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The marketing by a nonprofit organization to the most important assets the nonprofit has needs to do done with the idea of creating the organizations brand.

The most important asset are individuals.  Win the hearts and souls of individual supporters and they become your best promoters.

Trust and Transparency is the key component to have individuals feel.  It is no longer one message fits all or mass advertising to create volume.

Are you relevant to the individuals that you are reaching?

Keeping the individual  supporters you have, identifying new individual supporters and maximizing your return from the individuals are three simple goals to be measured.

There are a large number of organizations representing various nonprofits in a certain segment of the nonprofit industry.  The Credit Union banking model should be explored by their members to create a Credit Union that would best understand their industry and meet their needs and those of its employees. 

To learn more go to the Credit Union National Association link here. 

It could be the beginning of creating a number of business ventures.  Health insurance, planned giving, and life insurance are just a few suggestions.   

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It is easy to be overwhelmed with the unknown variables of the economy, donors and expenses.  A way to get control of the situation and turn the organizations paranoia into results is with concurrent planning.  Design a plan base on assumptions that seem doable at the time of implementation and a plan of action for each 1% change in the revenue assumptions.  The key to maximizing the organizations ability to overcome the scary monsters is to implement a plan that addresses the cause that created the paranoia.  ACORN is an example of an organization that has failed to adequately address its demons.  As a result the organization is in a free fall that only time will tell if it will survive.

I am the type of person that likes to be informed by facts.  I read daily to keep up with as much of the information as possible.  I have found that the connecting of a fact to a  particular issue is not always easy for every individual.  I have nicknamed it ”The Day Job Barrier.”

When the National Committee for Responsive Philanthropy released their report in March of 2009 there was strong criticism of the report.  However, the debate should be viewed in the context of a thought out documented means to spark discussion. 

The one aspect of the report that should be adopted by all entities associated to the nonprofit industry is measuring the goal of meeting or exceeding of benchmarks. 

The both line is to stop talking about exploring what benchmarks to follow and adopting a set of best practices.  It just might make the nonprofit industry new friends in high places.

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The Internet is an ever changing entity due to the many companies adding options on how to interface with it.  There is so many features to use for free to keep informed.

The number of nonprofits still using traditional communication tools is just one reason that overcoming the economic recession has been hard.  However, for some nonprofits they have actually grown.  So try the new, especially if the old is costing you money.

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Congress is famous for complaining and playing political games with important decisions. In the meantime, businesses spend millions to support foreign countries due to US reliance on foreign oil.

Nonprofits do not need to wait for Congress to begin to lower its energy costs.  Nonprofits should look to foundations and individuals to support the one time cost of installing alternative systems and end up saving in their operating costs.

In the states of California and Massachusetts there is the option to go solar and not have to buy the system.  Thereby, lowering the costs to a few thousand to have installed.

Another option for nonprofits is to think more about establishing cooperatives to lower their energy costs.  Bulk purchasing and implementing a plan energy conservation program as a group will save tens of thousands of dollars when done in conjunction with others.

In a sampling of providers in any particular zip code there seems to be a sufficient number of organizations in any geographic area to make this work.

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How to increase your ability to score big in today’s economy is dependent upon knowing the habits that will effect how you are perceived.

Today much of ones activity as a company or as an individual is very public.  Therefore, understanding some of the variables that make you popular or shun are helpful to know.

There are five areas to think about.

1. What is the type of debt that you or your organization has?  Is the mortgages or rents between 33%-40% of the income stream.  Are there vehicles payments?  Are there credit card payments?
2. What is the payment history on the reported above expenses?
3. How long have you had the above accounts?
4. How often do you open accounts or are there inquiries to your account?
5. What is the amount owed in comparison to the amount that could be owed or was the original amount?

Have some bad history, you need not to worry if you know how to be patient.  After seven years it is usually dropped.  And do not try to score a hundred percent.  Once you reach 90% of your potential the rest is meaningless.

The key to your ability to be able to score is to manage your actions in a meaningful way.

Create history, document what happened when there was a problem, do not be obsessed to have large credit lines.  Have smaller lines of credit and use them in a manner that does not show you are dependent on the credit line.

So make managing your means to increase your score a passion of fun and not work.  It is a game that many play but you can be in better control of the outcome either as an individual or a corporation.

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What does the Electrical Grid Initiative, High Speed Rail Initiative, Internet Initiative, and the Gas Line Initiative have in common?

1. They require environmental approvals.
2. They require bringing heavy equipment and laborers into remote locations
3. They require large sums of capital to complete.

I have a suggestion for maximizing the dollars and having greatest impact.

Since high speed rail brings most people to population centers it make sense to use the same corridor to connect the electrical grid  to bring alternative energy to the population centers.  It can also be used to power the high speed rail system.

Since the rail and electrical grid are laying track to transport or running wires for power it would make sense to run the Internet along such routes and thereby creating for every community along the route easy access to tap the resource as a rural community.  The internet cables could be placed in large underground prefab  tunnels along the route to allow for expanded IT technology business which can pay the government for the use of the assets.

On the other side of the track place the underground gas pipeline to bring the fuel to many communities along the route and the larger population centers.

The utilization of the billions to be spent for these four initiatives in a coordinated fashion will allow for thousands of more citizens of the US to feel the positive impact because more projects will be able to be completed.

It is not so much about whether there will be an environmental impact, but why would positive changes have to create four separate environmental impacts.  The joining of the initiatives mitigates the impact of building the infrastructure.

The joining of the initiatives makes it easier to mobilize and deliver the workforce and materials for each of the initiatives.  Nothing like using the same route to coordinate the projects in the same amount of time and possibly keeping individuals employed longer to deliver on multiple projects.

There is not enough money to fund every project for each initiative, however; more projects could be funded  and the number of communities  effected increased if these projects used the same route and the projects managed jointly.

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School districts across the country are laying off hundreds of teachers and closing schools but still student transportation continues even though it provides no educational value.  I can understand small communities joining together to create district schools for efficiency, offerings and options to have a viable school district.

Shame on the large school districts who choose to send students across town when there is a neighborhood school the student could attend.

Shame on schools districts for allowing certain neighborhood schools to fail their students and have their student opt out of their neighborhood school.

Shame on school districts that build schools not on public transportation hubs.

Education is suppose to be equal to all and readily available, but it is not to be provided by wasting money on expenses that do not educate a student.

Instead of laying off teachers and closing schools cut transportation costs and put it towards the education of the students.

Instead of laying off teachers and closing schools consolidate school districts. Do not close schools unless they are failing, however; do reopen them under a successful school which is oversubscribed.

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Nonprofits all have different flavors and no one loses their investment if the outcomes do not work.  It usually results in a merger.