Your Model Is Not Your Mission
We all know of organizations that became great, but then faltered from greatness.
Apple computer lost its way in the late 1980s, after Steve Jobs left (the first time).
Disney animation lost its magic in the late 1990s, going over a decade without a hit film.
Blockbuster video infamously fell in the 2000s, from the undisputed leader in video rentals to bankruptcy in less than 10 years.
What do Apple, Disney, and Blockbuster have to do with leading an effective and thriving charity in the 21st century?
A lot.
Two of these companies – Apple and Disney – made their way back to greatness, and one failed so fatally that it no longer exists.
Why did Blockbuster fail?
I believe it’s because leadership made one fundamental mistake – a mistake that all organizations and leaders are prone to making, for-profit businesses and nonprofit causes alike. If left uncorrected, this mistake will eventually lead to an organization's downfall – or worse, irrelevance.
Blockbuster confused its model with its mission.
Your Mission and Your Model are Two Different Things
Don’t mistake your mission, which should be timeless and not change, with your model, which is how you accomplish your mission. Your mission shouldn’t change, but your model will have to change over time if you want to keep achieving your mission at scale.
Blockbuster completely missed the shift from in-store rental to DVDs-by-mail and later the transition to streaming.
Let’s look at a couple of examples from the nonprofit sector:
Charity: water set out with a clear mission: to bring clean and safe drinking water to people in developing countries. While that mission hasn’t changed, their model has evolved significantly. From early one-time campaigns to today’s robust sustainable giving program, The Spring, charity: water has shifted toward a more sustainable, subscription-style approach. They’ve also embraced technology to increase transparency and prove impact, tracking wells in real time and sharing results with donors. It’s a case study in adapting your model to better scale your mission.
🎙️ We recently interviewed Brady Josephson, VP of Marketing & Growth at charity: water, about disruption and innovation. Listen to the Purpose & Profit Podcast interview here: S6:E6 Charity: Water On How to Be Disruptive with a Purpose.
Similarly, Compassion International has stayed anchored to its mission – releasing children from poverty in Jesus’ name – while evolving how it carries that mission out. What began as a simple child sponsorship model has grown into a holistic child development program delivered through local churches around the world. Over time, Compassion has modernized communications, adapted programs to fit local contexts, and expanded donor engagement strategies – all without compromising its core mission. It’s a powerful example of how a nonprofit can remain mission-faithful while being model-flexible.
🎙️ We interviewed the Chief People & Culture Officer at Compassion International, Tom Beck, on the podcast last year. And, **plot twist**, Tom was one of the early leaders at this little company called Blockbuster when it innovated an entirely new model for video rental. You can listen to that episode here: S4:E5 Leadership Lessons from Blockbuster, Boston Market, and Compassion International.
💡 Takeaway: Great organizations adapt their models without compromising their mission. Compassion International and charity: water offer two clear examples: both have held fast to their purpose while evolving how they fund, deliver, and scale their impact. Their stories show that long-term effectiveness requires clarity of mission and flexibility of model.
Let’s return to Apple, Disney, Blockbuster, and the lesson nonprofit leaders can apply to thriving and accomplishing their missions.
The Graveyards of History
The graveyards of history are littered with organizations that pioneered one way of doing things, but failed to transition to the next model.
Every organization, every institution, every person, is constantly somewhere on the following lifecycle curve:
Above: All organizations and all initiatives are somewhere on a curve from infancy to growth, followed by slowing, eventual plateauing, and then decline. But this doesn’t have to be the end of the story.
We’re either in infancy, growing, slowing, plateauing, or declining.
That may seem harsh, but it’s an immutable law. It’s like the fourth law of thermodynamics for organizational life – all organizations will eventually slow, plateau, and decline.
But the inevitable decline in our model doesn’t have to be the end of the story. It doesn’t have to be the end of our mission.
This is why innovation is so important. Innovation helps us to create new S-curves, new models, and new ways of doing things to accomplish our mission.
Above: Innovation enables organizations to identify and create new models that lead to renewal and profitable growth.
New models lead to new S-curves and healthy growth.
Apple released the iMac in 1998, revitalizing the company’s image and product line, paving the way for entirely new models in computing, in iPods, and eventually, the iPhone. Today, Apple is valued at more than $3 trillion. Yes, that’s trillion with a “T…” Talk about new S-curves.
Disney first partnered with, then purchased Pixar in 2006, revitalizing Disney animation – the heart of the company – in the process. CEO Bob Iger writes in his biography, The Ride of a Lifetime, that boldly reinventing the model for making animated films was a pivotal moment in turning around the company. (If you want to see my take on the story, see How Disney Got Its Magic Back.)
Blockbuster, on the other hand, was so fixated on its once-innovative model of brick and mortar superstores, inventory management systems, and sales of physical VHS and DVDs that when offered the opportunity to buy this upstart company called Netflix for $50 million, they laughed the Netflix founders out of the building.
Blockbuster confused its mission, delivering entertainment with a consistent experience, with the model that had so wonderfully served the organization in the late 1980s and 1990s, and that led to its eventual downfall, missing the DVD-by-mail and then later streaming revolutions.
Today, Netflix is worth $503 billion, and Blockbuster is out of business.
As I mentioned earlier, last year we had the privilege of interviewing Tom Beck, one of the early operators at Blockbuster, and now an executive at Compassion International.
Tom opened the third-ever Blockbuster store, so he was there at the very beginning. In just three years, his group opened about 125 stores. I was fascinated to learn what lessons we could draw from the cautionary tale that is Blockbuster, and Compassion International, one of the world’s largest charities.
It was fascinating to talk with Tom about the lessons he learned from business ventures like Blockbuster, Boston Market, Einstein Bagels, and eventually, Compassion International. If you’d like to listen to that episode, you can find it at S4:E5 Leadership Lessons from Blockbuster, Boston Market, and Compassion International.
💡 Takeaway: Every organization, every model, eventually hits a plateau – but decline doesn’t have to be inevitable. Those who thrive over time are willing to reinvent their model to stay true to their mission.
What about your organization? Is your organization trying to accomplish its mission with a model that is fraying at the edges?
Sustainable Recurring Giving – a New Model for Funding the Mission
There has been a renaissance in funding models underway – at first quietly, and now it is taking the sector by storm. Sustainable recurring giving is leading a shift from periodic one-time donations to consistent recurring gifts.
Charity: water and Compassion International drive a majority of the funding that fuels their mission through sustainable, recurring giving. And the good news is that thanks to the subscription economy, more charities have access to building resilient recurring giving programs than at any other time in history.
I’m on a mission to wave this flag in our sector. My book, The Rise of Sustainable Giving, is just the beginning.
If you want to grow recurring giving, here are a couple of opportunities that might make sense for you:
Sustainable Giving Growth Assessment & Action Plan
Our Sustainable Giving Growth Assessment is our flagship deep dive. It helps organizations grow recurring giving by examining ten different areas and identifying and prioritizing the highest-leverage growth opportunities, with an action plan to grow sustainable giving.
If you have a recurring giving program and want help charting a path to growing recurring giving, you can read more about our assessment and contact us at www.imago.consulting/services#assessment.
A couple of times a year, we open up coaching for enrollment. Coaching is designed to come alongside leaders and their teams to provide objective advice, a sounding board, a strategic review, and guidance on the path to growth.
If you think coaching might be for you, you can read more about it and contact us at www.imago.consulting/services#coaching.
💡 Takeaway: Sustainable recurring giving used to be accessible to only a few charities, but thanks to the subscription economy and changing donor behavior, it’s more accessible to more charities than at any other time in history. The question is, is this model for you?
Until next week… Surf’s Up! 🌊
- Dave
About the Author | Dave Raley
Consultant, speaker, and author Dave Raley is the founder of Imago Consulting, a firm that helps nonprofits and businesses who serve nonprofits create profitable growth through sustainable innovation. He’s the author of the book The Rise of Sustainable Giving: How the Subscription Economy is Transforming Recurring Giving, and What Nonprofits Can Do to Benefit. Dave also writes a weekly innovation and leadership column called The Wave Report, and the co-founder of the Purpose & Profit Podcast — a show about the ideas at the intersection of nonprofit causes and for-profit brands. Connect with Dave on LinkedIn.
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