You've Gotta Have Heart: Achieving Purpose Beyond Profit in the Social Sector

We all know that the definition for success in the corporate world is fairly straightforward. To be considered great, companies first must turn a profit. For organizations in the social sector, however, the challenge is much bigger. In a nonprofit, to be successful, you must do more than just make money. To be truly effective, you must stay relevant and, above all, stay true to your mission. You need to make your vision a reality. There are now more than 1.6 million nonprofits in the United States alone—some are good, some are great, and some are just ineffective. With all of this competition, how can you ensure that your organization thrives and still fulfills its purpose?

For the past twenty-six years, Cass Wheeler has ensured that the American Heart Association has fulfilled its calling to save lives and educate the public about heart disease by adopting some of the same strategies used in the for-profit sector. Under his leadership, the AHA went from a complacent organization to the epitome of a thriving nonprofit. During his service, he increased revenue from $400 million to $800 million and launched incredibly innovative programs, such as the award-winning Go Red for Women Campaign, the Alliance for a Healthier Generation to fight childhood obesity, Get With the Guidelines to improve hospital care and outcomes, and the Power to End Stroke, targeted to the African-American community. The association also approved a far-reaching goal to reduce the risk of coronary heart disease and stroke by 25 percent by 2010.

In You’ve Gotta Have Heart, Wheeler shows you how to make sure your hard work really pays off. Using examples of some of the most lauded organizations, including the American Heart Association, the American Cancer Society, and the Girl Scouts of America, as well as many others, Wheeler reveals the management and leadership skills that will help employees, volunteers, and board members excel at their jobs, become good role models, and inspire a more visionary, creative, and disciplined nonprofit organization.

You’ve Gotta Have Heart offers insider advice on branding, tag lines, paid advertising, fund-raising, social networking, advocating, leadership vs. management, creating winning teams, and talent recruitment, development, and retention. This book takes you beyond theory and good intentions to help you achieve real, lasting results. You will discover how to:

•           Establish a mission that motivates staff, volunteers, and donors to achieve goals beyond expectations

•           Hire and manage volunteer and paid staff

•           Decide what to focus on, and more importantly, what you need to stop doing

•           Set (and achieve) breakthrough goals

•           Learn from the marketing techniques of

the for-profit world to increase exposure

for your cause

•           Implement advocacy and lobbying campaigns to influence public opinion, get your message out, and drive legislators to support your cause

•           Effectively compete for charitable donations in an increasingly competitive environment

•           Partner effectively with other organizations to achieve mission-related activities that would not have been possible on your own

Filled with honest, practical, and thoughtful lessons from the author’s own experience, this book will help nonprofits of every size do great and be great.

Cass Wheeler is the longtime Chief Executive Officer of the American Heart Association. Mr. Wheeler is currently on the boards of Partnership for Prevention, NationalCenter for Tobacco-Free Kids, and Research!America. He has been with the AHA for 35 years and served as CEO for 11 of those years. He lives in Dallas.

We all know that the definition for success in the corporate world is fairly straightforward. To be considered great, companies first need to turn a profit. For organizations in the social sector, however, the challenge is much bigger. To be truly effective, they must stay relevant and, above all, stay true to their mission. For the past thirty-five years, Cass Wheeler has ensured that the American Heart Association has fulfilled its calling to save lives and educate the public about heart disease by adopting some of the same strategies used in the for-profit sector.

In You’ve Gotta Have Heart, he shows people at all levels of a nonprofit how to make sure their hard work really pays off. Using examples of some of the American Heart Association and others, Wheeler reveals the leadership skills that will help employees, volunteers, and board members excel at their jobs, become good role models, and build a more visionary, creative, and disciplined nonprofit organization. Readers will discover:

why a mission statement is not the same as a sense of mission • the characteristics of successful nonprofit leaders • how to combine the nonprofit mission with the management lessons of the business world • how to define an organization’s core values and business model

Filled with honest, practical, and thoughtful lessons from the author’s own experience, this book will ensure that nonprofits of every size continue to do great and be great.