What Does (and Does Not) Make Sense in the Nonprofit World

By Jean-Michel Piedagnel

Accenture has the reputation of employing the best consultants in the world. The publication of a book about the non-profit sector by Willie Cheng, “Doing Good Well” promised to be an interesting read, for better or worse. He is a former partner at Accenture in Singapore and since his retirement at an early age (and therefore still full of energy), Willie Cheng has dedicated a lot of his time to the non-profit sector in Singapore.

His book is a compilation of articles he has written over the course of his involvement with NGOs. For the better, it is interesting to see if a consultant with such a professional background can bring some new insight of the non-profit sector.  For the worse, it would be another disappointing case of a business sector guru telling us what is wrong with NGOs and what they should do to be more like corporate.

It was a pleasant surprise. Cheng is true to his professional back ground and does deliver an open attempt to understand the nonprofit sector in its own right.

Indeed as Cheng explain in his introduction, the business and the non-profit paradigms are of different nature. Most analyses of the non-profit sector use tools that come from the business paradigm where the bottom line is profit. Since businesses are seen as most successful in delivering value for money to customers, the model is a reference for the non-profit sector and beyond. Therefore his focus on concept was a refreshing start: “I realise that I was trying to make sense of the nonprofit reality by applying corporate paradigms.”  In fact, the book reads like a genuine jump into the third sector logic, rather than an analyse from a purely business rational. That’s unusual enough.

In looking at the non-profit paradigm, Cheng is quick to stress the contradiction and identify what doesn’t make sense in the non-profit sector. This is highlighted in the cover of the book. His humored acknowledgement of contradictions to the dominant paradigm he is familiar with, makes the reading of his book pleasant and easy.  There are a lot of business professionals who have tried to work in this sector and ended up with a bloody nose. It is therefore remarkable that Cheng has been able to make the extra step to deal with his frustration and tries to understand what new world he has joined.

Of course, Cheng is at his best when he uses his expertise as a consultant to explain some of the non-profit mechanisms that are closest to the businesses’ ones.  When the gap between the two paradigms is not too wide, his ability to explain concepts and to represent them with neat graphs or drawings is useful both to the neophyte and to the more experienced NGO workers.

The first part of the book on “Structure and Governance” is clear and practical. The chapter dealing with the regulation of the charity sector addresses the heart of the concern of many NGOs trustees and executives. And, he clearly understands their side of the argument: “Regulations, after all, should only provide a baseline for a charity to get started and operate from.”

The most enjoyable chapters are on giving, donors and social innovation. Cheng has to come from outside the third sector to be able to analyse so bluntly, and truly, private donors and their drive for giving. If some of his comments came from NGO executives, they would be immediately portrayed as pure cynicism. “Little giver: this group generally believes in the edict that charity begins – and largely stays- at home.” From business and CSR to the Charity Quotient Chart (page 107), his comments are many time spot on, even to the experienced reader. This makes the book a ‘must read’ to those who are considering coming close to the nonprofit sector.

The way the effectiveness of the third sector is questioned throughout the book is the most puzzling and least matured analyse. First of all, it is based on Cheng’s feelings rather than on evidence since he himself acknowledges the limitation of the corporate tools in scrutinising the non-profit sector. If we are talking of feelings held by charity workers, they would be amused by the concept of “Head Factor” developed (page 82) in the Executive Compensation chapter.  This is a concept that states that most workers in the charity sector are underpaid because they are expected to do less and are less effective. This is not an accurate representation of the majority of the NGO workforce; long working hours and burnout is probably as frequent as in the corporate sector.

The Nonprofit Management and the last chapter on “Doing Good Well” are the parts of the book where Cheng struggle to establish himself clearly in one paradigm or the other and where the rigor of the consultant gives way to his business instinct. NGOS seem to be seen as dysfunctional in these chapters. Cheng is aware of the struggle to analyze the NGOs reality: “Charity Watchers have tended to simplify a much more diverse environment into a few ratios” (page 214). He is aware that the “cocoon of doing good and feeling good” tends to distort expectations.

Despite the number of tools available in the business paradigm, there are nevertheless many businesses that perform poorly and still don’t go bust. Think how many small businesses are run so badly? They are still in business and that doesn’t seem to bother anyone as much as the lack of performance of some NGOs. Is this because of the “Panadol of doing good”?  Like a medicine, nonprofit cannot fail.

Maybe in the “charity ecosystem”, not everything can be quantifiable. Maybe when it comes to the heart and commitment to others not everything is measurable. In fact Cheng offers us a response in the chapter on Volunteerism. It is the most inspiring one of the book, probably because Cheng fully step in the nonprofit paradigm. Not surprisingly this touches the core of his engagement in the sector as chair of the NVPC[i] in Singapore. His acknowledgement that: “The impact of volunteers’ attitudes can never be adequately captured in slides shows and fanciful brochures” is at the heart of the understanding of the nonprofit sector.

Since Cheng is able to corner down the non-economic value of volunteerism, I have no doubt that in the future he will create tools to analyses and assess the values and principles management model of NGOs. This book was enjoyable to read, it is the first step into the elaboration of some welcome critical thinking around the nonprofit sector, from within the paradigm.

I can’t wait for the next book.

Jean-Michel joined a leading international medical relief NGO following a carrier in the business sector. He worked for 13 years in some of the most challenging environment including at senior management level. He is now running his own management consultancy firm in Malaysia (www.woodseer.com).

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[i] NVPC: National Volunteer & Philanthropy Center (www.nvpc.org.sg)