NonProfitMapping.org – Building Non Profits From The Ground Up

There are plenty of nonprofit organizations around but do you really know what exactly this means? This refers to an organization that doesn’t have any owner, stockholder, or trustee that shares in the profits and losses. This organization has been put up not for the purpose of earning revenue but for the promotion of a mission to improve the welfare of the public.

Most of these organizations are eligible for tax exemption. But some still receive tax deductible contributions. These organizations usually include those that were set up for the purposes of charity, religion, education, scientific research/studies, literature, testing for public safety, and prevention of cruelty to children, women, elderly, and animals.

Charitable activities are those that benefit the public interest. These should serve an “open class of people” and not just a limited number. Examples of such activities are helping the poor and distresses, advancing education, building or maintaining public buildings, reducing government burdens, eliminating discrimination, abuse, and prejudice, promoting and developing the arts, and defending human and civil rights secured by law.

If you’re going to put up a nonprofit organization yourself, there are many things that you need to keep in mind. First, you have to determine what specific cause you intend to do. Find something that’s close to your heart and start on that. For example, if you’ve always wanted to help homeless children or out-of-school youth, you can put up an organization that will help these kids.

You should plan the organization very well in order to achieve success in putting it up. You have to devise financial and marketing strategies, develop donation and fund-raising opportunities, and think of ways as to how the public will be more aware of the current problems and issues surrounding your specific cause. All these are necessary to make your organization successful in helping the society.

It’s not uncommon to see small nonprofit organizations go into trouble whether it’s management woes, financial crises, or lack of manpower. So what do you do in case any of these happens?

Signs that your organization is in trouble

First, you must determine if there really is a problem or you’re just being paranoid. Some indicators include financial difficulties, staff turnover, loss of motivation among the staff, loss of credibility, and too much focus on damage control. Financial problems may range from small deficits to inability to pay the employees’ salaries. If there is a large turnover among the staff or the staff seems to have lost motivation for the organization’s cause, then these can raise the red flag. Loss of credibility in the community is also a sign that the organization is in deep waters. And if there is too much time and energy spent in damage control than in the services and programs of the organization, then it might be time to consider the options enumerated below.

Options for your organization to consider

The first option is to merge with another nonprofit organization that has a similar or complementary cause. It’s also possible to move the organization under the umbrella of a larger organization. Make sure too that it has a similar mission and clients so there won’t be too much of a difficulty for both sides. This may be done through collaboration, contractual affiliation, and consolidation. Even though the nonprofit organization will lose its identity when it moves under the wing of a large organization, at least, it will not lose client service. Then finally, you have the option to dissolve the organization. It’s the most difficult step to take as most heads of organizations find it hard to accept that their services would be put to an end.

If you’re working as a supervisor for a nonprofit organization, you know that supervising volunteers is pretty much the same as supervising a paid staff. The only difference is that volunteers need a little more motivation since there is no monetary compensation involved. If you’re new at this endeavor, you’ll find these steps helpful in volunteer supervision.

Orientation

It is imperative to give volunteers a general orientation not only of the task that they would be doing but also about the entire organization including its history, mission, and purpose of service. It’s a must to show volunteers how their services can be of great use for the community. This way, it would be easier for them to be motivated to do volunteer work. If they don’t understand how the organization works, it’s possible that they may lose interest in the volunteer job.

Performance expectations

Right after the orientation, volunteers should be briefed about the performance expected of them. To do this, you should review the job description, explain in detail that tasks that need to be done to fulfill the responsibilities, explain the structure of work, identify authority, and review housekeeping details.

Supervisor expectations

You should also provide what the volunteers can expect of you such as accessibility at what time of the day, your fair and equitable treatment among volunteers, honest feedback, and many others. Be sure to let the volunteers ask you if they have any questions about you that are related to your work.

Volunteer training and feedback

Finally, you need to train the volunteers. It’s your responsibility to show them how things are done in the organization. If you’re able to train good volunteers well, you’ll be able to expect excellent performance from them. Be sure to give feedback for positive reinforcement. Be specific and timely in giving your feedback. Instead of saying, “You did a great job!” tell the volunteer what exactly it is that he did that earned him the praise.

Do you know what a nonprofit organization is? Before you think that it’s an organization that doesn’t make any profit, think again. It’s actually profit that enables this type of organization to survive. Below, you’ll find its key characteristics.

Purpose

To survive, the organization must ensure that there is a surplus of profit over the expenses. The term nonprofit is used because it refers to the nature of the organization that is not set up for earning revenue for personal interest but for the public benefit purposes. The money raked in by these organizations is used for the enhancement of public welfare through charitable activities and many others. For an organization to be nonprofit, no person must own shares of the corporation, the property and income of the organization should never be distributed to owners but are given to the public benefit mission and activities.

Ownership

As mentioned earlier, no person should own the organization. In essence, it belongs to the public. This means that the assets of the organization are for the charitable, educational, scientific, literary or religious purposes. Any cash, equipment, or property of the organization cannot be given to any person even if he/she is a member of the organization. These things cannot also be used for a person’s private benefit. They should only be used for fair market compensation of the nonprofit organization.

Control

A governing board of trustees or directors exercise control over the organization. This means that the board is responsible for overseeing everything that the organization does. It is also in charge of ensuring that the organization is able to fulfill its purpose.

Accountability

Since these organizations are accountable to the public, they must file annual information returns with both the federal and state governments. The organization must give full report of its finances including the salaries of its highest paid non-officer employees. The form given to the IRS must be available for public viewing.

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For many nonprofit organizations, marketing isn’t a familiar subject. But it’s very important for these organizations to strategize proper marketing to be able to raise funds more easily. Below are some of the steps an organization needs to do in order to brainstorm for marketing ideas.

1. Define your target market. Determine which sector of the market you want to focus on. Research about similar nonprofit organizations to find out what part of the market they are targeting.
2. Using that information you have collected, create brochures and marketing materials. These materials should give clear details about the organization’s values, benefits, services, and donation opportunities. This way, it would be easier for potential donors to see how you work and where the money you have collected will go to.
3. Devise a social media marketing strategy. Take advantage of social networking media such as Twitter and Facebook to reach out to people who are interested in helping in your organization. The great thing about social media is that it’s very effective and can reach a mass of people without setting you back for any cost. You can create accounts on these networking sites and use them to spread your word.
4. Develop a website. After you’ve established your online presence through those social media sites, you should be able to come up with your own website. This is a must so that people would know where to get more information about your programs and events.
5. Maintain customer databases. Don’t put these things into waste. Use them for giving out event invitations and for the purposes of alliance development, market segmentation, and so on.

All these tips are effective in marketing and advertising your nonprofit organization without having to spend a lot of money. Since your organization is a nonprofit one, you’d want to market it at the least cost possible.

A nonprofit organization will look for every possible way to market its benefits, services, and donation opportunities without having to spend a fortune. After all, it’s not a business, it’s a nonprofit organization. In other words, it doesn’t exist to earn profit but to enhance the welfare of the public.

If you lead this kind of organization, you can certainly take advantage of the social media to spread the word. First, you need to create a Facebook page. Choose the category cause or community. Even though there is a category for organizations, the cause or community category will be more suitable.

Then put in the Facebook account all the pertinent information about your organization, like what you do, how you work, who benefits from your organization, how you accept help, and so on. Start to add people you know and request them to spread the link of your Facebook page. The more likes you get, the more people are able to follow your page.

Be sure to add photos of your events and services so people who visit your page can get to see in pictures what you do. Also, it would be smart to link your Facebook page to your website. The backlink would help improve your website’s ranking in Google. If you don’t have a website yet, it’s about time that you create one.

Next, you have to put up a Twitter account. Link this to your Facebook page and website as well. See to it that you update both your Facebook and Twitter from time to time. If you have successfully linked the two, you’d only need to update your status on one of these social networking sites and that will appear at the other.

For example, if you post about an event in your Facebook page, this will also appear in your Twitter. Invite as many people as you can to follow you on Twitter. Follow organizations and potential donors as well.