NFP Disruptive Innovation Under the Spotlight

Not for Profits are being urged to take part in the 2016 Innovation Index Survey to gain insight into ways they can optimise “disruptive” innovation in their organisations.

The survey is being carried out by digital fundraising platform GiveEasy in collaboration with Australia Post and Westpac.

GiveEasy CEO Jeremy Tobias said this is the second year for the survey and his view is that every sector in the country and globally is being disrupted and the Not for Profit  sector is not much different.

“Consumers are getting a little weary of the traditional models of giving and I guess and if you look at the Not for Profit sector it has two choices…one is to be disrupted or to disrupt,” Tobias said.

“The aim of this survey is to deliver a leading indicator on the capability of the sector to actually disrupt – what is the forward looking capability of the sector around innovation.

“If we expect the sector to come up with new ideas and new models and be collaborative and communicative and be disruptive with itself, the important thing we need to understand is how does the sector compare.”

Tobias said a feature of this year’s survey is that every participating Not for Profit will get its own personalised copy of their responses of where they sit in innovation compared to the aggregate results.

“Our findings will look at the human capacity of the sector around collaboration, communication, rewards and recognition and where does your money come from and how open are you to new ideas,” he said.

Tobias said the synergies of the survey partners Westpac and Australia Post are that they are two organisations focused on innovation.

“Australia Post is moving from mail…it’s being disrupted and knows it and it also wants to assist the NFP sector in its transition from mail, and mail outs which are costly,” he said.

He said both believe disruption is really important and innovation is key and vital and how can they help the sector to be innovate.

“Last year’s Innovation Index survey revealed the importance of innovation as a key driver of revenue from new sources and showed that mid-sized organisations were best placed to take advantage of new methods,” Tobias said.

“The data also shows that innovation declines sharply as the size of an organisation increases.”

Australia Post’s Head of Social Innovation and Development, Chris Newton said, “Market disruptions – whether they be driven by technological, regulatory or funding changes – can be the catalyst for much innovation inside organisation.”

“So, it was alarming to see that under a third of respondents felt they would not be rewarded for innovation – we need to change this so people have confidence to ‘break the mould’ to create new opportunities for social change – hopefully this year we will see a change in this metric.”

Westpac’s Jacqui Logan-Powell, National Manager, Industry Specialisation said, “Continuous innovation is vital to the future of our community organisations and Westpac is committed to supporting them embrace the digital future and maximise their opportunities.”

“Knowledge and insights from this year’s Innovation Index can help leaders in the Social Sector to advance their organisation’s journey and create opportunities that will have a positive social impact on others in the community.”

In 2014, based on the data collected from more than 700 responses Movember, Oxfam and Charity Water took out the top spots in the 2015 Innovation Index.

The survey can be accessed via https://www.giveeasy.org/innovation until 30th October.