A Washington Post editorial about a policy Dartmouth University initiated last years should serve to remind all that corporate policies can have a significant impact on the ability of a nonprofit to effectively achieve mission. The editorial can also helpfully remind nonprofits that practicing the golden rule of marketing success, understand and satisfy your market's needs, wants and/or interests to be successful.
First, I presume that nonprofit boards approve the "big" overarching policies that affect the way a nonprofit does its buisiness. These policies are in writing and to be observed and failure to do so wins usually negative consequences to the employees. Such policies are often proposed by staff, presumably with some fodder (e.g. research) presented to assist the board's consideration of the policy and its effects. In some nonprofits, these policies come out of committees or perhaps come out of a board discussion, are sent to a committee for learning and thinking and are then returned to the board for action. The subject that started me on this topic today is Dartmouth College's decision "to deny college credit to students who got good scores on high school college-level exams such as Advanced Placement, International Baccalaureate and the Advanced International Certificate of Education." The impact of the policy: a 14% reduction in new student applications. And yes, there could be additional variables contributing to this result but the article suggests not likely. Was this a good policy that just went awry or was this a badly researched policy with unanticipated results? The board must of course call on staff to find the answers recognizing that the resulting losses are not acceptable into the future.
This article went on to speculate about the drop from the student applicant perspective. The speculations may be correct, I don't have enough data. Suffice it to say though that whatever a nonprofit offers, it needs to have characteristics and benefits that appeal to its target audience. Failure to do so results in lack of demand and lack of demand results in failed mission.
