What Is It That If You Knew It, Would Transform Your Non-Profit Organization?

AN INVITATION BY

AND

TO PARTICIPATE IN AN APPRECIATIVE INQUIRY

What is it that if you knew it, would transform your non-profit organization?

Is it knowing what lives life to non-profit organizations in HamiltonCounty? Is it knowing what is happening in non-profit organizations when they are at their very best? Is it knowing what generates organizational innovations inHamiltonCounty non-profit organizations? Is it knowing what kinds of partnerships or collaborations have non-profits created that most support their mission? Is it knowing what work or activities most excite and energize non-profit volunteers? Is it knowing what non-profits do that most attract human, financial, and intellectual capital?

Wouldn’t knowing the answer to any of these questions help transform your non-profit?

Ohio State University Extension and Beech Acres believe that these questions and others like them can be a catalyst for positive change. By pursuing these questions non-profits can make a substantial and sustainable difference in how they work. To that end OSU Extension and Beech Acres have formed a partnership to do an Appreciative Inquiry of non-profit organizations in HamiltonCounty.

During an Appreciative Inquiry the focus is on what is happening in an organization when it is at its best. The objective is to learn from the successes and use that newly created knowledge to generate positive change and innovation.

To gather the data that is used to generate propositions about what gives life to non-profits and their work, interviews are done with non-profit employees and stakeholders. The interviews are intentionally designed to capture information rich storiesof the organization when it is operating at its best. The interviews also help employees and stakeholders give voice to their images of the ideal non-profit organization. The merging of real life examples of high performance with images of the ideal creates organizing principles which non-profits can use as the basis for change and innovation.

We would like to invite you to be a part of this inquiry. You can participate at any level you choose from being interviewed to doing interviews to synthesizing the data and reporting the results to the greater HamiltonCounty non-profit community. The choice is yours. We are having an organizing meeting on Tuesday, February 1, 2005 at Beech Acres from 1 to 3 PM. If you are interested in participating at any level please RSVP so we know you are coming and send a representative to the meeting. We will share the details of the process with during the meeting. If for some reason you are unable to attend and cannot send a representative but are interested in participating in the inquiry please let us know.

Thanks and we look forward to hearing about your organization when it is at its best.

Chester BowlingDavid BrewerJoan Hoxsey