Capacity Building Update: Visualize your Organization's Impact and Sustainability

I hope you were able to attend the 2nd Annual NEPA Learning Conference earlier this month and take part in The Matrix Map: Visualize Your Organization’s Impact and Sustainability.

The matrix map is a tool created by Jeanne Bell, Jan Masaoka, and Steve Zimmerman, detailed in the book Nonprofit Sustainability: Making Strategic Decisions for Financial Viability.

A matrix map plots all of your organization’s activities – not just it’s client-facing programs – into a single image. It’s a great tool that you can use with your leadership and board of directors to begin the strategic conversations of which programs and activities to keep, to grow, and to close or give away.

The process of creating a matrix map for your organization includes:

  1. Identifying the programs and activities your organization conducts: An activity is anything that requires effort – as mentioned before, it’s not just client-facing programs but also includes things like fundraising events, electronic newsletters, and direct mail solicitations.
  2. Assessing the impact of these activities and how it relates to your mission: How closely does each activity align with the goals of your organization? Does your organization have the right skillset and/or financial resources to operate this program – with excellence?
  3. Determining the expenses and the profitability of each activity: Is this activity generating a surplus for your organization, or are you forced to supplement it with unrestricted funds? How much are you spending (expenses) in relation to how much you’re generating (profitability)?
  4. Generating the map using Excel: Entering this data into an Excel spreadsheet will generate a chart that visually lays out all of the activities done by your organization, taking into account mission impact, profitability, and expenses.

You’ll end up with a chart illustrating which activities are your organization’s Stars (high impact, high profitability), Hearts (high impact, low profitability), Money Trees (low impact, high profitability), and Stop Signs (low impact, low profitability).

The matrix map helps to visualize how your organization’s activities relate to and complement each other – much easier than line items on a budget spreadsheet. As we continue to battle COVID-19 and organizations have been forced to modify programming and create new ways of fundraising, this is a great tool to start the conversation around your own organization’s mission and sustainability - both financial sustainability and program sustainability.

Nonprofit Sustainability: Making Strategic Decisions for Financial Viability covers each of these steps in detail. If you’re interested in this topic, I encourage you to read the book. I’m also happy to talk with you more about matrix maps and how you can utilize this tool in conversations around your own organization’s sustainability.

Jeff Smith
Program Officer
jsmith@mosestaylorfoundation.org