Congruence, Alignment

Both mean about the same and both are becoming much more crucial in an era of shrinking funds for nonprofits, both from government sources and from private philanthropists.

They are also core elements of my consultancy practice.

This article from Harvard Business Review, which uses the term coherence, also meaning about the same, takes note.

An excerpt.

“There is a crisis in the not-for-profit sector. Since the great recession began, donations to the largest charities in the U.S. have dropped by billions — down 11% in 2010 alone, according to a recent report from the Chronicle of Philanthropy. This was the worst decline since the Chronicle began ranking its "Philanthropy 400" list of America's largest fund-raising charities in 1990. Leaders of philanthropic and other non-profit organizations naturally blame the economy for this problem; and many expect things to get worse as the economic malaise drags on.

“But the financial meltdown has not affected all charities and not-for-profits equally. It is the more versatile, general-purpose charities — including such well-known, diverse institutions as The United Way Worldwide and the Salvation Army — that are faring the worst. For more tightly focused not-for-profits, such as the Cleveland Clinic and the network of Food Banks around the country, the decline is not nearly as sharp.

“Why the disparity? Our own research on organizational strategy and leadership more broadly suggests a reason. Since 2010, we've been conducting an ongoing survey of managers' attitudes about the strategies of their organizations (click here to take the not-for-profit version of the profiler). More than 65% of the respondents from the non-profit sector said it was a significant challenge to bring day-to-day decisions in line with their organization's overall strategy. When asked about their frustration factors, 76% (the largest group by far, and a larger percentage than their for-profit counterparts) named "too many conflicting priorities." When asked about their organization's core capabilities — distinctive things their association could do better than anyone else — only 29% said these supported their organization's strategy, and almost 80% said that their association's efforts to grow had led to waste.

“All of these results suggest that, while the hit to fundraising has hurt many not-for-profits, the more fundamental core problem is strategic. These institutions lack a strategy for connecting their mission with their ability to deliver. In short, this is a crisis of coherence.

“Coherence is a fundamental alignment among the elements that create value in an organization. A coherent not-for-profit has three core strategic elements fitting seamlessly together. First, there is a well-defined "way to play," a distinctive way of achieving the organization's mission — thus making a difference in a way that would otherwise go unfulfilled. Second, the organization backs up its mission with a system of interrelated capabilities: a combination of processes, tools, knowledge, skills, and organization, all focused on reliably and consistently delivering what is needed to create value according to that way to play. Third, all its activities relate to this strategic mix; if it doesn't have the capabilities to perform some service, in a way that fits with its overall strategy, then it leaves that to a different organization.”