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Keywords

nonprofit, impact, sustainability, climate, corporations, open-source software, philanthropy, behavioral science, user design, product market fit

Abstract

Pollution levels and ecosystem degradation continue to worsen, suggesting the insufficiency of current approaches to reverse these problematic trends. For environmental nonprofits, the current theory of change revolves around developing techno-economic analysis about environmental problems and available solutions, building public awareness around this analysis, and motivating decision makers to set goals. Given present environmental realities and the limited success of their current theory of change, environmental nonprofits should transform how they execute their work, what they produce, and how they coordinate with each other. Instead, nonprofits should begin putting the user—business decision makers as well as policymakers—front and center as the orientation of how they approach problems. More specifically, they should focus on developing open-source software solutions that resolve the distinct behavioral barriers that different types of users face to adopt a specific pollution reducing behaviors in their local context. They should also coordinate, divide, and conquer with developing these solutions. By employing user-centric design with behavioral science as the anchor for their theory of change, environmental nonprofits can unleash their full impact potential, better serve their users, and deploy solutions that have a greater potential for faster adoption at scale. This is how nonprofits can begin melding the real economy with climate and ecosystem regeneration.

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