Do you want to changed the business environment of your organization? Try the outline below.

1. List Your Barriers and Challenges

2. Evolution of the Non-Profit Business Environment (Supporters Working Together) List supporters.
   1. Donors
   2. Foundations
   3. State
   4. Federal
   5. City/Town
   6. Community
   7. Individuals
   8. Your Organizations Assets

3. Successful Approaches and Innovative Strategies

• Strategic Planning (Why do you exist? Whom do you not serve? Why do you not serve them? Why do you do things the way you do? Whom do you consider a competitor? When was the last time you asked a person you served what’s missing?)
• Whom do you serve: Geography, community, age and service type. Who shows up in the Service Plan?
• Day Job Syndrome (What is the organization’s capacity to change, evolve, develop vs. the day to day job)
• Maximizing Assets (Review your people, organization, effort, space, allocation of costs, labeling, cost allocation plan, assignment of job function, etc)
• Systematic Evaluation at Intake (How is it done thorough out the organization?)
• Cross Pollination of Expertise
• Continuous Quality Improvement
• Thinking Out of the Box
• Defining Outcomes
• Branding
• Co-location of Programs

How do you stretch a dollar at your nonprofit? You accept more in kind contributions. Know what you use consistently each month and letting the community know what that is, will provide a means for businesses to donate if they do not have the cash. It is amazing how quickly it adds up. For example, a specific toner cartridge costs $20 plus, a ream of paper $4, toilet paper $7 (family size), paper towels $6 (family size), gas cards, etc.

Use your web site and solicitations to inform a person or business how they can help all year long. If your nonprofit is only asking in November and December, your placing your request at risk of ending up in what i call the Maybe Motivated Pile.

In the last two months of the year I received 63 requests for donations from nonprofits and picked three. However, certain solicitations during the year stood out and received a donation to fulfill our family contributions.

My point:  Make giving a year long process and provide for many levels of opportunities to inform and have people participate in the organization.

It is important for a nonprofit to plan on how it is going to raise money or support for its organization. To help nonprofits in their outline of the planning the process I have provided 6 questions below.

1. Do you have a Strategic Plan?

2. Do you have a Development Plan?

3. Is the Development Plan incorporated into the Strategic Plan?

4. Can you describe for your nonprofit each outcome in three sentences or less?

5. Is each outcome for the nonprofit something that can be publicize?

6. Do you know what it costs the nonprofit to deliver each outcome?

If you answer no to any of the six, your nonprofit needs to improve to be more successful in raising money.

Just because some things cost a lot of money does not mean you can not buy it. By saving your small money each week it adds up to big money. When you buy the thing you want you feel like a genius. After you do that you feel proud of your self.

Money just takes time.

In observing Earth Day my six year old and I had fun in the woods.  His conversation went something like this;

“The world is perfect and correct when I am walking in the woods. Then, next winter we cut down trees and in the spring we use them to cook our food. Then we use the leaves to make the fire with. The planet is real. It is important for animals to live on the earth; us too.

Are we an animal??

We need to be nice to nature, do not kick nature and kill it. If we are nice to nature, it will be nice to us.  We take care of nature like pets.”

Our joint action: We planted 26 trees that were grown by us and involved no use of vehicle transportation  to an area effected by construction and used fallen trees to cook our dinner and conserve our use of foreign fuels.  Any organization with its staff or community can start trees in a small space to be used elsewhere locally.

The branding and marketing of the message is critical to fund raising campaigns.  There is a need to have the capital plan designed in a manner that strategically seeks funding from foundations, businesses and individuals in the fundraising campaign.  Too often fund rasing campaigns are loosely organized and expectations not base on facts.  The suggestion that we find useful is selecting individuals or companies that will offer strong advice to your organization.  Our high success rate in submitting foundation, business and government proposals is base on the fact that our staff ask the hard questions and will state the weaknesses of the justification.  The second part that we have advised our clients to do is have individual giving separated from proposal writing.  We have found that the personality and skills of the individual are just too different.  A key element of fund raising is that it does not just start and end in a short time period, it happens all year long.  It is important to note that your organization needs to be in front of an individual several times before there may be a positive outcome.  This goes to the fact that marketing your organization is about your organizations communication in an ongoing manner.

In closing I will add one more point and example.  We are finding that to stand out there has to be something that provides an opportunity for the organization to be remembered. I would suggest that that be in the form of a visual message for the service being provided.   If your organization understands the term social media, begin to use it in developing partnerships with local businesses.   Check out the EMO and Chris cartoons to get a sense on how a visual effect can present a message.

If your institutional investments dropped dramatically you may have been effected by sub-prime investments that you were not aware of. It is the responsibility of the board and the CEO to know exactly how their monies were invested and to know under what circumstances their advisor was authorized to invest in such securities with a nonprofits monies.

So ask for the detail and if you were wronged take action.  A number of institutions, governments and individuals have taken legal action against financial companies for mixing high risk securities into their moderate low risk investments.

Amid the 2008 financial melt down organizations and individuals have been further adversely effected with the traditional financial institutions. The yield on savings, money-market accounts, and certificate of deposits are dropping dramatically.

There are basically only two types of entities who are giving a better return;  Credit Unions and Small Banks.  It just goes to show you that local banking just might be a better way to bank and an avenue to building sound financial relationships.

Don’t throw things out the car window. Don’t throw things on the ground. Don’t leave supplies in the woods when you hike. Don’t be lazy. Too many adults are not good examples, but that’s OK, they forget too. I try to remember too.

The other day we put out the trash. I do that for my allowance. I guess these big winds came while I was sleeping blew all of my homework around the other yards. My parent and I picked up what we could find. I like that my school has community day but not for my class. We kids like to have fun outside. Have a community day that involves the whole school. You can have your own community day it is easy. Just pick a day.

My Papa added this link for me: “Keep America Beautiful Inc.“

Bulking up does not necessarily mean an organization needs to get bigger itself, merge, or be acquired. A low cost to getting the best price is to pool resources. A cooperative allows you an equal voice and control. A cooperative provides you with the benefit of not giving up control over your organization and gaining the benefits of the economics of being part of a larger entity via the cooperative. Your organization is independent but united in one voice.

The power of one large group allows you to compete and get pricing that is more affordable and brings more benefits.

If you have an interest and would like more information feel free to contact me at robert.guinto@npcm.com .