In 2006, a Yahoo executive wrote a memo that I think many nonprofits would do well to heed. It became known as the Peanut Butter Manifesto. I just came across it in an article in the New Yorker.

We lack a focused, cohesive vision for our company. We want to do everything and be everything – to everyone. I’ve heard our strategy described as spreading peanut butter across the myriad opportunities that continue to evolve in the online world. The result: a thin layer of investment spread across everything we do and thus we focus on nothing in particular.

Sound familiar? In good times there are resources enough to try new ideas, experiment, spread the nonprofit peanut butter far and wide in an effort to “do everything for everyone.” That could be the mission statement for a few nonprofits I know. But during tough times, you must focus, you must decide what is most important, what is your unique contribution, where you have the best chance to accomplish your mission. This may mean cutting back in some areas to strengthen others. It may mean job reassignments or even layoffs. But your strategy, now more than ever, must be clear and focused.

Pile the peanut butter thick on a smaller slice of bread.

Tags: nonprofit

This entry was posted on Monday, October 12th, 2009 at 10:05 am and is filed under Consulting for Nonprofits, Nonprofit Sector, Organizational Effectiveness, Strategy, Trends. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.