1. Like Attracts Like. Excellence attracts resources. Everyone wants to join a winner. The weather in March is excellent in Florida: the population doubles. Excellence will attract more passionate board members, more active volunteers, more skilled staff and also, not incidentally, more money.

2. The View From the Front. World-class programs establish you as a leader in your field. Leaders find ways to access more resources. Consider the Henry R. Kravis prize for nonprofit leaders that provides $250,000 with each award.

3. The Shortest Distance Between Two Points. Excellence is simpler, not cheaper or easier, just simpler. Did you ever have to return to a store three times for a chore because you purchased the low-priced tool the first trip?

4. Clear as Day. The process of creating world-class programs, clarifies your message to the media, your board and others. This clarity helps you and everyone else to see your priorities and discern how to reach them. Clarity affords focus, said Thomas Leonard, an early leader in the coaching movement.

5. Passion Creates Self-Renewal. World-class is both fun and energizing. You will wake up in the morning to do what you want — not wishing you could be somewhere else doing it.

6. Retire Others. As you uplift and expand your best programs, you will find ways to eliminate or change ones that yield few results and consume a disproportionate amount of resources. Over time, as they expanded their middle school program, the Youth Center phased out their poorly attended elementary school program by an older starting age each year.

7.  Life Support When push comes to shove, and some time in your nonprofits existence it will, your world-class program will serve as one of your life jackets.  Used properly, it will help keep you afloat. Without one, many worthy nonprofits will succumb.

8. Organization Self-Esteem. To often, the nonprofit world has been perceived and seen itself as less.  Your world-class program will compete and win– against any others sectors. Nonprofits by their nature begin with less, but with their innovation and passion, achieve more.

9. In The End: It’s What Matters. Engaging in world-class programs provides the greatest satisfaction and the least regrets. It’s the best thing we ever did, said MaryHelen Kress of the world-class program Karen Eber Davis Consulting designed for at-risk youth