Most companies and innovation managers know that few of their initiatives will succeed, so they keep multiple projects running at the same time and create processes for quickly separating winners from losers. One popular way to make decisions about what stays and what goes is the use of stage gates. Yet, even with stage gates, firms struggle to kill bad projects.

Volunteering to manage projects for a not-for-profit organization is a worthwhile endeavor. Not only does it deliver an outcome to an area close to your heart and that often desperately needs it, but it also stretches your ability as a project manager. The challenge of delivering as much value as you possibly can without spending any more money than necessary is a worthwhile activity for any project manager.