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Decisions to rely on networks to more effectively generate social change are not new to philanthropy and nonprofits. Foundations have funded the civil rights, feminist, and consumer movements for decades. More recently, many have assembled “learning networks” of grantees that work together to innovate and improve their practices. And, as Jon Pratt, executive director of the Minnesota Council of Nonprofits, points out “community organizers and grass roots organizations have applied network concepts for years.”

But something new and important is afoot. The nonprofit and philanthropic sectors are under growing pressure to do more and to do better. The number of nonprofit organizations is expanding substantially, as are the tasks the civil sector undertakes in light of government downsizing. “We’re seeing growth of nonprofit organizations, but not much change in the systems they are trying to impact,” says one foundation executive. Nonprofit capacity is a “chronic problem,” writes Jonathan Peizer of the Open Society Institute. “The sector must embrace new paradigms.” In an intriguing online paper about the environmental movement, Gideon Rosenblatt, executive director of a Seattle nonprofit and former Microsoft senior manager, notes that “many environmental leaders are questioning whether the environmental movement has the right strategies and organizational structures in place.”

The movement, he says, has “over-invested in institutional overhead” and “is replicating board development, fundraising and many other functions across thousands of very small organizations.” It is essential, Rosenblatt concludes, to “un-bundle” and rebuild the environmental organizational structure using network approaches.

Foundations, a crucial capital market for nonprofits, and governments that contract with nonprofits increasingly seek improved impact, leverage, and “return on investment.” Nonprofits are routinely expected to be more strategic, entrepreneurial, and “high performing,” and to focus on producing outcomes.

In this shifting context for the civil sector, concerns expressed by the Vermont philanthropist, Lawrence activist, and Boston nonprofit director signal broader doubts about the efficiency and effectiveness of nonprofit organizations—and their decisions to rely on a network approach represent a fundamentally different response. In a similar vein, Jon Pratt argues that networks are a good fit for nonprofits:

Network strategies offer a powerful set of tools to manage the key tasks and challenges faced by nonprofits… Network thinking offers powerful analytic and strategic tools for nonprofit boards and managers to increase the stability, influence and autonomy of their organizations.

Yet another signal of an emerging deep-seated shift in the nonprofit sector may be seen in the unanticipated and rapid growth of GlobalGiving, Guidestar, Volunteer Match, and MoveOn, nonprofits that provide Internet-based infrastructure for connecting, informing, and mobilizing millions of people, and seem to do so at reduced costs.

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