Build the Org · 07 — Strategy & Model
A theory of change is the document nearly every serious funder asks for and few founders have. Behind it sits a harder question: what, exactly, causes the change you promise? These books help you answer that honestly, then build a plan that tracks it.
EDs heading into strategic planning, founders writing their first logic model, and teams that work hard but can't show what's moving.
Start with The Logic Model Guidebook if a funder is waiting on you. Start with Good Strategy Bad Strategy if your plan is a list of hopes.
Book · Paperback
Lisa Wyatt Knowlton & Cynthia C. Phillips
Best for: Building your first logic model
A practical guide to theory-of-change and program logic models, with examples. It turns 'we help people' into inputs, activities, outputs, and outcomes a reviewer can follow.
Book · Hardcover
Richard Rumelt
Best for: Telling a real strategy from a wish list
Rumelt's kernel of strategy (diagnosis, guiding policy, coherent action) is the cleanest test for any strategic plan. It will cost you some favorite goals. Good.
Book · Hardcover
Ann Mei Chang
Best for: Testing programs before scaling them
Lean startup thinking applied to social good: test assumptions, measure what matters, and scale what works. Useful for founders who want evidence before they ask for big money.
Book · Hardcover
William F. Meehan III & Kim Starkey Jonker
Best for: A full strategic-leadership framework
Essentials of strategic leadership in the nonprofit sector: mission, strategy, impact evaluation, insight, organization, funding, and board governance as one connected engine.
Book · Hardcover
John Doerr
Best for: Setting OKRs your team can track
The objectives-and-key-results method, with case studies including the Gates Foundation. A good bridge from your theory of change to a quarterly dashboard.
Book · Paperback
Gino Wickman
Best for: An operating system for a small team
EOS gives a small organization rhythm: a vision document, quarterly priorities ('rocks'), a weekly scorecard, and a meeting format. Many founders need structure more than more ideas.
Book · Paperback
Alison Green & Jerry Hauser
Best for: First-time nonprofit managers
The nonprofit manager's guide to getting results: delegating, setting expectations, giving feedback, and hiring. Strategy dies without management; this is the management.
A theory of change explains why your work causes change. A logic model maps the program pieces (inputs, activities, outputs, outcomes). Funders often ask for both.
Not the full system. But three numbers you check every month will tell you the truth faster than any annual report.
Building an organization? Score it against all 28 items on THE BUILD LIST™. Read how I choose what goes on the shelf.
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