How Grantmaking Can Create Adaptive Organizations

Coal mining was the economic lifeblood of eastern Kentucky for most of the twentieth century, providing families in this rural mountainous region with one of the few sources of a middle-class income. But those jobs began disappearing in the 1980s as producers switched from underground mining to surface mining and mountaintop removal. More recently, mining operations have shifted to western U.S. states as the coal seams in Central Appalachia have become depleted. In addition, stricter clean-air regulation of power plants has reduced the demand for coal in favor of cleaner and increasingly less expensive natural gas.

...The need for adaptive capacity has also begun to make its way into the social sector. Visionary writers such as Donella Meadows, Peter Senge, Margaret Wheatley, Ron Heifetz, and Henry Mintzberg have introduced concepts such as systems thinking, organizational learning, managing complexity, adaptive leadership, and emergent strategy into the nonprofit lexicon.

Read full article: Philanthropy News Digest, August 18, 2016