Scaling Up

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  Nonprofit Lifecycles

  Susan Kenny Stevens · Stagewise Enterprises · 2001

  A short book that sets out seven stages a nonprofit can pass through: idea, start-up, growth, maturity, decline, turnaround and terminal. For each stage it describes what programmes, management, governance, resources and systems typically look like. Leaders, boards, funders and consultants use it to place an organisation on the curve, spot the area that lags behind the others and plan capacity work that fits the stage. Copies are sold through the Nonprofit Lifecycles Institute and partners such as SaskCulture.

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• 1.5C215

  Growth of Youth-Serving Organizations

  The Bridgespan Group · 2005

  A free study by Bridgespan, commissioned by the Edna McConnell Clark Foundation, of 20 US youth-serving nonprofits that grew substantially. It looks at how they grew, what growth did to their finances, how their structures changed, including adding a chief operating officer, more formal systems and new board roles, and what helped or held them back. It comes as a white paper, executive summary and 20 case studies that leaders and funders use to plan for growth.

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• 1.5C216

  Creating the COO Position

  The Bridgespan Group · 2016, updated 2026

  A free Bridgespan article on when and why nonprofits add a chief operating officer, drawn from a survey of COOs and interviews with COOs and executive directors. It covers the usual triggers, such as a chief executive stretched by a growing staff or a growth plan to deliver, the worries executive directors have about sharing control, and how organisations managed the transition. It links to Bridgespan's wider set of COO resources, including sample job descriptions.

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• 1.5C218

  Designing and Filling New Positions

  The Bridgespan Group · 2009

  A free Bridgespan toolkit for nonprofits that need new or changed roles to deliver a new strategy or growth plan. It sets out five steps: define what the strategy requires, find the capability gaps, design new and modified positions, assess internal candidates and fill the roles. It includes a position profile template, a skills assessment spreadsheet and a case study of a youth nonprofit that added a deputy director and an expansion manager as it grew.

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  Good to Great

  Jim Collins · HarperBusiness · 2001

  Jim Collins's study of companies that moved from good results to great ones and stayed there. It introduces ideas many nonprofit leaders now use: level 5 leadership, first who then what, confronting the brutal facts, the hedgehog concept and the flywheel. Collins's website offers free tools to go with it, including a diagnostic tool, a discussion guide and a vision framework.

  ClassicKey manual or guideBook