By Sara Beggs, Exponent Philanthropy

I recently attended GEO’s 2014 National Conference and heard Charles Duhigg, award-winning New York Times business reporter who has spent more than a decade studying habits. His book The Power of Habit: Why We Do What We Do in Life and Business explores the science behind habits and how to change them. Not only were many of us thinking about our failed attempts to keep to our New Year’s resolutions, we were pushed to think about how habits affect the organizations we support and the field of philanthropy.

Duhigg made the case that understanding habits is critical to transforming organizations and communities. Based on recent discoveries in brain science, it has become clear that for bad habits to change and good habits to start, there must be appropriate cues and rewards in place.

The process of changing habits might look something like this flowchart from The Power of Habit (shared here with permission):

Remarkably, after a habit is formed, the reward might not even be needed. And even more thrilling is this: A good habit in one area (e.g., increased discipline in eating right) is likely to spill over into areas (e.g., increased discipline in sticking to a budget).

But how does all this relate to philanthropy? In so many ways.

Take this “bad” habit: Grantees often paint rosy pictures for funders, holding back the whole story. For example, Funder makes a grant to Organization. At year-end, Organization completes a grant report, answering honestly and sharing results that do not meet the proposal’s original goals. Funder decides not to fund Organization again due to poor results. Organization keeps this consequence of truth-telling in mind the next time it completes a grant report, painting a rosier picture for the next funder.

John Bare of The Arthur M. Blank Foundation is working to change this habit in two key ways:

• Using monthly meetings rather than year-end reports to promote honest sharing [think RUNNING SHOES by DOOR]. Instead of waiting a full year for updates, he convenes stakeholders monthly to gather updates and move quickly to apply lessons about what’s working and what’s not. By increasing the frequency of the feedback opportunities, it lowers the stakes. The peer exchange also allows grantees to compare notes about problems that surfaced yesterday, not months ago, and to move right away to an approach that may yield a better result.
• Rewarding grant partners that implement changes along the way [think CHOCOLATE]. Understanding that success is based on an organization’s ability to adapt, John asks at the proposal stage about the things that are likely to go wrong and what the grantee might do about it. He also uses the frequent check-ins to determine how grantees are reflecting on interim feedback and changing their programs accordingly.

What bad habits do you see in philanthropy? Are you inadvertently giving cues or rewards that reinforce these bad habits? How might you offer habit-changing cues and rewards instead?

Related post: Ask Your Way to Impact: Nonprofit Dialogue

Senior Program Director Sara Beggs focuses her time and energy on Exponent Philanthropy’s Getting to Impact Initiative, an effort to equip philanthropists with the information and inspiration to achieve greater impact over time. Her greatest philanthropic joy is participation in Blooming Kids for Kindness, a group of ten families who encourage their children to care about their communities and recognize that each can make a difference through local and international volunteer and fundraising activities.