Relevance = Accountability
Posted by Allison Fine on April 28, 2010
I had the great honor to keynote the LEAD Summit sponsored by HandsOn Network last week in DC. My talk focused on the need for stand-alone nonprofits to work as networks, not just with them, to take down their walls, lost control of their message and messengers, and build relationships with the people and organizations in their network. In other words, I gave an overview of The Networked Nonprofit!
After I spoke, Rich Harwood moderated a panel discussion with me and Executive Producer for This Week with George Stephanopoulos, Ian Cameron.
During our discussion, Rich said that my talk reminded him of a phrase, “Relevant = Accountability.” He expanded on the idea here on his blog.
Rich defines relevance this way. “[Relevance] goes to the heart of whether people in communities and in our larger society view what we’re doing as important, meaningful and useful.”
Relevance is revealed through accountability, Rich writes. Accountability comes from understanding the communities within which we work, achieving results, we are authentic in our work (Rich gives a shout out to Maya Enista of Mobilze.org here and I will as well!), and finally focused on people not just processes, tools, fundraising, etc.
I had never considered tying relevance to accountability before, it’s a really fascinating idea. Rich is grounding organizations in their communities and work as proof of their relevance, which is great. This notion also highlights the importance of social media because it is the gravitational force pulling what Beth and I call Fortress organizations out from behind their high walls and wide moats as well as forcing the outsider inside. The next few years will be dangerous, I think, for organizations that refuse to recognize, much less appreciate, the connection that Rich is making between how authentic and effective they are and how relevant they are in their ecosystem. Fortresses beware!
One Response to “Relevance = Accountability”
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Ryan Schoop said
Great post, Allison. I think that accountability is one of the most underrated aspects of non-profits today. Donating can very much be a self-fulfilling act, where the giving makes one feel good rather than the results of their generosity being the source of their satisfaction. In my opinion, because of this, non-profits are not as motivated as they should be to ensure the utmost accountability. Unfortunately, accountability can be a very subjective topic. I believe that relevance helps to make the more “scientific” term of accountability, easier to relate to and should be leveraged in more discussions of this topic of accountability.