In fact, discussions about nonprofit organizations are often associated with a lack of quality, and we hear these remarks from important businesspeople, government employees, and also bloggers who always highlight the 'mistakes' of the nonprofit sector. For them, nonprofit organizations need to think the way companies do and act accordingly, as well as require more innovation.

In reality, the nonprofit sector is extremely important, as it addresses the most complex societal issues, despite lacking resources. Therefore, we cannot afford to waste more time, energy, knowledge, and money.

In recent years, the Harvard Business Review published a report stating that nonprofits could earn an additional $100 billion if they operated with higher quality and precision.

In this report, we will discuss what the concept of 'quality improvement' means for nonprofit organizations, as well as the steps nonprofits should follow to enhance their work quality and achieve success.

What do we mean by quality improvement?

Generally, quality improvement models, methods, and tools support nonprofit organizations as they work to reduce errors and increase efficiency, by controlling losses, as well as improving the quality of products and services for clients, through the adoption of analytical, systematic, and sometimes statistical processes.

Furthermore, errors are reduced by standardizing work. Efficiency is created through planning and improving workflows. Quality improvement occurs by identifying customer requirements and planning for them. At this stage, social service professionals see quality improvement as the essence of nonprofit organizations' work, and we will hear from them phrases like:

'We are dealing with people, not inanimate objects', 'It is very difficult to control our work in this sector', 'Our work is not just about profit, but it is about impact.'

We do not deny the existence of such statements, but they will not hinder the process of quality improvement. Therefore, I will respond: efficiency is not the enemy of quality, and you can regulate and measure the subjective concepts, and money is our sustenance in this task.

What is the technical definition of quality?

Unfortunately, I believe that our sector has provided a limited definition of the process of quality improvement, and has employed it mechanically, which has caused it to lose much of its value. In fact, work on quality improvement begins after understanding the concept of quality. Among the most common definitions of this term is 'quality is achieved when we can meet or exceed customer requirements and expectations.' Unfortunately, when we interpret this definition literally and narrowly in our sector, we fall into the mistake of distinguishing some clients while neglecting some essential dimensions related to quality in our work.

Who are our clients?

Unlike many businesses, most clients do not benefit from the products and services for which they paid money. Therefore, we have two types of clients: funders and beneficiaries.

Unfortunately, we sometimes feel that the only clients who have the right to hold us accountable are those who write the checks. Thus, we sometimes see that the needs of funders and licensees overshadow the people we aim to serve.

What do clients expect and need?

At this point, our work becomes more complicated, as every client we have has different requests and expectations from the others. Often, these are conflicting with one another and require us to make efforts to reconcile them. So how will this affect the quality improvement process? If we maintain a narrow and limited definition of quality, namely meeting specific requirements of clients, then the quality improvement process will be confined only to compliance and academic reliance, as well as funders' reports.

It should be noted that this approach is not only limited in its ability to improve quality or efficiency, but often creates additional burdens and processes that lack effectiveness, which can affect the mission. But what is the true definition of quality? Does the definition we mentioned earlier encompass what we need in our sector?

What about organizational impact and culture? What about the maximum value we strive to achieve amid limited resources? What about meeting the expectations of weak and marginalized communities? What about the struggling clients, who suffer from lack of appreciation and low wages? And what about the workers and volunteers who participated in this work to make a difference, not just to check boxes and fill out reports every day? How can we meet their expectations?

In fact, the mechanism of quality improvement lies in answering all these questions; it represents the essence of quality in nonprofit organizations.

———————————————————–

Source: Insight Into Impact