If you believe that management is a collection of value neutral concepts that can be applied in any organization over multiple economic eras, you should go to a different journal. NPQ believes that management concepts flow from and are informed by and designed around economic and social belief systems as well as contextual factors. So our work on management and governance is always up to date and informed by what is happening both in the field and in research of various kinds.
SCROLL DOWN FOR 5 OF NPQ’s MOST POPULAR WEBINARS OF 2020
In terms of what is going on in the field, sometimes NPQ manages to hit the nail on the head at exactly the right time with information that runs counter to the general narrative but which later proves accurate. This is the result of a discipline we observe of monitoring what is going on in various segments of the sector, and looking for data that helps explain real experiences on the ground. We advance knowledge in this way—by looking at the real lived experiences and data against narrative and then clarifying what we believe should be course, analytical and narrative corrections. We do all of this in concert with a multitude of partners.
This year in particular, the timing of our publishing appeared uncanny as we produced the Spring edition of NPQ's print magazine looking at the effects of the Great Recession even right as the pandemic and the current downturn hit. That edition which detailed which sectors were hardest hit in 2008, and found that where most nonprofits even among the worst affected recovered relatively quickly, the communities they served lost ground more permanently, provided a valuable backdrop to help us understand how the current downturn was likely to affect various sub-sectors and the economy more generally.
With this knowledge base in hand we, with a number of partners were able to interpret the data coming out of our 2020 crisis more accurately and try to drive others to report and react more accurately to it.
Throughout the year we not only tracked the trends but the stories that made those trends understandable and intimate and platforms for further well leveraged action. Advances in racial justice related narratives and strategies, wove through everything so, for instance, in the museum sector which was hard hit by the pandemic, the calls for a historical reckoning of the racialized and elite “ownership” of museums was occurring simultaneously creating a burning platform and the beginnings of a bridge to a different and more critically understood and inclusive practice. All of this affects museum management and governance.
This is where activists live and work—at the intersection of complex issues—and NPQ has tried to honor that with a reporting of the management and governance landscape that digs into, rather than glossing over that complexity.
Below are a number of 2020 management webinars that flow from this core discipline. All were popular favorites:
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