From Big Vision to Tomorrow’s Project: Avoiding New Project Fails
Do you want to change the world? I know I do.
This article was written by featured writer Amber Smith
In my adventures as the founder and Executive Director of a nonprofit in my city, I’ve seen projects, plans, and even entire fellow organizations falter and crumble in their own quest to make an impact. But I’ve also seen others wildly succeed.
A natural part of working in the business of world-changing means that the risks you take won’t always pan out. It turns out that solving enormous social issues is really hard — go figure. There will always be a number of factors that play into your success. Some, like luck, timing, and unexpected life occurrences, you can’t control. But others — your approach to the problem and planning — you can.
Over the past decade, I’ve watched other organizations and leaders with a keen eye to better understand what makes some projects winners while others lose out. I’ve also recalled my own failures and successes and realized that the best victories seem to follow a similar path from start to finish. Here’s what that path looks like:
1. When thinking of starting a new project or organization for social impact, remember the ‘big vision’ first
Successful social change pros don’t embark on new projects before challenging their own assumptions about the projects they think they need to complete. Before deciding they need to invest in a new website, to rebrand their organization, launch a new fundraising campaign, or even start a whole new organization, these pros think back on the vision that first got them into the crazy world of change-making. Then, they listen and learn. They do these things to make sure that whatever effort they invest in to bolster their cause will be the most effective one it can be.
It starts by asking yourself a deceptively challenging question: If you woke up tomorrow to find you’d succeeded in changing the world, what would that world look like? What would be different about it from the night before? “Peace on earth” is a lovely, dreamy answer. But the best answers I’ve heard to these questions are specific and concrete: “Homelessness is eradicated in my state.” Or, “100% of kids in my city graduate high school.” By framing your ultimate end game in concrete terms again and again at the start of every new project, you put yourself on the path to achievement, even if those goals seem lofty, still.
2. Discover (or review) what’s standing in the way of that vision being a reality, and what’s already working
If you’ve articulated your dream specifically — to ensure 100% of kids in your city graduate high school, for example — you have empowered yourself to identify clear, specific reasons why it might not already be the case. What’s standing in the way of 100% of kids graduating high school right this very moment?
You’ll find a variety of responses — social issues are complex. But that’s okay. Laying all the obstacles you face on the table allows you to prioritize. By discovering that, say, student poverty, lack of mental health support for youth, or a lack of early education for young children are the big reasons kids in your city aren’t grabbing those diplomas, now you have some decisions to make for the direction of your new project. Which of these obstacles is the biggest? Which of them is getting the least amount of attention already?
Assess your landscape and review what fellow organizations are also working in this space. What efforts have they undergone, and which ones are working (or not)? If a lot of attention is already being placed on a specific obstacle and those efforts are proving successful, perhaps your project should focus on a gap where less attention is being given.
If you’re already working in a nonprofit, your organization has likely already gone through these steps during strategic planning work. Still, revisiting them time and time again allows you to repeatedly challenge your assumptions or build confidence in the choices you’ve made.
3. Design your project around which idea will make the biggest impact to remove the obstacle
If your research shows you that, for example, student poverty is the biggest and least attended to obstacle to student graduation in your city, you’ve affirmed your new project should tackle it. Now, not before, is the time to call in the troops to brainstorm the best ideas. This step is where your project is born.
If you work within an organization already, now’s the time to ask yourself: What’s stopping you from successfully tackling student poverty? Are people unaware of your efforts? Is your database that organizes information about the youth you serve horribly inefficient? And, how do you know, for sure, what problems you’re facing outside of your personal observations?
Launching stakeholder surveys to gather feedback from the public, supporters, or even your own team about your organization or efforts is a great strategy to better understand the problems you face in achieving your goals. Through surveys like these, I’ve personally learned about misconceptions about my organization’s work, what drew our supporters to love us, and what folks thought we were missing to be successful. The knowledge I gained has helped me reframe how I’ve talked about our mission, what we focus on in social media, and more.
The knowledge acquired is power. If survey results surprise you by highlighting that, for example, people don’t think student poverty is a real problem at all, now you can set the direction for your project to specifically meet that problem head on. Knowing this, you could decide to raise awareness by creating a public service awareness video, launching a social media campaign, going on a public speaking tour, or other ideas.
4. Think about what resources you need — really need — to pull this off
Once you know what you need to accomplish — to raise awareness about the social issue, in this ongoing example — you’ve got to keep challenging those assumptions at this step, too.
So, you’ve heard that video content on social media is all the rage now, and think you need to create a video to raise awareness. But what if the audience you truly want to reach doesn’t participate heavily in social media? Or, say, a video really is the best strategy for raising awareness about your cause. Are you ready to go out and hire the best video-making freelancer you can find?
Not quite yet. I once worked with an organization that thought they needed to create a video to promote their cause. But when I delved further into conversation with them, I discovered their overall mission and vision was confusing, that they struggled to articulate their programs, and that they were inconsistent with their messaging. They didn’t need a video, not yet. No. They needed a marketing and communications plan.
If they’d proceeded with a video without a clear marketing strategy — putting the cart before the horse, as they say — what would that video have even included? If they’d utilized the same confusing messaging they’d been using to try to talk about their mission thus far, the video would have fallen flat or, worse, done more harm than good in trying to rally support from their community. And, they would have wasted time and money on creating it.
In Review
Flashback to the beginning of this path. Imagine that this organization had first reviewed their end game. They’d (re-)articulated their vision and mission. They’d clarified what obstacles stand in the way to solving the social issue. They’d researched or reviewed what was already working and what aspects of the problem were getting the least attention. They’d surveyed the public or their supporters to understand their own weaknesses or areas of strength. They’d formed an understanding of why their ideas for their new project would fail or succeed before they’d begun. They anticipated and planned for these factors, and went on to have a major project win.
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