOE plans to continue to examine these industry standards and draw attention to some of them that are not producing the lasting effect needed for the organization to grow and accomplish mission.

NANOE aims to increase leaders’ ability to build organizational capacity so that growth occurs and missions are accomplished at a scale equal to the severity of the issues addressed. The focus of professional growth will be one capacity building practices for nonprofit executives and those in leadership roles within their organization.
Professional growth experiences will take numerous forums including, but not limited to, seminars, conventions, certification exams, training sessions, consultations, phone coaching.
During the next five years, NANOE will focus their professional development experiences on a few of the guidelines found in its Guidelines of Tomorrow’s Nonprofit Practice. NANOE will also provide several resources available to aid those executives who desire to increase their knowledge about various capacity building areas or desire tools to aid their capacity building efforts. Some tools and resources will be developed by NANOE staff or members and others will be secured for members through partnerships with other organizations.

NANOE aims to create materials, systems, partnerships in order to support leaders’ capacity building efforts, growth, effectiveness and impacts.

This initiative will be started after five years of NANOE activities. During the first five years, major discussion will occur with NANOE members from the legal community and other interested NANOE members on the areas of the nonprofit law, policy and regulatory environment that hamper nonprofits ability to grow at a rate to achieve mission. With partners, NANOE will review national and state level policies and regulations that have hampered the growth of nonprofits and leadership efforts. After five years of work, NANOE will provide policy briefs, conduct forums, and promote practices that suggest changes in the current nonprofit policy and regulatory environment. It will seek changes in the way state charitable divisions reward and negatively profile nonprofits based on their annual reports and 990s.