Lynn Eakin

In my previous post I introduced the paper “Advancing the Nonprofit Sector” in which I identified the key characteristics for successfully organizing the nonprofit sector as – independent (non-government) funding, cross sector involvement, experienced volunteer and staff leadership, and an open functional structure.

I then set out to speak with many people in the various sectors to assess interest in such an organization and found each sector deeply and passionately involved with their mission which, of course, is exactly what makes the nonprofit sector so effective and unique. I also found however, leaders in the various sectors could not muster the same passion regarding cross sector issues - it was not at the top of anybody’s agenda.

This however, does not mean that we cannot move forward. We just need to approach it differently. Read my Memo to the Sector to learn how and why we should build a network.