Theory of Change

This is drafted with help from ChatGPT and not final or polished. Hopefully it gives some insight into the goals and assumptions.

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Problem

The world is full of nonprofits with powerful missions trying to maximize their impact. But their operations management is quietly limiting what they’re capable of. Most founders are deeply mission-driven — but not operators. They don’t have time to compare tools, set up systems, or dig through legal and financial complexity. Operational work gets patched together, under-resourced, and usually becomes a burden. That leads to wasted time, burnout, and missed opportunities to make a bigger difference. It also weakens their ability to measure, communicate, and grow their impact — especially in a way that distributes responsibility across the team.


Impact (long-term vision)

A more impactful nonprofit ecosystem where:
  • High-potential teams run at a professional level without becoming bureaucratic
  • Founders and staff focus on what matters, supported by well-run systems
  • Operational knowledge is shared and reused to lift everyone
  • Nonprofits can compare their impact, connect with peers, and rethink their role in the bigger picture
  • Funders see a Purpops-supported nonprofit as a trustworthy, efficient steward of funding


Outcomes

  • Nonprofits make faster, better-informed decisions (tracked via adoption of dashboards, cadence of key updates, survey data on clarity)
  • Founders stay focused on the mission, not buried in admin (measurable via time saved and reduced churn)
  • Teams gain autonomy through clear systems and structure (tracked through uptake of team tools and self-organization practices)
  • Operations become an enabler, not a blocker (evidenced by fewer bottlenecks, smoother onboarding, reduced external consulting needs)
  • More nonprofits move into neglected, solvable problem areas (seen through mission shifts, founder interviews, and EA cause area mapping)
  • Teams are better able to measure and evaluate their impact using accessible tools and shared frameworks


Outputs

  • Modular templates and playbooks (contracts, HR policies, governance docs)
  • A curated, AI-enhanced knowledge base
  • Toolkits and automation built around a smart, shared stack
  • Simple onboarding into nonprofit-friendly, privacy-conscious tools
  • Salary frameworks and operational standards that reduce friction and bias
  • Support for starting new nonprofits where they’re needed most
  • Integration and support for key practices from How to Launch a High-Impact Nonprofit, including decision frameworks, evaluation tools, succession planning, and founder resilience supports
Note: We won’t do all of this at once. We’ll begin with financial systems, then legal and tooling, followed by strategy and data, and only later expand into the softer areas like HR and team culture. We'll grow based on demand and insight — not assumption.


Activities (grouped for clarity)

A. Infrastructure & Services
  • Provide hands-on operational support (finance, legal, HR, tooling, reporting)
  • Curate the best existing templates and tools — no need to reinvent the wheel
  • Help nonprofits implement practices from proven frameworks (e.g. CE’s “High-Impact Nonprofit”)
B. Systems & Insights
  • Maintain a modular document library with practical defaults
  • Use AI to provide in-context help — human when needed, tech where possible
  • Connect tools and build lightweight automation that scales across nonprofits
  • Support better impact measurement through the tools we implement
  • Enable self-organization through structure, clarity, and autonomy-friendly systems
C. Ecosystem Influence
  • Support funders in identifying efficient, well-run nonprofits
  • Collaborate with field-builders (e.g. 80K, AIM, CE) to spot where ops can unlock progress
  • Work with governments to improve nonprofit reporting demands
  • Help launch new nonprofits in underrepresented, high-impact cause areas


Inputs

  • Practical experience in nonprofit and startup operations
  • Legal, financial, and HR expertise — delivered through aligned partner agencies rather than in-house staff
  • Ethical use of open-source and commercial AI
  • Partnerships with researchers, funders, and aligned nonprofits
  • Values: clarity, autonomy, transparency, moral ambition

We see ourselves not as a consulting agency, but as a kind of human and programmatic API — connecting nonprofits to what works, when they need it, in ways that are scalable and deeply supportive of self-organization.