How stewardship impacts nonprofit organizations

Discuss the influence of Greco-Roman understanding of stewardship on non-profit leadership today based upon Brinkerhoff and Wilson.

The Greco-Roman understanding of stewardship is based heavily on the past biblical leadership models. As the bible explains in both the book of Genesis 1:28-30 and Paul 4:10, those who follow the bible are God’s representatives who manage his creation and spiritual resources as faithful stewards. These biblical principles combined with the Greco-Roman interpretation of them, underpin the concept of stewardship as it applies to non-profit leadership. Essentially, a steward is an individual or group that faithfully and efficiently managers the resources of others. They manager these resources with from the perspective of the owner and act accordingly. We see this concept in both modern day profit and non-profit organizations. Profit organization such as publicly traded companies have a CEO who is the steward of investor capital. Likewise, nonprofit organizations often have leaders who are stewards of societal capital in the form of taxpayer funded grants, individual donations, or other tax benefits. These benefits are designed to help provide incentive for nonprofits to continue their work helping those in need. Here, the leadership of the organization must allocate societal capital to the highest and best use possible. Unfortunately, the criteria used, and the overall results vary dramatically (Zhu, 2016). A strong steward of nonprofit capital, who adhere to the Greco Roman understanding of stewardship is the Bill and Melinda Gates foundation. Through their work, they have made extraordinary achievements in eradicated diseases, educating undeserved communities, and providing value to society. Other organization have not faired as well. A classic example is Benny Hinn Ministries which has become notorious for fraud and abuse. Here, the church took member donations and spent lavishly on cloths, food, hotels, and vacation. The ministry was heavily involved in “miracle work” which saw Hinn cure cancer, cure blindness, and help stop other ailments. This behavior did not adhere to the Greco-Roman understanding of stewardship or the biblical principles Hinn espoused (Kuppelwieser, 2011).

Interestingly, the stewards in the Greco-Roman era used many management techniques that where the precursors of modern non-profit management today. Here these Greco-Roman principles included the need for continually learning within the chosen field of endeavor. This understanding also advocated for precisely understanding the objectives, needs, and desires of the master or owner. The Greco-Roman style even emphasized the maximization of efficiency and asset growth. Finally, the Greco-Roman understanding advocated for demonstrating how the job is to be performed and rewarding those who perform admirably in the line of duty (Carbonneau, 2017).

Here, the influence of the Greco-Roman understanding of stewardship is still applicable today. For one, non-profits must continue to manage resources efficiency, particularly in a much more dynamic and competitive marketplace. Non-profit organizations are continuing to grow in number. As such the ability to generate a natural funding constituency is critical to the long-term viability of the non-profit. To create a natural funding constituency, it is important for non-profit leaders to be strong stewards of societal capital. Here, many of the Greco-Roman principles come into play. For example, nonprofit leaders must be able to model the behavior they expect their subordinates to mimic. They must have clear performance objectives and monitor them on a continual basis. They should reward top performers and look to maximize efficiency (Brinkerhoff, 1987).