The Nonprofit Support Life Cycle and Crossing the Chasm - Part 1

In 1991 (was that really 20 years ago?), Geoffrey A. Moore wrote a seminal work for the technology industry called “Crossing the Chasm: Marketing and Selling High-Tech Products to Mainstream Customers.”  Some things seem to just get better with age, and that's true in this case, for sure.  

For the past decade I’ve repeatedly used Moore’s model within the nonprofit/community-benefit sector to garner support for small, grassroots organizations that are just getting started. Below is Part 1 of a three-part series where I explain the model as applied to the Nonprofit Sector and give practical advice to help nonprofits cultivate supporters at all levels and stages.   

In Part 2, we’ll discuss the chasm between Early Adopters and the Early Majority where many nonprofits fail to scale or reach the majority of supporters. 

In Part 3, I’ll share my thoughts about how nonprofits who have survived the chasm can continue to build momentum with supporters to position themselves as the leaders in their field.

The Nonprofit Support Life Cycle

As with technology sector, the Nonprofit Support Life Cycle can be envisioned as a bell-shaped curve, with “Innovators” and “Early Adopters” on the far left end of the tail, followed by the “Early Majority and “Late Majority, with “Laggards” bringing up the rear on the far right end of the curve. 

In Nonprofit-Land, Innovators are “angel investors” looking for revolutionary new solutions to existing problems, and who are willing to be the “first-in” catalysts of community change.  They are the early supporters who stand behind visionary community change agents like Geoffrey Canada at the Harlem Children Zone,Wendy Kopp at Teach for America, and Robert Egger at D. C. Central Kitchen.  Generally, Innovators are strategic philanthropists and entrepreneurs who are willing to take real risks to see that often disruptive change occur.  Nonprofits can appeal to them with language about the multitude of problems with the current service system, the need for radical transformation and a distinctively different way of serving the community, and by leveraging transformative key leaders and visionaries as emissaries for the message.

Early Adopters, like Innovators, buy into the new nonprofit service delivery ideas very early in their life cycles, but they are not the nonprofit or philanthropic experts.  Instead they are individual donors, foundations, or corporate supporters who find it easy, per Moore, “to imagine, understand, and appreciate the benefits” of a new way to serve the community.  They often don’t need actual “proof” or “references” but instead are impressed by the very image of a new future.  Instead of relying on the vision of a limited few, Early Adopters want to “see and feel the change.”  Visionary language along the lines of,  “Imagine a community where every newborn child is loved and nurtured from birth by parents with amazing parenting skills…”  inspires their support. You’ll find more great examples like this in Hildy Gottlieb’s book, The Pollyanna Principles.

The Chasm: In between the Early Adopters and the Early Majority sits the “chasm,” a deep divide that must be crossed for any nonprofit to be successful.  We’ll focus in detail on “Crossing the Nonprofit Chasm” in part 2 of this three-part post (coming soon).

The Early Majority is a large and crucial segment of supporters for nonprofit organizations. These are pragmatic philanthropists and supporters who want to solve very specific problems.  They know that small, new nonprofit organizations pop up all the time with the desire to change the world, and they also know that many don’t have the leadership, strategy, or funding to do so effectively. As a result, they want to see a solid business plan with sustainable revenue, a strong operational plan, top-notch staffing, a logical theory of change, and evidence that indicates that measurable outcomes are achievable within the plan.  Data is critical as part of the case for support, too.  The more that you demonstrate that you’ve done your research and that your plan is based on evidence, the better off you’ll be.

The Late Majority is a segment of nonprofit supporters as big as the early majority, and shares all of their concerns. However, unlike the early majority, they won’t support an organization until it has been widely supported by others.  They tend to give to high profile organizations and, if they are making sizable gifts, they likely want recognition and/or publicity in exchange. These are “me, too” kind of supporters who will want to know who else is associated with the initiative and will look for association with “big-name and heavy hitter” leaders from throughout the community.  They’ll also want references and success stories, and documentation that you are actually achieving your goals, as well as proof that you will have a sustainable base of support in the future.  When you make your individual face-to-face meetings (and I suggest that is the best strategy for this group), make sure to have a well-prepared kit of “leave-behind” information and a targeted plan for high level follow-up.

At the very far tail of the Nonprofit Support Curve, you’ll find the Laggards.  These are supporters (or should I say “non-supporters”) who don’t want anything to do with new nonprofit organizations, and perhaps with the sector as a whole.  They are generally not worth pursuing or spending development time on.  Identify these non-supporters early and cross them off the list.

Keep Reading! Part 2 in this three-part series focuses on helping your nonprofit organization successfully cross the chasm and reach the majority of supporters.