Rummaging through my library brings back memories of advice, history, and inspiration. Then I ask the question: Is a book that was popular thirty years ago still relevant today? My latest finding was Peter Block’s book, Stewardship: Choosing Service over Self-Interest, published in 1993.
The overarching theme of Block’s book is that leaders should behave like stewards and prioritize the needs of others. Rather than viewing leadership through the typical hierarchal lens, it should be seen as a collaboration. It is recommended that leaders delegate decision-making and provide their staff with more autonomy.
Giving people freedom while simultaneously making them pay for their actions is the essence of genuine empowerment. This equilibrium nurtures organizational trust and commitment. Organizations should strive to foster an environment where members feel welcome to work together toward a common goal. This method improves participation and group pride in results.
Stewardship that promotes decisions that benefit future generations and the community focuses on sustainable success rather than short-term advantages.
Stewardship is more critical than ever in today’s fast-paced workplace, where Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) takes center stage. It is needed in the business world and the nonprofit arena, perhaps even more so for nonprofits seeking financial support for their causes.
Successful companies, organizations, and foundations recognize the importance of ethical leadership, giving employees more say and fostering a sense of community. By embracing a stewardship approach, organizations can become more adaptable and meet today’s challenges.
How Stewardship Principles Help Nonprofits Succeed
By implementing stewardship principles, nonprofits can achieve greater long-term sustainability, stakeholder trust, and ethical leadership. Some essential ways stewardship can be applied in modern nonprofit settings are as follows:
Shared Leadership and Decentralized Decision-Making
Nonprofits can benefit from collaborative leadership approaches instead of top-down leadership. Collaboration gives employees and volunteers more agency than a command and control management style.
Many of the most successful companies are known for using decentralized decision-making. Johnson & Johnson, Amazon, with its “two pizza team” approach, and Spotify have their squads and tribes. Nike, too, is known for empowering teams and individuals to make quicker and more agile decisions.
They all empower leaders to make decisions about programs and resources, which helps ensure that solutions are driven by their groups and, in turn, driven by the community.
Honesty in Finances and Moral Fundraising
Nonprofits must be transparent about how they spend their funds to maintain the trust of their contributors. Accurate record-keeping of all financial transactions is essential to good stewardship.
One charity that exemplifies extreme transparency is the Children’s Organ Transplant Association (COTA). COTA regularly updates its donors and the foundations that support it on the status of their donations and the organization’s finances.
Establishing a Service-Oriented Culture
When board members, staff, and volunteers adopt a stewardship attitude, they prioritize the purpose over their egos and the status quo.
By having board members and executives work on construction projects with volunteers, Habitat for Humanity promotes a servant leadership culture and emphasizes the importance of everyone pitching in.
Putting Money into People and Their Professional Growth
To practice good stewardship, workers, and volunteers must not be exploited but provided with the resources they need to succeed.
For example, the Red Cross strongly emphasizes leadership training for volunteers and first responders to guarantee long-term viability through competent leaders at every level.
Boosting Engagement and Ownership at the Community Level
Nonprofits practicing stewardship ensure that the communities they serve are co-creators of solutions rather than passive recipients.
The Nature Conservancy, for instance, isn’t interested in quick ecological remedies but rather in conservation efforts with a longer time horizon, like buying up land to keep forever.
The Stanford Social Innovation Review refers to organizations that serve many people of varying demographics and yet create a way for everyone to connect, like the Heartfelt Connector. A classic example of such a nonprofit, and most know it, is the Make-a-Wish Foundation.
Making an Impact on Policy and Ethical Advocacy
Stewardship-driven nonprofits advocate ethically, resisting political pressure and acting in their own self-interest to ensure that policies support their mission.
For example, when their neutrality is threatened, Doctors Without Borders withdraws from conflict zones, prioritizing the well-being of patients over political ties. This quickly came to mind as I received a letter in the mail today wishing for me to support their efforts.
The Importance of Stewardship in the Modern Era
Transparency, shared leadership, and long-term thinking are stewardship concepts that nonprofits that adopt stand out as ethical, resilient, and impactful in an era where public faith in institutions is waning.
