As a kick-off for this Arts4Good blog, I've selected a few excerpts from one of my favorite books on nonprofit capacity building -- Forces for Good: the six practices of high-impact organizations. Much of the motivation for starting this design collective was to manifest some of the concerns this book raises. We aim to support nonprofits making a difference in the Inland Valley region of Riverside and San Bernardino Counties. The book is a great read, complete with research methodology along with the superb case studies.

Here's a bit to start:
"If the 1980s and early 1990s were all about replicating programs and the last decade was about building effective organizations, we believe the next leap is to see nonprofits as catalytic agents of change. We must begin to study and understand nonprofits not merely as organizations housed within four walls, but as catalysts that work within, and change, entire systems. The most effective of these groups employ a strategy of leverage, using government, business, the public, and other nonprofits as forces for good, helping them deliver even greater social change than they could possibly achieve alone."