When Why Isn’t Enough – Start with Who

In modern business thought leadership, the question “why” gets a lot of attention.

When Simon Sinek introduced his Golden Circle more than a decade ago in his book “Start with Why” and a now-famous TED Talk, he explained that business leaders need to start with the company’s “why” – its reason for being – before focusing on how it does its work and what work it actually does. He put “why” at the core of three concentric circles to demonstrate how important it is and how it affects the “how” and “what.”

Finding your “why” is also a popular practice in coaching, with leaders being encouraged to find their own personal purpose to guide their choices and professional journey. The idea here is that by working in your purpose, you can create a more fulfilling and successful career and life.

There’s also the “5 Whys” root cause analysis. The premise is that by asking yourself or your team “why” five times in succession, you can go beyond surface-level analysis and get to the real reasons behind a particular result or outcome.

Our “why” matters because our purpose is essential to guiding our strategy and our work.

In the nonprofit and social good sectors, our “why” is always front and center – it lives right there in our vision and mission. You can find it on our websites, in our annual reports, in our social media and email communications, in our employee newsletters – basically everywhere you look.

With our “why” so prominent in everything we do, it should be easy to design a strategy and activate our staff and supporters to help achieve it, right?

Well, not exactly.

That’s because “why” isn’t really the big central question for most nonprofits and social good organizations.

After almost two decades of consulting for and working within nonprofit organizations, the bigger and more pressing question I see organizations struggling with is: Who?

Our “who” matters because our work, in almost every circumstance, is about people.

In the social good sector, “who” is one of the most powerful questions we can ask and answer for ourselves and our organizations. And yet it’s one we often gloss over, make assumptions about, and generally just don’t spend enough time contemplating and clarifying.

This is a big problem.

Without understanding the people we serve, our organizational identity, and the many people and partners who power our organization, we are unlikely to solve the issues our “why” seeks to address.

Lack of clarity around our “who” hampers our impact, frustrates our dedicated staff and volunteers, and loses us supporters. It also puts us in the perpetual tailspin of having to prove our value without having a clear understanding of what that value is – since value is in the eye of the beholder.

If you’re reading this and nodding your head (or maybe banging it against the desk in frustration), don’t worry – I’m not going to leave you hanging.

I’ve summarized an exercise below that can help you begin to answer the big “who” questions for your organization. Typically, these questions are part of a structured meeting I facilitate to help an organization explore and uncover important truths. These questions require thoughtful contemplation, so if you find yourself scribbling quickly based on boilerplate language or making broad assumptions, it’s time to take a step back and reassess.

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The “5 Whos” Exercise

Nonprofit strategy is strongly influenced by five critical “whos.” The goal of the questions in this exercise is for folks in your organization to feel confident saying “I know who _______” in each of the categories below so your work can always be tied back to the people who are most important to the organization and to your organization’s identity.

Who Do We Serve?

Start with what you know, but don’t stop there. For example, if your organization’s mission focuses on supporting people with a rare disease, what do you know about those people? What are their biggest challenges, day-to-day needs, desires for a better life as human beings – not just as human beings with this particular disease. Where does the disease fall in their list of things they’re most worried about? Who are the most important people in their lives? Who else supports them in their journey?

You can start by gathering insights from information you already have, but make sure you’re also asking these questions of the people you aim to serve. Get out into your community and empower them to share their needs and stories with you. Understanding how the disease/cause fits into their everyday lives is essential to understanding why your organization is needed, as well as how and what you’ll do to serve them.

Who Are We Now?

Missions and identities are not static. If your organization has a significant history, there’s a good chance that important progress has been made during that time. This is a testament to the progress that’s been made – and it also means you need to clarify your identity as an organization. Set aside the “About Us” section of your website for a second and ask yourself, “who are we in this moment and who do we want to be over the next several years?” Another version of this question is, “what’s the modern expression of our mission?”

You may find it helpful to conduct a role exercise – brainstorming all of the roles your organization could play to support the people you serve (for example, advocate, direct service provider, researcher, connector, convener) and then spending time discussing and narrowing down the list to the most essential elements of your organization’s identity.

 Who Powers Our Organization?

No matter the size of your nonprofit, there are dedicated human beings who are involved in helping to accomplish and fund the mission. What do you know about your staff, volunteers, and other supporters? What motivates them to come work for this cause? What do they need to be successful in this work? Who gets a seat at the decision-making table?

While demographic data and employee engagement surveys can be a useful starting point, they are point-in-time measures that don’t fully capture the needs and desires of our staff, volunteers, and other supporters. Your leaders and supervisors should be asking thoughtful questions of their teams, listening well, and bringing that information to meaningful leadership conversations so those insights can be translated into actions that create and cultivate an equitable, supportive, and engaging organizational culture.

Who Invests in Us?

Nonprofit funders and donors support causes for a variety of reasons – but many organizations make assumptions about what their donors care about based on the vocal opinions of a few donors or funders rather than understanding their broader community of funders and donors. Spend the time to get to know the people who are investing in you and your work.

There are lots of ways to do this, but if you’re just getting started, one of my favorite ways is to call your donors to say thank you and ask about their reasons for investing in your mission. This is especially important with donors who’ve given multiple times. While we’d all love to believe it was our sparkling fundraising email copy that inspired them to give, all donors – and funders – have a story and identity that makes this cause feel like a good investment to them. When we know more about that story and identity, we can understand what about our mission makes people want to be part of the better world we’re working to create.

Who Are Our Partners?

Each organization exists within a broader community and network. Great organizations know what they are best at and work to forge strong partnerships with other organizations, elected officials, and corporate entities that excel at supporting the people they serve in a different way. And while the interconnectedness of the systemic and underlying societal factors that affect health, wealth, education, justice, privilege, and wellbeing have been known for some time, the increasing focus on the intersections of these factors means it is incumbent on nonprofit organizations to identify and cultivate partners who can collaborate to be part of a more comprehensive solution.

To answer this question, create a partner map. Start by researching organizations and officials that serve many of the people you serve – this could be based on geography, cause area, or some other common factor. Get to know them and their strengths – work to understand what they’re trying to accomplish and what they excel at so you can understand how you can collaborate to serve your shared constituents. Map out the partners by categorizing them in ways that make sense for your organization – be clear about your intent in working together, and how and when you expect that to take place.