The natural life cycle of a program

Every nonprofit program eventually hits a wall. In the beginning, a program is fueled by the raw energy of a movement, a small group of true believers bound by a core truth and a shared emotional spark.

But as that movement continues, it naturally reverts to sustained programming as routines set in and goals stagnate. For most, this is viewed as the natural life cycle of a successful program: Passion-fueled movements turn into sustainable programs.

Consider the typical Veterans Day 5K. In year one, you have a movement. Energy is high and led by your true believers who show up solely to honor our Veterans. But by year five, it settles into its rhythm. The focus shifts to the logistics of registration, the routine of the route and the steady goal of increasing participants by 5% year after year. The emotional spark that once drove the community is replaced by tradition. By year eight, participation is down, and by year 10, the fundraiser is cancelled.

Once your movement becomes stagnant, you’ve reached the “inflection point.” It’s a mandatory crossroads in the lifecycle of any mission-driven program. Most leaders mistake this transition for “reaching cruising altitude,” but in reality, they’re standing at the edge of a cliff. One path leads to a “second wave” of renewal, a return to first principles and new tactics, while the other leads to decline.

The trap lies in how we view the relationship between the two.

Programs shouldn’t replace your movement; instead, the goal of your program should be to sustain the movement. Effective movements are designed by understanding how your community identifies with itself and what sparks meaningful emotions. This is what sparks a movement from within that will sustain itself.

The danger of the hero fallacy

The danger of the inflection point is the “hero fallacy.” When a movement returns to programming, leaders often try to save the mission themselves, concentrating their efforts in the wrong direction.

They struggle to manufacture success through more top-down controls and a heavy dose of nostalgia for how things used to be. They become the heroes of their own story, but in doing so, they stop empowering their community to reignite the movement and mission with new tactics. When leadership is maintaining the machine, there isn’t time to reignite a movement, only enough to slow its decline.

External factors can make this stagnation lethal. For example, without an active, large-scale military conflict, Veteran Service Organizations (VSOs), like Team RWB, face a nation that no longer places Veterans as a priority, making our jobs that much more difficult. And so we constantly seek “second wave” opportunities.

Forcing a second wave

To defy the decline, you have to embrace the inflection point and return to your core principles as a catalyst. At Team RWB, we recognized that our second wave required a high-commitment path.

We launched the GWOT 100, a virtual challenge to members and nonmembers alike. We wanted to see if our community still identified with our core truth enough to lead the movement themselves, not just another fitness initiative.

We challenged the nation, regardless of military affiliation or Team RWB member status, to move (run, walk, bike, swim, etc.) 100 miles in February to honor all Veterans of the Global War on Terror.

The results proved that renewal is possible when you return to your core principles. For Team RWB, that was putting our members back in the driver’s seat of their own health journey. We created the challenge, but it was up to the individual to take control and execute on the mission.

During the challenge, nearly 25,000 people committed to the mission, logging more than 1.66 million miles.

While nearly 5,000 participants had competed in a previous version of the race challenge, more than 80% of participants hadn’t. Furthermore, 76% of participants had no affiliation with Team RWB, and over 26% had no military affiliation at all. This wasn’t just a Team RWB movement—it was a national movement.

We moved past the hero fallacy by making our members the protagonists of their own story.

A mandate for renewal

You can’t avoid the crossroads. You will reach the inflection point, if you haven’t already. When you get there, you will have two options: spark a second wave, or decline. Renewal requires new tactics around the same core truth. Decline comes from the same tactics and a savior’s mentality.

If you find yourself clinging to “how we’ve always done it,” you’re already in decline. The only way forward is to return to the spark, trust your community and ignite the second wave.