The National Council of Nonprofits proudly welcomed the Leap of Reason Ambassadors Community to our network of networks in the summer of 2023.
The Leap of Reason Ambassadors Community (LAC) promotes greater social impact in the form of improved lives and stronger communities by inspiring, convincing, and supporting leaders of nonprofits, foundations, and governments (and their stakeholders) to invest in continuous improvement that creates more high-performing organizations delivering – over a prolonged time – equitable, meaningful, measurable, and financially sustainable results.
Inspired by Leap of Reason: Managing to Outcomes in an Era of Scarcity, LAC members (ambassadors) comprise a community of nonprofit thought leaders/practitioners, forward-looking funders, advisors, consultants, policymakers, academics, business leaders, and instigators. Ambassadors believe that organizational mission and performance are inextricably linked.
The ambassadors’ diverse backgrounds, experiences, and perspectives – including across sectors, knowledge domains, race, ethnicity, age, gender, and geography – help them serve as individual change agents and natural collaborators. Connected through a robust online forum and other means, they learn from each other, produce collaborative works, exchange information to support one another, and benefit from the community’s collective knowledge and expertise.
To support leaders in understanding and assessing organizational performance, the Leap community has developed special resources, such as the Performance Imperative, which offers – free of charge – a downloadable tool defining high performance and providing a framework of seven organizational disciplines – or pillars –to achieve it. A related tool, the Performance Practice (also free), helps organizations delve deeper into the Performance Imperative and how to apply it for ongoing reflection, learning, and continuous improvement. Other rich (yet free) informative materials are posted on the LAC website, https://www.leapambassadors.org/
Founded in 2013 by Mario Morino and the Morino Institute, the LAC envisions a social sector in which all nonprofits with the will to achieve greater impact have the strength and support to do so. For more than a decade, the Leap Ambassadors Community was built and strengthened by the Morino Institute and the dedicated Leap Support Team.
In 2022, as the Morino Institute was planning its own transition, it supported an extensive process for the ambassadors – guided by the Monitor Institute by Deloitte – to determine the community’s future. The LAC considered different models of operating and dozens of potential homes for the community. Ambassadors ultimately determined the National Council of Nonprofits would be the best fit to carry forward its mission, voting overwhelmingly to become a part of NCN. In the summer of 2023, the LAC joined NCN’s network of networks, all dedicated to being champions for the public good. A planning process for the future is underway.