Your donor is a customer, not a partner

The Innovating Nonprofit

At some point you’re going to need to describe some aspect of your organization. When you do you will choose a perspective and a tool for the job that will come with a set of terms.If you want to describe the authority structures you’ll probably sketch out an org chart. If you want to describe the overall process of achieving outcomes you’ll use something like a value stream map. If you want to take stock of the essential capabilities for achieving your purpose you’ll use something like a capability map. And if you want to describe the pattern of the business model you’ll probably use something like the Business Model Canvas.Regardless of which tool you use you’re going to have to grapple with the terminology that comes with the tool at some point. If you doubt this, just start using the word “customer” whenever you want to refer to the people your organization exists to serve. If your organization is like the nonprofits I’ve worked with, your people are allergic to the word “customer”. But that’s the word all the tools use because all the tools are developed with commercial businesses in mind. Read more at https://innovatingnonprofit.org/post/140344797339