Agile For Nonprofits Can Help You Organize, Collaborate Better

Save Your Superpowers for What Really Matters

It’s no secret that fundraisers and those who work in the nonprofit sectors are superheroes. After all, you make incredible things happen that make the world a better place.

But too often your “heroics” translate into things like overtime, working on the weekend, or turning a full vacation day into a half-day.

We’ve got two bits of good news for you today. First, Agile can help you cut down on those types of heroics.

And second, you’re probably already on an Agile journey — you just don’t know it or have a name for it.

That’s what Jax Gitzes discovered, much to her delight.

Gitzes is a grant writer for MANNA, a Philadelphia-area nonprofit that provides medically tailored meals and nutrition counseling for people with serious illnesses like cancer, renal disease HIV and AIDS, etc.

Gitzes learned about Agile methods at a previous job and was happy to take that learning to her position at MANNA.

“As fundraisers, we wear a million different hats,” she said in an interview with Diane H. Leonard of DH Leonard Consulting & Grant Writing Services. “Even as a grant writer I’m not just doing grant work. Nonprofit work is a lot of picking up whatever you have to in order to really get the job done and

Be there for your clients and the people that you’re helping.

“And so one of the things that I am always looking for are ways to stay on top of and better organize all of the work that needs to get done,” she said. “And Agile really clicked with me because even though it seemed really daunting at first, as I got further into it I realized I already was kind of living that a little.”

As is, Agile for nonprofits can help you organize collaborate better. The agile methodology is a collaborative process that involves breaking large projects into incremental steps. During each cycle (or “sprint”), the team works toward a specific outcome, gathers feedback, and incorporates any requested features or changes in the next iteration.

Agile for nonprofits practices started in the tech industry but are becoming a part of more and more nonprofits’ processes to keep campaigns running smoothly and foster a sense of teamwork and collaboration.

Agile is worth learning about and implementing. It may seem daunting at first, but as Gitzes found out, it’s based on simplicity and common sense — and you’re probably working toward or already in an Agile for nonprofits approach. And if you’re not, you’re in for an even bigger treat when you cross over to the Agile side for project management…

– Your friends at NonprofitLibrary

P.S. Make sure to take a look at this recorded demo for more info on how to make the best of the Agile framework for your nonprofit.