Is product-market fit a useful concept for nonprofits?
Product market fit is a concept developed by venture capital firms to assess the likelihood of a product and company succeeding #charity #development . 
The traditional definition is “when a company’s target customers are buying, using, and telling others about the company’s product in numbers large enough to sustain that product’s growth and profitability.
In this case there is a product and a customer. But in the case of many nonprofits, the customer may not be the person that benefits from the product. There may be a third party that is really the customer ie that pays for the product. For example, a nonprofit may offer a product to improve mental health for low income individuals who may not have adequate access. The customer may in fact be the insurer rather than the individual. Roger Swannel noted that for nonprofits the market “is three-sided with the user, the funder and the charity”.
A strong market for a nonprofit would therefore be one in which the nonprofit is tacking a problem for a significant number of people that funders want to pay for. 
All to often in nonprofits, product and service development is driven by the magnitude of the problem not the demand for the product or service by both beneficiaries and funders. 
The dilemma for me is that nonprofits often serve populations that are marginalized and may not be “large” or “profitable”.  For example, a nonprofit that has a software package capable of providing reading support for blind or low vision individuals. This is not a large market but it may be a significant opportunity for philanthropy rather than the market forces to tackle.
Now You: Do you think of the people you serve as customers or beneficiaries? #philanthropy #nonprofits #fundraising #agilefundraising