good morning I’m an optimist really I am
but honestly nowadays it’s not that easy
to be an optimist there are so many
boring developments going on and really
newspapers or opening the browser is not
fun at all anymore so you read something
like this so there is popular is another
rise leading to racism we have companies
cheating companies being greedy
companies not taking their social
responsibilities really seriously we
have environmental issues like plastic
waste climate change and I could
continue like this for hours
so obviously the government’s States
multinational organizations are not able
to handle these issues an obviously
private sector the market powers are not
able to handle these issues to develop
solutions I guess you already assumed
I’m not leaving you with this depressing
perspective so let me ask you something
who of you is working for a nonprofit
organization and or who a few is a
volunteer with a nonprofit organization
please raise your hands okay so that’s
almost half of it so look around I mean
there are so many of you so many of you
working to make this world a better
place there may be a pause for a second
and just say thank you thank you for
doing that that’s amazing that’s awesome
and that gives me hope and let me say
you one thing and here are few numbers
you are not alone worldwide there are
more than 10 million nonprofit
organizations that’s huge
there are and now I’m focusing on
Germany
surround in Germany 600,000 nonprofit
organizations just alone in Germany 30
million people and working as volunteers
and one other number so the annual
budget of the nonprofit sector in
Germany is more than 100 billion euros
so that’s amazing usually this power all
the work you they are doing is invisible
it’s just there but it’s making our
society sometimes it becomes very
visible
just remember 2015 when we are to
situation in Germany roughly million
refugees came to Germany and the state
collapsed so it was the civil society
stepping in and really taking care of
acute care so that was a very clear
signal of the power of the nonprofit
sector and there are some specific
strengths which are unique to the
nonprofit sector what makes a nonprofit
sector that so-called service society or
third sector so special so it has
enormous normative power because the
ultimate reason to be a nonprofit is to
have a positive impact in society and on
the world and fortunately have to make
one little footnote there’s also the
dark side of the civil society so these
idiots not working for an open society
but thinking and populism etc but let me
show it’s a minority so back to the
positive aspects so there is a huge and
high level on participation so people
from all the different backgrounds are
coming together and they’re working
together to do something for society
they do something in society and that’s
the social glue fostering social
cohesion which is really important
probably there’s never been as important
as nowadays another aspect is innovation
nonprofits people working on profits
they are very close to social issues so
they realize they sense that there are
things going on and the develop ideas
how to tackle that so that’s a huge
source of innovation and we should
leverage that so this is all on the
positive side and we heard these numbers
so that’s amazing so the question is why
is a nonprofit sector not really living
up to its foot
sensor and I would like to go through
through a few clusters of barriers which
we hopefully will overcome to unleash
the full potential of civil society and
let me make one one little personal
remark because I’ve been asked
frequently are you criticizing the
nonprofit sector no I’m not I’m not
criticizing nonprofit sector I have the
deepest respect for the nonprofit sector
for the people being engaged for the
organizations working in the nonprofit
sector they’re doing a great job but I
think it’s ok now I think it’s even
important that we are also asking
ourselves what can we do to have even
more impact and this is what I want to
do now with you and this spirit to see
how can we achieve more impact and there
are basically three clusters of barriers
so the worst one is around transparency
transparency should be normal to the
nonprofit sector but it is not we have
to differentiate different countries so
of course there are also regions of the
world where unfortunately there were
good reasons for a non-profit not to be
transparent not to be seen because we do
see unfortunately also shrinking space
for civil society in some countries but
in other countries we should see how big
the nonprofit sector is and for example
in the u.s. we have quite some basic
transformation and information risk for
example guidestar in germany the
nonprofit sector is systemically
in transparent so there are basically no
yellow pages or something where you can
look up who is out there so there are
600,000 profits but you don’t know who
they are and that comes with a price
because it means that the wheel is
reinvented over and over again because
you don’t know what people in Hamburg
are doing while you might need the same
approach in Berlin you’re not coming
together to collaborate to work together
and that holds true for collaborations
between nonprofits but it’s even more
severe when it comes to collaborations
across the sector’s so meaning a company
with the local community and the
nonprofit sector and the reason for
in transparency and very often also
stereotypes we’re having in our heads
because there are the people from the
nonprofit sector thinking about the
people in business oh they’re greedy
these money focused people and on the
other side the nonprofit sector is seen
as the unprofessional people having good
world but not bringing something power
to the street so that’s not true but we
have to stop that and once we do that we
can work together and really achieve
something together so that’s basically
idea so we have to bring basic
transparency to the nonprofit sector and
we have to start working together so
that we can learn from each other and
that we can scale good ideas together
the second the second cluster of issues
and barriers is around impact impact
orientation you might want to say ok
nonprofit sector and the nonprofit’s
they want to achieve impact so they’re
guiding principle in their daily
business should be impact unfortunately
that’s not always the case and that’s
due to the fact that sometimes we are
not using the right tools the right
approaches etc just to give you an
example so if you are a nonprofit
working on the field of youth
unemployment and very often you see that
they are reporting about how many
trainings they had how many participants
that that’s nice but it doesn’t say
anything about the impact they achieving
so the relevant questions are that the
participants learn something that they
change their attitudes that they got
into job ultimately this is something
which is important but that’s usually on
many cases usually it’s maybe too much
but it’s in many cases not the case we
are too much focused also on nice
pictures yes
working in the nonprofit sector also
counsellor emotions so that’s good but
just nice pictures is not enough and
sometimes we also like these nice events
even red carpet events and I think the
question is valid is this nice event
really having impact and also I do see
organizations kind of hiding behind
their social purpose so I say no we’re
doing good so don’t ask what our
strategy is no I mean this is
not something which is conflicting I
think the best way is to achieve impact
by being very strategic so let’s let’s
put the the needs of the beneficiaries
into the center and then we do backwards
engineering to come up with a right
strategy and now there is a message to
other donors and funders do your funding
and a strategic and impactful and
sustainable way just to give you a few
examples so in many heads they still
have this strange indicator that the
good nonprofit is a non-profit having
low overhead costs that’s ridiculous I
mean an organization needs a
professional organization that comes
with overhead costs so a funder should
really support an organization in a
strategic way by also providing funds
for infrastructure learning evaluation
etc and also a funder should be a
long-term funder impact usually cannot
be achieved within 2 3 years you have
impact in society maybe after five years
or ten years so please be patient and
stay as a funder with an organization so
this is something where there’s a huge
responsibility on the site of the donors
and likewise we can ask the nonprofit’s
to be impact focused and that is not a
burden it is really something which
helps your own mission meaning you can
learn while you’re looking at your
impact and you can prove what you are
doing
so the third cluster is around self
confidence sometimes and it really
physically hurts me when I see this
attitude sometimes I see nonprofits
literally creeping and saying please can
you support me well that’s not the right
attitude I mean the state needs us the
private sector needs us society needs us
the world needs us so I think we should
be proud of what we are doing and we
should stand up and say ok we need your
support
and that should be on a level so this is
something where we really have to work
on and what we also should do is that we
have to work together also in the way
that we have consolidated messages just
to give you an example so the private
sector is diverse in itself no question
but nevertheless if Chancellor Merkel
wants to talk to the private sector
there are few associations and big
organizations she can call up and she
can chocolate the private sector I
imagine
Chancellor Merkel is sitting in her room
saying I want to talk to the civil
society and she’s staring at your phone
but actually she doesn’t have any clue
whom to call and that’s a shame and it’s
also weakening our positioning so the
nonprofit sector should also start
working together not only on an
operation level but also setting the
agenda jointly because then we are also
at the highest level of attendance in
the society and when it comes to
decision makers one other example where
that comes quite obvious so the other
sectors they have their annual
gatherings they have their meetings
where they do celebrate themselves but
they also where they’re sending their
agendas
so like Davos the World Economic Forum
we also have the same with the States so
they come together when the g7 summit
our g20 etc and the nice thing is the
nonprofit sector is even invited but
their guests and honestly they’re not
really honestly participating so why why
don’t we have also the same why isn’t
there something like the global civil
society summit so where all the big
shots are coming together and there are
huge organizations out there they have
massive power but they are not aligning
their power so why don’t they come
together they are setting the agenda
they are defining what we need to
develop the world to make this place a
better place and then we invite the
other ones and invite them to join
forces with
to work together with us exactly in the
manner which I have described so
transparent collectively impact focused
vocal I think this is something we can
do and if we do so and I’m I’m quite
ambitious about that if we do so my
guess is that the news and the future
will be different ones so we might read
something like this in the newspapers so
that we have set an agenda for women
empowerment and then we are executing
this or we might see something like this
so that we join forces between the
private sector and the nonprofit sector
so the innovative the normative power of
the nonprofit sector combined with the
way how to do venture capital how to set
up a fund so why don’t we have something
like that this is something I think
which is very close it’s just about us
we have to work together and if we do so
I think we will enter into the age of
civil society and I am I think for a good reason an optimist thank you
but honestly nowadays it’s not that easy
to be an optimist there are so many
boring developments going on and really
newspapers or opening the browser is not
fun at all anymore so you read something
like this so there is popular is another
rise leading to racism we have companies
cheating companies being greedy
companies not taking their social
responsibilities really seriously we
have environmental issues like plastic
waste climate change and I could
continue like this for hours
so obviously the government’s States
multinational organizations are not able
to handle these issues an obviously
private sector the market powers are not
able to handle these issues to develop
solutions I guess you already assumed
I’m not leaving you with this depressing
perspective so let me ask you something
who of you is working for a nonprofit
organization and or who a few is a
volunteer with a nonprofit organization
please raise your hands okay so that’s
almost half of it so look around I mean
there are so many of you so many of you
working to make this world a better
place there may be a pause for a second
and just say thank you thank you for
doing that that’s amazing that’s awesome
and that gives me hope and let me say
you one thing and here are few numbers
you are not alone worldwide there are
more than 10 million nonprofit
organizations that’s huge
there are and now I’m focusing on
Germany
surround in Germany 600,000 nonprofit
organizations just alone in Germany 30
million people and working as volunteers
and one other number so the annual
budget of the nonprofit sector in
Germany is more than 100 billion euros
so that’s amazing usually this power all
the work you they are doing is invisible
it’s just there but it’s making our
society sometimes it becomes very
visible
just remember 2015 when we are to
situation in Germany roughly million
refugees came to Germany and the state
collapsed so it was the civil society
stepping in and really taking care of
acute care so that was a very clear
signal of the power of the nonprofit
sector and there are some specific
strengths which are unique to the
nonprofit sector what makes a nonprofit
sector that so-called service society or
third sector so special so it has
enormous normative power because the
ultimate reason to be a nonprofit is to
have a positive impact in society and on
the world and fortunately have to make
one little footnote there’s also the
dark side of the civil society so these
idiots not working for an open society
but thinking and populism etc but let me
show it’s a minority so back to the
positive aspects so there is a huge and
high level on participation so people
from all the different backgrounds are
coming together and they’re working
together to do something for society
they do something in society and that’s
the social glue fostering social
cohesion which is really important
probably there’s never been as important
as nowadays another aspect is innovation
nonprofits people working on profits
they are very close to social issues so
they realize they sense that there are
things going on and the develop ideas
how to tackle that so that’s a huge
source of innovation and we should
leverage that so this is all on the
positive side and we heard these numbers
so that’s amazing so the question is why
is a nonprofit sector not really living
up to its foot
sensor and I would like to go through
through a few clusters of barriers which
we hopefully will overcome to unleash
the full potential of civil society and
let me make one one little personal
remark because I’ve been asked
frequently are you criticizing the
nonprofit sector no I’m not I’m not
criticizing nonprofit sector I have the
deepest respect for the nonprofit sector
for the people being engaged for the
organizations working in the nonprofit
sector they’re doing a great job but I
think it’s ok now I think it’s even
important that we are also asking
ourselves what can we do to have even
more impact and this is what I want to
do now with you and this spirit to see
how can we achieve more impact and there
are basically three clusters of barriers
so the worst one is around transparency
transparency should be normal to the
nonprofit sector but it is not we have
to differentiate different countries so
of course there are also regions of the
world where unfortunately there were
good reasons for a non-profit not to be
transparent not to be seen because we do
see unfortunately also shrinking space
for civil society in some countries but
in other countries we should see how big
the nonprofit sector is and for example
in the u.s. we have quite some basic
transformation and information risk for
example guidestar in germany the
nonprofit sector is systemically
in transparent so there are basically no
yellow pages or something where you can
look up who is out there so there are
600,000 profits but you don’t know who
they are and that comes with a price
because it means that the wheel is
reinvented over and over again because
you don’t know what people in Hamburg
are doing while you might need the same
approach in Berlin you’re not coming
together to collaborate to work together
and that holds true for collaborations
between nonprofits but it’s even more
severe when it comes to collaborations
across the sector’s so meaning a company
with the local community and the
nonprofit sector and the reason for
in transparency and very often also
stereotypes we’re having in our heads
because there are the people from the
nonprofit sector thinking about the
people in business oh they’re greedy
these money focused people and on the
other side the nonprofit sector is seen
as the unprofessional people having good
world but not bringing something power
to the street so that’s not true but we
have to stop that and once we do that we
can work together and really achieve
something together so that’s basically
idea so we have to bring basic
transparency to the nonprofit sector and
we have to start working together so
that we can learn from each other and
that we can scale good ideas together
the second the second cluster of issues
and barriers is around impact impact
orientation you might want to say ok
nonprofit sector and the nonprofit’s
they want to achieve impact so they’re
guiding principle in their daily
business should be impact unfortunately
that’s not always the case and that’s
due to the fact that sometimes we are
not using the right tools the right
approaches etc just to give you an
example so if you are a nonprofit
working on the field of youth
unemployment and very often you see that
they are reporting about how many
trainings they had how many participants
that that’s nice but it doesn’t say
anything about the impact they achieving
so the relevant questions are that the
participants learn something that they
change their attitudes that they got
into job ultimately this is something
which is important but that’s usually on
many cases usually it’s maybe too much
but it’s in many cases not the case we
are too much focused also on nice
pictures yes
working in the nonprofit sector also
counsellor emotions so that’s good but
just nice pictures is not enough and
sometimes we also like these nice events
even red carpet events and I think the
question is valid is this nice event
really having impact and also I do see
organizations kind of hiding behind
their social purpose so I say no we’re
doing good so don’t ask what our
strategy is no I mean this is
not something which is conflicting I
think the best way is to achieve impact
by being very strategic so let’s let’s
put the the needs of the beneficiaries
into the center and then we do backwards
engineering to come up with a right
strategy and now there is a message to
other donors and funders do your funding
and a strategic and impactful and
sustainable way just to give you a few
examples so in many heads they still
have this strange indicator that the
good nonprofit is a non-profit having
low overhead costs that’s ridiculous I
mean an organization needs a
professional organization that comes
with overhead costs so a funder should
really support an organization in a
strategic way by also providing funds
for infrastructure learning evaluation
etc and also a funder should be a
long-term funder impact usually cannot
be achieved within 2 3 years you have
impact in society maybe after five years
or ten years so please be patient and
stay as a funder with an organization so
this is something where there’s a huge
responsibility on the site of the donors
and likewise we can ask the nonprofit’s
to be impact focused and that is not a
burden it is really something which
helps your own mission meaning you can
learn while you’re looking at your
impact and you can prove what you are
doing
so the third cluster is around self
confidence sometimes and it really
physically hurts me when I see this
attitude sometimes I see nonprofits
literally creeping and saying please can
you support me well that’s not the right
attitude I mean the state needs us the
private sector needs us society needs us
the world needs us so I think we should
be proud of what we are doing and we
should stand up and say ok we need your
support
and that should be on a level so this is
something where we really have to work
on and what we also should do is that we
have to work together also in the way
that we have consolidated messages just
to give you an example so the private
sector is diverse in itself no question
but nevertheless if Chancellor Merkel
wants to talk to the private sector
there are few associations and big
organizations she can call up and she
can chocolate the private sector I
imagine
Chancellor Merkel is sitting in her room
saying I want to talk to the civil
society and she’s staring at your phone
but actually she doesn’t have any clue
whom to call and that’s a shame and it’s
also weakening our positioning so the
nonprofit sector should also start
working together not only on an
operation level but also setting the
agenda jointly because then we are also
at the highest level of attendance in
the society and when it comes to
decision makers one other example where
that comes quite obvious so the other
sectors they have their annual
gatherings they have their meetings
where they do celebrate themselves but
they also where they’re sending their
agendas
so like Davos the World Economic Forum
we also have the same with the States so
they come together when the g7 summit
our g20 etc and the nice thing is the
nonprofit sector is even invited but
their guests and honestly they’re not
really honestly participating so why why
don’t we have also the same why isn’t
there something like the global civil
society summit so where all the big
shots are coming together and there are
huge organizations out there they have
massive power but they are not aligning
their power so why don’t they come
together they are setting the agenda
they are defining what we need to
develop the world to make this place a
better place and then we invite the
other ones and invite them to join
forces with
to work together with us exactly in the
manner which I have described so
transparent collectively impact focused
vocal I think this is something we can
do and if we do so and I’m I’m quite
ambitious about that if we do so my
guess is that the news and the future
will be different ones so we might read
something like this in the newspapers so
that we have set an agenda for women
empowerment and then we are executing
this or we might see something like this
so that we join forces between the
private sector and the nonprofit sector
so the innovative the normative power of
the nonprofit sector combined with the
way how to do venture capital how to set
up a fund so why don’t we have something
like that this is something I think
which is very close it’s just about us
we have to work together and if we do so
I think we will enter into the age of
civil society and I am I think for a good reason an optimist thank you
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