Resources: You May Have More Than You Think!

The story is told of a sign in a Pentagon procurement office that said, “Better, Faster, Cheaper:  Pick Any Two.”  While humorous in a way, we recognize some (painful) truth in the statement.

In a parallel way, leaders in nonprofit organizations also have three types of resources (and therefore choices) at their disposal.  To maximize the impact of an organization’s programming and vision, we need to build a strategy using all three.

The three types of resources every organization has are Time, Money, and People.  Typically we think first (and sometimes only) of money as the basic resource to drive an organization’s progress. You read often that fund development is the chief priority for an organization—and that would be true for any organization these days, really. The type of algorithm in the Pentagon sign exists, no doubt.  If you have less money, you may have to find ways to maximize your “people” resource.  If you don’t have a lot of either, then time may become a resource—it may take longer to achieve your objective, but there are ways to use time to build your programming as well.

We all know about financial budgeting and management, but I’ve also seen organizations create very successful advocacy campaigns using people power.  Organizations can succeed primarily using the intellectual capital and of their volunteers or their profession.  However, I’ve seen many fewer organizations that actually consider creating a human capital budget, or that even know how many hours or to what end they have volunteers contributing over any given cycle.

Have you done a “human capital” (people) assessment of your organization?  Do you know how you are spending volunteers’ energy and commitment, and how that relates to your strategic priorities?  Do you have a human capital development plan that will help build the strategic capacity of your organization?  This resource can be as vital, and sometimes more vital, than having funds to spend on certain initiatives.

Time is also an asset.  Occasionally, we don’t have much of it, or we use it to create and drive an agenda.  The National Breast Cancer Coalition, for example, has identified the year 2020 as the deadline to end breast cancer.  It is using time as an asset, to create urgency for people and funding.

Some things are calendar driven, and must be considered in light of deadlines.  Then again, there is a saying that “Time cures.”  Do you ask, when considering an issue, whether it requires money, people, or time?  Time can be used another way: in sequencing well.  For some issues, if you do the right things first (using time correctly) you may not have to do several other things—they may take care of themselves.

Take the opportunity to do a global assessment of your organization’s strategic capacity in these three areas.  How does your organization consider, count, and use its’ people, its’ time, and then, its’ money.  By being conscious in this assessment, you may well find resources you didn’t know you had, or be able to capitalize and deploy the resources you have in a more effective way.