Engine of Impact

Essentials of Strategic Leadership in the Nonprofit Sector

By: William F. Meehan III, Kim Starkey Jonker

Narrated by: C. J. Lengua

Length: 7 hrs and 32 mins

Publisher's summary

We are entering a new era - an era of impact. The largest intergenerational transfer of wealth in history will soon be underway, bringing with it the potential for huge increases in philanthropic funding. Engine of Impact shows how nonprofits can apply the principles of strategic leadership to attract greater financial support and leverage that funding to maximum effect.

As Good to Great author Jim Collins writes in his foreword, this book offers "a detailed road map of disciplined thought and action for turning a good nonprofit into one that can achieve great impact at scale".

William F. Meehan III and Kim Starkey Jonker identify seven essential components of strategic leadership that set high-achieving organizations apart from the rest of the nonprofit sector. Together, these components form an "engine of impact" - a system that organizations must build, tune, and fuel if they hope to make a real difference in the world.

Drawing on decades of teaching, advising, grantmaking, and research, Meehan and Jonker provide an actionable guide that executives, staff, board members, and donors can use to jump-start their own performance and to achieve extraordinary results for their organization. Along with setting forth best practices using real-world examples, the authors outline common management challenges faced by nonprofits, showing how these challenges differ from those faced by for-profit businesses in important and often overlooked ways.

By offering crucial insights on the fundamentals of nonprofit management, this book will help leaders equip their organizations to fire on all cylinders and unleash the full potential of the nonprofit sector. Visit www.engineofimpact.org for additional information.

Download the accompanying reference guide.

©2018 The Board of Trustees of the Leland Stanford Junior University (P)2018 Audible, Inc.

Must listen for all nonprofit leaders

This book effectively covers what it takes to be a high performing nonprofit organization in these dynamic times. It also presents solid advice for business leaders from every sector. The reading style is a little stilted but that is more often than not for these types of books. Overall this is a must listen for all nonprofit leaders.

Some nuggets

Mediocre guide to fund raising
Long passages of obvious common sense
No secret sauce here

Brilliant content but read too fast

I learned much from this book for my own activities. The structure of the book is also the building instructions for your non-profit or social business. VERY VALUABLE!!! However, this not being my first non-fiction audiobook, the narration was the worst I’ve encountered so far. Two things: First, the book was read much too fast. I had to slow it down to 0.8x to make understandable (regular speed almost felt like the medication warnings at the end of a commercial). Second, take a breath, C.J.! Maybe because the speed, there were also no breathers between paragraphs or examples. Sometimes I lost track of which consequence refers to which example. Duration of an audiobook is not a decision criteria for me. I choose a book for content and don’t spending 8, 12 or more hours with a book. What I care about is learning and giving the book room to have an impact on my knowledge and skills. This book is to good and important to be rushed. Redo?

Almost Awesome

So many excellent concepts in focus here. It was good to have confirmation of some of my own bias (!) but also to have a few new things thrown into the mix.

Mission in nonprofits is everything. They confirm this. I'm so glad. Oddly, they pretty much threw away the idea of vision. In my practice at First Creek Partners I work in the hierarchy of
Mission
Vision
Strategy
Tactics

But they say that vision doesn't help, and that it should simply be Mission - Strategy. We're allowed to disagree!

The examples they used most were of huge international nonprofits that had little relevance to the work of most people who might read this book. That was a distraction, and caused me to move to speeding through certain topics and sections that just weren't useful. In-depth discussions about the economy of India and the cultural and regulatory barriers to private land ownership in that country is an example of information that didn't really help me understand how to help small nonprofits become more impactful. Minor quibble.

Nitpicky things:
-the hilarious use of acronyms again and again through the book; acronyms for *everything*! It may be because I listened to this on Audible that it was so jarring (the narrator read the name then the acronym every time)
-numerous biblical and church references that could have been skipped or substituted with something more universal (again, my bias, but if you're going to be writing for everyone, I suggest not using unnecessary references to your personal beliefs)

The Audible version was read by a fantastic voice-over pro. Excellent understanding, presentation, and emphasis. It really felt like the reader had actually written the book.

If you only read 1 let this be it!

I have read books on nonprofit organizations. This far supersedes any of them! My gratitude to the authors!