Project Description
The CONE Navigator project consists of a database-powered website and mobile application linked to a physical Center of Nonprofit Excellence affiliated with local universities or accrediting agencies. The Navigator acts as a directory to all stakeholders in a region -- including, but not limited to, nonprofit organizations, foundations, social enterprises, businesses with nonprofit ties and philanthropists. It uses a database that requires input from curators, similar to an online wiki. Similarly, it can be updated by anyone but is monitored by volunteer and/or paid curators. If you are an individual or nonprofit leader seeking to impact a specific community or impact the region in a specific area, the CONE Navigator will feature tools to help you find other nonprofits that are well-equipped to help you amplify your impact. It will also provide best practices regarding community collaboration as well as legal documentation tool kits that make it easier for groups to successfully collaborate.
The Center of Nonprofit Excellence (CONE) is the working title for a startup Social Enterprise with a mission to build a collaborative network of forward-thinking organizations. The unique aspect of CONE is that it pre-screens high-performing and innovative programs across the country, then provides on-site immersion experiences and support including help acquiring program funding that allow member organizations to adopt and adapt these positive outliers into their own programming portfolio without u0022reinventing the wheel.u0022 Adoption of one program, including 2-to-4-week immersion in that program, is free with membership. Additional services can be added using a transparent fee schedule or credits for those organizations that participate in sharing their own exceptional programs.
The goal of CONE as a whole is to help Executive Directors (EDs) work “smarter, not harder,” in order for the benevolent sector to progressively increase the impact of its overall body of inputs. Organizations generally do the best they can with the resources they obtain to help their target population. Eventually, though, sector leaders emerge that find more productive ways to address a social problem as others lag behind in efficiency and effectiveness of program implementation. CONE’s aim is to address these inefficiencies one NFP at a time through innovation, networking, collaboration and a shared and curated knowledge base.
In the sphere of community relations, any two or more humans can find a way to help each other exist in a better way by working together to maximize output and utility (see Appendix II in attached pdf). In the nonprofit space, survival of the fittest is at odds with the intricate needs of the citizens and communities that the NFP serves. Nonprofits do compete with each other for funding, however, in the larger scheme, good ideas, strategies and programs are worthy of being replicated and propagated as much as possible for the betterment of society. CONE can package and share these programs and ideas within the network as webinars, case studies, and informative video presentations or through immersive experiences within the walls of the high-performing or pioneering company.
Who Benefits?
Executive Directors of Nonprofit Organizations and Social Enterprises benefit as well as the populations they serve.
