New Australia book on the Third Sector in Australia

I look forward to reading  the new book Driven by Purpose: Charities that Make a Difference by Australian authors Stephen Judd and Ann Robinson.

In particular, those of us committed to the growth, importance and value of the third sector need more books like this, written by Australians who work in the third sector and who write about the Australian sector from an Australia perspective. And we need more publications and book publishers willing to publish about the sector.

A brief review of the book here  in Third Sector Magazine tells us that:

Driven by purpose is a new handbook on how to lead and manage an efficient and accountable NFP organisation and contains insightful commentary on the current debate, strategy and action surrounding the role of the charitable sector in Australia.

Driven by purpose is written by Dr Stephen Judd and Anne Robinson, two of Australia’s most experienced and respected leaders in the NFP sector, as well as Felicity Errington who is an emerging leader with expertise in research and policy, international development and gender issues.

The book highlights the importance of being purpose-driven, explaining that it affects the character, operation, direction and strategies of an organisation.

The book explains that a truly purpose-driven NFP has the ‘who’ and ‘why’ at its very core saying “These are not simply academic theories and concepts that are nice to have but affect the ‘what’ and ‘how’ of the organisation, and are essential for organisations to deliver high performance.

 Driven by purpose sheds light on the important issues of identity and purpose by exploring:

• The scope and size of the NFP sector in Australia
• The history of the NFP sector in Australia
• The role that NFPs play in society and why they are vital for a healthy society
• What is meant by ‘charity’ and language wars that affect its identity
• Whether the predominance of faith-based charities in Australia an issue
• In addition, the book explores how being purpose-driven works in practice, and provides ten useful tips on how to survive NFP law".

Whilst I concur completely with the idea that successful NGO's are purpose driven and that a focus on being "purpose driven" should shape all key aspects of an agency including its character, operation culture direction and strategy, I am also somewhat wary of  the idea that NGO's can find singular recipes for success. But I will know more about that once I read the book.