For years, nonprofits have been asked to do more with less. They are expected to serve growing communities, manage rising costs, compete for workers and meet increasingly complex regulations, often while operating with limited financial and administrative support.
That model has left many organizations stuck in survival mode.
Ryan Dewey Smith, Founding Executive Chairman & CEO of Inperium, a nonprofit supporting organization, does not believe nonprofits themselves are broken. He believes the environment around them has become harder to navigate, forcing organizations with strong missions and committed employees to spend too much time solving operational problems instead of expanding their impact.
The problem is not a lack of passion. It is a lack of infrastructure.
That idea is at the center of Inperium’s approach, which allows nonprofit organizations to remain independent while gaining access to shared resources, expertise and operational support. The goal is to give nonprofits a stronger foundation so they can focus on the people they were created to serve.
Nonprofit Leadership Needs a More Sustainable Growth Model
The traditional image of a nonprofit leader is often tied to fundraising, limited budgets and constant sacrifice. Dewey Smith argues that mindset needs to change.
Nonprofits, he says, should be ambitious organizations capable of growth, innovation and long-term planning. The fact that an organization is mission-driven does not mean it should reject the tools that help other organizations become stronger.
Like entrepreneurs, nonprofit leaders need to identify gaps, build solutions and find ways to increase their impact. They also need talented people who believe in the mission and can turn an ambitious vision into measurable results.
“A startup may measure success through revenue, market share or shareholder value. A nonprofit measures success by the people and communities it serves. That makes the mission nonnegotiable,” he says.
For Inperium, that means affiliated organizations keep their identities and independence. They do not have to become copies of a larger organization to benefit from its resources.
Growth should strengthen a nonprofit’s mission, not replace it.
That philosophy also comes from a lesson Dewey Smith learned early: Change that makes sense on paper can still create resistance among the people expected to live with it.
Nonprofit organizations often have deep roots in their communities. Their leaders and employees may have spent decades building relationships and protecting a culture that matters to the people they serve.
Dewey Smith acknowledges that he initially underestimated how important it was to slow down, listen and build trust before presenting solutions. That experience changed Inperium’s approach.
Instead of asking organizations to change who they are, the focus is on understanding what already works and finding ways to make it stronger. “Leading a business is about making decisions,” he says. “Leading a mission is about earning trust.”
Nonprofit Sustainability Requires Innovation, Metrics and Collaboration
The use of business practices in the nonprofit sector can create skepticism. Terms such as metrics, efficiency and scalability can sound out of place in organizations built around service.
But Dewey Smith believes results eventually change the conversation.
Many nonprofit leaders already understand the pressures facing their organizations. They see workforce shortages, funding challenges and administrative demands every day. What they often lack is the capacity to address those problems without taking attention away from their core mission.
That is where Inperium sees an opportunity. “The model brings operational expertise and resources to organizations while allowing their leaders to maintain control over their missions and community relationships,” he states.
The resistance, Dewey Smith says, is usually less about business practices than it is about change itself.
That resistance is understandable. In some communities, a nonprofit may be the only organization addressing a particular need. A poorly managed transition can affect real people. That is why sustainability matters.
Dewey Smith points to estimates suggesting that as many as two-thirds of nonprofits may operate close to collapse. Whether that figure applies universally or not, the broader concern is clear: A nonprofit cannot serve its community if it cannot remain financially and operationally viable.
“The alternative is not to wait for government funding or large donations to solve every problem,” he argues. “Nonprofits need financial discipline, modern systems, skilled leadership and new ways to sustain their work.”
Those are not corporate values. They are survival tools.
Looking ahead, Dewey Smith expects the nonprofit sector to move away from the idea that organizations must remain permanently stretched to prove their commitment to a cause.
He sees a future in which nonprofits are financially stable, operationally flexible and able to grow without losing their identity. One practice he believes will become more common is collaboration.
Inperium calls its approach “innovation through collaboration,” built on the belief that organizations can remain independent while sharing resources and expertise.
That could eventually change more than nonprofit leadership.
The for-profit world, Dewey smith argues, may have something to learn from the nonprofit model, too: Organizations do not always need to compete or consolidate to become stronger. Sometimes, they can grow by helping each other succeed.
