Interested in your own sustainability investigation?

Just like the journalism industry, the factors of sustainability are ever-evolving. Community Wealth
Partners recommends that nonprofit organizations consider how they are performing across five key
drivers of sustainability: social impact, focused business strategy, economic viability, adaptability,
and capacity to deliver. Each driver, assessed with both a short- and long-term lens, is critical for long-
term organizational viability.
Use the questions below to step back, evaluate your organization and determine where you need to focus
additional time and attention to ensure that your organization is not just keeping, but staying a step ahead
of our ever-evolving environment.

Social Impact: Why do you do what you do?

Results of efforts taken by organizations or individuals that solve or positively advance social issues by
producing a positive change in attitude, behavior or condition for the target constituency.

This requires an informed understanding of the social problem, a clear articulation of vision, mission and
goals and a process to measure and evaluate outcomes.

Focused Business Strategy: How do you do what you do?

Understanding of what has to happen to achieve the organizations social goals and choices the
organization makes about how to accomplish those goals.

This requires a plan to identify and understand the operating environment, create a unique value
proposition and develop a supporting business model.

Economic Viability: What drives what you do?

Financial health of an organization; sustainable organizations have an operating model that generates a
surplus that will carry the organizations work forward in the long-term.

This requires a firm command of the organizations liquidity, profitability, revenue growth, revenue sources
and resource allocation.

Capacity to Deliver: What supports what you do?

Talent, infrastructure and organizational processes needed to execute the business strategy in order to
deliver social impact.

This requires an understanding of the business capacity of a nonprofit organization with an explicit focus
on internal strengths and weaknesses across multiple areas of the organization.

Adaptability: When do you change what you do?

The discipline of updating and/or developing products and services in anticipation or response to changes
in customer needs, behaviors and the operating environment.

This requires consistent monitoring of the four cylinders of the sustainability model: social impact; focused
business strategy; economic viability and capacity to deliver guided by a clear understanding of the
reasons and goals for change and a spirit of innovation.