News
Interview @Wharton
The idea that mission matters—and that a mission statement should be more than a bit of marketing fluff—is a foundational concept in Engine of Impact. In a newly published interview, Bill Meehan emphasizes that point:
Many observers over the years have simply concluded that since so many nonprofits’ mission statements are vague or broad or nonspecific, filled with flowery inspirational language that doesn’t explain what the nonprofit does, they basically give the whole sector a pass and say that mission is not all that important. We don’t believe that. Nonprofits by definition are mission-focused and must start with a clear and focused mission.
Meehan and his co-author, Kim Starkey Jonker, spoke with host Dan Loney for the Knowledge@Wharton radio show, which streams on SiriusXM Channel 111. During the interview, Meehan and Starkey Jonker discussed the challenges associated with measuring impact, the power of donors to change the social sector, and role played by “insight and courage” in nonprofit leadership, among other topics. And although much of Engine of Impact focuses on ways that nonprofit organizations suffer from notable shortcomings, Starkey Jonker evoked the inspirational side of her and Meehan’s work: “It’s a very uplifting journey to write a book about extraordinary nonprofits because there are people devoting their every day and their entire lives to creating impact through the nonprofit sector.”
You can access the interview here, on the Knowledge@Wharton website.
Kim Starkey Jonker at the Boston Foundation
Kim Starkey Jonker spoke at an event cosponsored by The Boston Foundation, the Barr Foundation, and the Institute for Nonprofit Practice. Yolanda Coentro, the President and CEO of the Institute for Nonprofit Practice, moderated a discussion on the impetus for writing a book on the social sector, the elements of strategic leadership, and broadly, the challenges facing the sector today.
Meehan and Starkey Jonker at the Harvard Social Enterprise Conference, 2018
Bill Meehan and Kim Starkey Jonker were speakers at the Harvard Social Enterprise Conference, co-hosted by Harvard Business School and Harvard Kennedy School. They appeared on a panel with Raj Panjabi, co-founder and CEO of Last Mile Health, and Brian Trelstad, a partner at Bridges Fund Management and a Senior Lecturer at the Harvard Business School, and also on a panel with Georgia Levenson Keohane, author of two books on social enterprise and a Professor at Columbia Business School, and Chris Jochnick, President and CEO of Landesa.
SSIR Webinar: “Strategic Concepts That Truly Matter for Nonprofits”
Many nonprofit organizations today, whether they know it or not, are losing their way because they lack a sound strategy. For any nonprofit, a strategy is nothing more—and nothing less—than a clear and rigorously planned set of actions that are designed to achieve a social mission. Strategic thinking in the social sector must draw on concepts from the business sector, but it must also adapt those concepts. By honing their strategy in this way, nonprofit leaders can enable their organization to increase its impact significantly.
On Wednesday, Feb. 28, from 2 p.m. EST to 3 p.m. EST, Bill Meehan and Kim Jonker will present an SSIR Live! webinar that explores key ideas and tools that will enable nonprofit leaders to pursue their work more strategically. The price to register for the webinar is $59.
For more information, or to register for the webinar, click here.
On the Road: Book Events in 2018
Bill Meehan and Kim Jonker are scheduling events related to Engine of Impact in several US cities. We will update the information below as event details become available.
To inquire about booking Meehan and Jonker for an event, contact the BrightSight Group. Click here for information about booking Meehan. Click here for information about booking Jonker.
Jan. 23, 2018 | New York City
The Tamer Center for Social Enterprise at Columbia University hosts a book talk with Bill Meehan and Kim Jonker. The event is free. For more information, and to register for the event, click here.
Jan. 27, 2018 | Washington, D.C.
Politics and Prose Bookstore presents Bill Meehan. The event is free; no reservation is required. For more information, click here.
Feb. 11, 2018 | Cambridge, Mass.
The Social Enterprise Conference, co-hosted by Harvard Business School and Harvard Kennedy School, includes an interview with Bill Meehan and Kim Jonker. In addition, Jonker will appear at a panel session. For more information, and to purchase tickets for the conference, click here.
Feb. 12, 2018 | Boston, Mass.
The Barr Foundation, the Boston Foundation, and the Institute for Nonprofit Practice (INP) host a free public event with Bill Meehan and Kim Jonker. Yolanda Coentro, president and CEO of INP, will lead a discussion with the authors. For more information, and to register for the event, click here.
Mar. 19, 2018 | Stanford, Calif.
The 4th Annual HBS-GSB Board Summit, titled “Building High-Impact Non-Profit Boards” and jointly hosted by Harvard Business School Community Partners and Stanford Graduate School of Business, features a keynote presentation that includes a fireside chat with Bill Meehan and Kim Jonker. For more information, and to purchase tickets, click here.
June 28, 2018 | New York City
The 92nd Street Y hosts Bill Meehan and Kim Jonker for a presentation, followed by a Q&A session. Details about the event will be available at the 92nd Street Y website.
Ongoing Book Coverage
Since its official release in November 2017, Engine of Impact has garnered attention from a broad array of media outlets. Posts on the News page of this site have highlighted numerous articles, reviews, and interviews that explore the book, its authors, and the authors’ ideas about the present state and future potential of the nonprofit sector. In addition, the book has been featured in several other print and online outlets. Here’s a roundup of such coverage.
- BizEd, a magazine published by AACSB (the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business), featured a review of Engine of Impact in its November-December 2017 issue.
- The NonProfit Times published an item about the Stanford Survey on Leadership and Management in the Nonprofit Sector, a survey conducted by Bill Meehan and Kim Starkey Jonker as part of their research for Engine of Impact.
- The Offord Group, a Canadian philanthropy consulting firm, included a review of Engine of Impact in the 2017 edition of Offord Magazine.
- For the Associations Now website, business author Mark Athitakis drew on material from Engine of Impact to write a piece titled “The Cultural Challenge of Board Orientation.”
- An article posted on the Financial Advisor website quoted Meehan and Starkey Jonker as part of a discussion of how young donors should approach charitable giving.
- Metro, a daily newspaper with distribution in several US cities, featured Engine of Impact—as well as quotations from an interview with Meehan and Starkey Jonker—in a piece that explores challenges faced by the nonprofit sector.
- For the Nonprofit Leadership Podcast, host Rob Harter spoke with Meehan and Starkey Jonker in an interview that ranged widely across themes from Engine of Impact.
- At Forbes.com, management journalist Roger Trapp posted a review Engine of Impact that provides a thorough look at Meehan and Starkey Jonker’s “engine of impact” model.
A Review by Matthew Bishop
This year has yielded a bumper crop of books on philanthropy and the nonprofit sector. So it’s notable that Matthew Bishop, a highly regarded author in his own right and a soon-to-be managing director at the Rockefeller Foundation, found room for Engine of Impact on his year-end book roundup. 
Bishop, co-author (with Michael Green) of Philanthrocapitalism: How Giving Can Save the World, features a wide range of titles related to social sector innovation on his “Philanthrocapitalism Books of the Year” list. He notes that Engine of Impact provides “a blue-print for thoughtful and effective leadership in the sector” and highlights the value that Bill Meehan and Kim Starkey Jonker deliver in identifying “the key factors that have enabled the greatest non-profits to succeed.”
You can read Bishop’s book list here.
The “Business of Giving”—With Meehan and Starkey Jonker
“It’s one of those foundational books that only comes along every so often. It might even make a nice gift for someone.” So says Denver Frederick, host of the “Business of Giving” podcast, in concluding remarks to his recent interview with Bill Meehan and Kim Starkey Jonker about their book, Engine of Impact. In his opening remarks, Frederick observes that works that offer “isolated pieces of advice and wisdom” are plentiful. “What is often lacking, …” he argues, “is a serious, well-researched, and thoughtful source on how to make a real and lasting change.” In a wide-ranging conversation with Meehan and Starkey Jonker, Frederick explores their effort in Engine of Impact to fill that gap.
The podcast covers the challenge of focusing on organizational mission, the vicissitudes of nonprofit board governance, and what it takes for an organization to “earn the right” to scale. Frederick and his guest also venture into some controversial territory. Meehan, for instance, offers this provocative comment: “[O]ne of my favorite dinner party questions is to ask people what the biggest source of poverty alleviation is in the history of mankind, and nobody hardly ever gets it right. It’s capitalism in China. Number two is capitalism in India. It’s not aid to Africa.”
You can access the podcast here, on the Chronicle of Philanthropy website. Or you can click on the embedded audio player below.
A Question of Impact: Advice for Board Members
Nonprofit organizations often recruit people who have been successful in the business sector to serve on their board of directors.
It’s a practice that can work well, enabling a nonprofit to gain valuable perspective from smart professionals—but only if those professionals are equipped to engage actively and meaningfully both in board meetings and in the work of the organization. That’s a big “if,” and it raises lots of questions for board members whose experience lies mainly outside the nonprofit sector.
In fact, mastering the challenge of nonprofit board service starts with raising questions. In a new feature article for McKinsey Quarterly, Bill Meehan and Kim Jonker present a brief guide to doing precisely that. They write:
If you know how to probe, nudge, and prod, you can help your board perform better. Doing so starts with courage. In our experience, nonprofit board members are often reluctant to contribute actively to discussions for fear that they will appear uninformed or cause an embarrassing ruckus. To be effective, you must overcome that fear. And then you must ask questions. Ask all your questions, even ones you fear might seem stupid, and keep asking them until you figure out what the smart questions are.
The article (“The Four Questions to Ask When Serving on a Nonprofit Board”) appears in the December 2017 issue of McKinsey Quarterly. You can read it here.
Two Events at Stanford (Video)
Seeing is believing: We can now share video recordings of two events held at Stanford University to mark the launch of Engine of Impact.
On Oct. 28, Bill Meehan and Kim Starkey Jonker appeared at a session during Alumni Weekend at Stanford Graduate School of Business (GSB). Jonathan Levin, dean of GSB, Spoke with Meehan and Starkey Jonker about a wide range of book-related topics, and afterward GSB alumni posted questions to the authors.
On Nov. 9, the Stanford Center on Philanthropy and Civil Society hosted an event in honor of Engine of Impact at the David and Joan Traitel Building, site of the new conference center of the Hoover Institution at Stanford. John Hennessy, former president of the university, interviewed Meehan and Starkey Jonker, and a lively audience Q&A session followed.
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