The Sustainability Mindset: Using the Matrix Map to Make Strategic Decisions

Chapter 1Introduction

In the five years since we wrote Nonprofit Sustainability, we’ve had the opportunity to share the book’s core messages about strategy formation and the matrix map tool for nonprofit business model analysis with thousands of nonprofit leaders across the country and internationally.¹ So today, we have a much deeper understanding of how and why the tool is a powerful catalyst for change in an organization—how, for instance, it can support a staff and board in deciding to end the “untouchable” program that hasn’t been relevant for years and bring leaders to acknowledge that their fundraising programs don’t yield sufficient surplus to subsidize their government funding—and get them talking honestly about what to do about it. ...