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Most nonprofit professionals are accustomed to using collaboration for improving both organizational effectiveness and program delivery. While collaboration is eagerly embraced, competition is often viewed as a less desirable route for meeting strategic challenges. Competition, however, is an effective and dynamic means for achieving positive results for nonprofit organizations.

Play to Win offers nonprofit leaders the help they need to develop their organization’s unique competitive advantages and to use the power of competitive strategies to build their organization’s capacity for advancing its mission. This book offers a clear description of competition and discusses its practical, ethical, and political ramifications within the nonprofit sector. It demonstrates how, by being a more effective competitor, a nonprofit can enhance its chances for both programmatic and financial success. Play to Win is filled with practical tools for assessing a nonprofit’s position in the marketplace and developing winning competitive strategies to advance its mission.

Written by David La Piana, with Michaela Hayes, Play to Win guides nonprofit leaders through the process of developing a strategic approach to inter-organizational relationships grounded in direct market feedback. He also provides step-by-step directions for helping leaders compete effectively for limited resources. The book covers the specific areas where nonprofits most often compete, including garnering all types of funding; recruiting board members, staff, and volunteers; attracting and keeping clients; and gaining positive media attention. It reveals how to assess the relative merits of collaboration and competition, and shows nonprofits how to customize an optimal mix of collaborative and competitive relationships.

Praise for Play to Win

“This excellent book addresses the key strategic question facing any nonprofit organization how (and when) to compete without compromising the core values and public expectations that distinguish nonprofits from other types of organizations. David La Piana is eminently qualified to provide students and professionals alike with new insights and helpful tools for navigating the treacherous landscape of nonprofit management.” — Kevin Kearns, author, Private Sector Strategies for Social Sector Success

“This book is three-dimensional: prophetic with its take on competition and collaboration; practical with the many tools and resources; and provocative in its ability to describe how it can help breed real collaboration.” — Tom Reis, program director, Kellogg Foundation

“David La Piana challenges us to view constructive and ethical competition as the driving force behind innovation and real social change.” — Jim Denova, senior program officer, Benedum Foundation

“An essential resource providing tools executives can use to develop and enhance strategies to move their organizations from a position of survival to a position of strength, and from a position of strength to a position of greatness.” — Jan Williams, manager, Strategic Alliance Services, Girl Scouts of the USA

“Reveals ethical strategies for vying for scarce resources, maintaining organizational integrity, and strengthening the mission work of the sector.” — Mike Hoff, director, consulting services, Center for Nonprofit Management:

“Literally, not only do David’s words jump off the page--resonating, validating, enlightening--but he provides the nonprofit leader with the tools to compete ethically and effectively in the very competitive environment facing nonprofits.” — Connie Cochran, CEO and president Easter Seals UCP, North Carolina

Funded by the Deaconess Community Foundation and St. Luke's Foundation, this summary report, by Heather Gowdy, Jo DeBolt, and Melissa Mendes Campos, describes the Human Services Strategic Restructuring Pilot Project in Cuyahoga County. The pilot project brought together a group of 18 grantmaker organizations that were motivated by a common desire to offer struggling nonprofit with support "beyond a grant check."  Their initiative attracted leaders from 76 nonprofits throughout the county. The year-long pilot project provided 17 organizations with readiness assessments and helped 8 organizations develop restructuring plans, culminating in four nonprofit restructurings (including a program transfer, two parent-subsidiary relationships, and a common board and management structure). This summary describes the powerful scalable impact of collaboration and how a funder initiative can serve to transform the social sector. Download the PDF.

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By Amari Romero-Thomas

As part of our ongoing series published by CausePlanet, this article includes resources for today's nonprofit leaders and describes how simple daily rituals can help one achieve better work-life balance.

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