The Importance of Strategic Planning For Not For Profits Strategic planning for Not for Profits is a challenge for most charity organization’s, because more often than not they behave like a community group of volunteers and not like a business. It’s not an unusual situation because most groups have started with a board or committee […]
The Importance of Strategic Planning For Not For Profits
Strategic planning for Not for Profits is a challenge for most charity organization’s, because more often than not they behave like a community group of volunteers and not like a business.
It’s not an unusual situation because most groups have started with a board or committee of generous and well-meaning volunteers. Those members have a interest in the mission and work of the group, and some skills that can help that organisation plan and deliver it’s services. But that’s not enough to sustain growth and momentum.
Getting critical resource decisions right – allocating time, talent, and dollars to the activities that have the greatest impact – is what “strategy” is all about. Yet relatively few nonprofits have strategies. (Zeroing In on Impact – is an excellent report that provides important insights for NFP leaders (by S.Colby, N.Stone, and P.Carttar – Stanford Social Innovation Review).
Begin your strategic planning with being crystal clear on your organisations purpose.
Purpose – Clarifying What Success Looks Like (Vision)
Some questions to answer to help you define your purpose are:
What impact will you make?
Who are our beneficiaries?
What benefits do our programs create?
How do we define success?
What would make us obsolete?
Not for Profit Strategic planning – Define the need
Why is there a need for your programs/organisation?
Are there already other organisations trying to solve this problem, that we could partner with or support?
“Needs can be defined as the gap between what is and what should be. A need can be felt by an individual, a group, or an entire community. It can be as concrete as the need for food and water or as abstract as improved community cohesiveness. An obvious example might be the need for public transportation in a community where older adults have no means of getting around town. More important to these same adults, however, might be a need to be valued for their knowledge and experience. Examining situations closely helps uncover what is truly needed, and leads toward future improvement.”
Do we have to do it all ourselves?
Strategic planning includes clarifying your ‘Boundaries of Service‘ What won’t we do? this matters just as much as what you will do.
“Establishing priorities can be wrenching on several dimensions, not least in that it compels nonprofit leaders to say what their organizations won’t do as well as what they will.” (Zeroing In on Impact )
Your Mission – How will we do it?
Programizing your organisations activities helps you to clearly define the streams of work and beneficiary groups you will deliver to. For funding strategies and project management processes this is essential. It also helps you to determine core business activities that support those programs and activities. We use the Program Tree to help our client visualise what that should look like for there organisation.
The leaves of the tree represent specific activities, that are delivered under program branches, supported by the core business functions (in a shared service model relationship).
As part of your Not For Profit strategic planning process, some questions to answer to help you define your mission include:
Explain the cause-and-effect logic that gets us from our resources (people and dollars) to impact?
Where are the gaps or leaps of faith in this logic chain?
What are the most important elements of our programs’ content and structure?
What assumptions led us to choose these particular program elements?
Are there other ways in which we could achieve the desired outcomes?
What is the minimum length of time our beneficiaries need to be engaged to achieve these outcomes?
What else do our beneficiaries need to achieve these outcomes?
Strategic Funding Models rely on detailed budgeting and clear links to programs
When approaching grants and funding, you need to break all your activities into mini projects. Using the Program Tree process for your organisation and its activities is an easy way to list your projects/activities under the different key services you provide the the beneficiaries of those activities.
Each granting body, or sponsor/donor will have some important objectives they are trying to achieve, and therefore the type of projects they will support need to be consistent with these objectives. You need to clearly explain how your project will contribute directly to these objectives being achieved.
Need some help working on your organization’s strategic plan?
Contact our team on 1300 765 249
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Should I Start a New Charity? What you need to know before you begin a new not for profit enterprise. Like any great new idea you need to do your homework before launching that new idea as a business or organisation. But when it comes to charities this seems to be an area where people […]
Should I Start a New Charity?
What you need to know before you begin a new not for profit enterprise.
Like any great new idea you need to do your homework before launching that new idea as a business or organisation.
But when it comes to charities this seems to be an area where people refuse to do their homework. This is largely because they believe they have such an amazing idea to solve important problems they don’t see being solved by other people.
They think that nobody ever thought of it before but the truth is that, more often then not, someone probably has already started a not for profit group doing just the same work you want to do.
Charities don’t advertise themselves the same way as consumer products like Coca-Cola do. If you can’t see it happening immediately before your eyes then you’re probably not looking hard enough.
That’s not to say that every charity covers the niche aspects of problems that need to solved. Before you begin something new, you need to be clear about exactly what your organisation will do and won’t do. Doing this research will save you a lot of headache trying start a new organisation. It will also ensure you don’t duplicate what’s already working and create unnecessary competition for the tiny pool of funds available.
In Australia there are 57,000+ charities all of them competing for the same small pool of funds. These aren’t just the tax office sanctioned Tax deductible gift charities.
Australian’s give millions of dollars to charities annually.
Why should the stats related to charities and giving matter to you? Because when you create a new charity or NFP (Not For Profit) group you are diluting the available resources. You could also be duplicating work when its not necessary to do so.
Where can you find out whether someone is already doing the work you’re proposing to do?
Before you start you own Charity, start by looking in the following places to see who is solving the problem you want to solve:
The ACNC charities register – The ACNC has some great resources you can access to learn about starting a new charity and running a charity. Including these great getting tips:
Consider and write down in detail what you want to achieve with your charity, and what your timelines are. This will help you work out how you should set it up. Ask:
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- What is the charity trying to achieve?
- What will its main activities be?
- Who is its target audience?
- What programs or services will it provide?
- Who will benefit from its activities and programs?
- Why is there a need for this new charity?
- How long will it last? Will it be for a one-off short-term project or an ongoing long-term venture?
Check your Local Government Interagency – Most Councils have a list of charitable organisations you can review, through their community team programs.
Ask your local Rotary Clubs and other service clubs – these organisations support many local charities and social services during the year. They are well connected with what’s happening in their communities to benevolent services and initiatives.
Do a Google search – That might seem pretty straightforward but it’s a quick and simple way to find established services and research what they do and don’t do.
Do a search on Facebook – many community assistance programs have Facebook Pages where they broadcast their activities. That’s where they seek volunteers and contributions/donations. Having a Website can be costly, so Facebook is a alternative many use to avoid that cost.
What should you do if you find an existing organisation already doing the work you were intending to do?
Before you start a new charity and work towards achieving your own goals, ask them if you can help them achieve their goals!
Getting people who care enough to volunteer is a huge task for most small not for profit groups.
Don’t compete against them for the same funding and resources to help the same people and beneficiaries. Why not help them achieve or expand their goals and make good use of the small amount of financial support they get each year.
If you do find a niche service that no-one else is providing, look for organisations that can run along side you. Partnering together to avoid crossing over into each others expertise. Everyone wins that way.
Then go ahead, and get started on creating your business plan. There’s some good information on starting a charity to help you HERE.
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Easy Ways to Fundraise for Your Not For Profit Group or Club Over the years we’ve worked with lots of small Not For Profit Charity groups and clubs, and almost all of them have the same problem; They don’t have a fundraising strategy, and they want easy ways to fund their group or club. […]
Easy Ways to Fundraise for Your Not For Profit Group or Club
Over the years we’ve worked with lots of small Not For Profit Charity groups and clubs, and almost all of them have the same problem; They don’t have a fundraising strategy, and they want easy ways to fund their group or club.
Without a Fundraising Strategy your organisation will fall into the trap of chasing the cash, which involves designing your programs and services around what you can get funding for, instead of delivering the programs and services your mission is purposed to do.
Fear drives this process. Making decisions from a position of fear doesn’t grow a sustainable or enjoyable organisation and burns you out.
A funding strategy isn’t as complicated as it sounds. It is a process of identifying all of your services/products and who will benefit from those activities, and then defining who/what type of businesses, foundations, donors and grant providers would be interested in supporting programs/services that support those beneficiaries.
It’s important to remember that very few granting bodies or sponsors fund your whole organisation. They are more interested in funding or supporting a project/program within your organisation. So breaking all your activities into programs and projects within those programs is essential.
You can learn about grant writing by doing our Grants Writing Basics Course.
There are a million ways to do fundraising for your Not For Profit Group or Club.
Here are some to consider as part of your plan 2020:
Grants – There are hundreds of small and large grants available, but you need to take applying for these seriously. As part of grant approval panels I’ve seen many grant applications that are so badly written that it seems like the person applying hasn’t even read the basic terms of the funding being offered. Learn how to write good grants. You don’t need to pay professional grant writers thousands of dollars to write your grants, but you do need to know how to read and write a grant.
“Friends Of” program/ Membership drive – If you have a membership, charging membership fees is a good way to cover your basic running costs. But if you have a simple membership structure with just your board committee as your members then you can use a non-voting membership model, called Friends Of. This program provides supporters of your organisation with specific benefits for a donation fee, monthly or usually annually, and it’s a way for them to support your work, without changing your voting membership model.
Donations – There’s lots of ways you can raise money through donations, but the concept to have in mind is that everything you do should include an opportunity and process for asking for donations. This can include an option when people book tickets to your events to donate above the ticket price. Add a section on your website, newsletter, emails, and bucket at your activities to collect donations.
Events/Activities – Running simple to deliver activities where you can charge a fee to participate and attract sponsors is a great way to grow your organisation. Things like Golf Days, Charity Dinners/Lunches, and Fairs are popular. But beware of big events and fundraising dinners. They can be very resource intensive and costly to run, and the actual profit can be quite small for the amount of manpower and hours it takes to deliver. BBQ fundraisers can be great, as they give lots of people an opportunity to volunteer, but count the cost first of materials to run it and the work required to put together a roster of volunteers.
“Fundraising is the gentle art of teaching the joy of giving” – Hank Rosso
Sponsorship – Sponsors need to get a return on their investment. So when you design a sponsorship offer it should be attached to a project with a start and end date. Event sponsorship is an example of this. Before approaching potential sponsors you need to be able to answer a question for them: “What’s In It for Them”. The warm fuzzy feeling of having helped others isn’t enough of a reason for them to choose your activity to sponsor. How can they get promotion through your charity to the people or other businesses they want to get to?
Before setting the sponsoring fee, carefully add up what it will cost you to deliver the promised benefits and then how much actual profit you’ll make from each sponsor. This is a key area where NFP groups make a mistake.
Selling Merchandise – Whether you’re selling chocolates, t-shirts or other merchandise, make sure you do your numbers first. Buying in bulk will save money, but it’s a big upfront outlay and you need to work out how you’re going to be able to sell all of the stock before you embark on this process. Think about how people are going to buy/order and receive the merchandise. Will they pay freight? Who’s going to receive, store, pack and send the items? Is sizing a problem? Returns process?
Lots of clubs think that by handling all of this inhouse they can make more money. But if you add up the time it takes to manage the process, versus running through the distributors own process, often it’s more trouble then its worth to DIY it.
Charity Auctions – You can do these in person or online, but sourcing prizes can be a challenge. Most local retailers haven’t got stock to give away, and they are asked for prizes every other day. So get a bit more creative and ask your supporters to donate goods and services, and tap into their networks to help you source prizes.
“That’s the secret. Convince yourself that your startup is worth investing in, and then when you explain this to investors they’ll believe you.” Paul Graham
Crowd Funding – Crowdfunding campaigns are a great way to engage a large population of small dollar donors. They work well when paired with annual fundraising events. Best of all, they’re inexpensive to create and rely on social sharing. Crowdfunding campaigns have the potential to go viral and raise a lot of money.
Raffles – Selling tickets to win a set of prizes is a populate way to raise funds. The better the prize the better the fundraising. There are strict rules and laws that govern raffles so make sure you are familiar with these before running a raffle or prize draw.
Want More Ideas?
Fundraising Laws
Make sure your organisation is aware and compliant with your state and federal fundraising laws, before you commence ANY collection of money.
The truth is there are no easy ways to fundraise for your not for profit group or club
All fundraising activities require careful thought and lots of work to be achievable. That’s why having a funding strategy that defines the best and easiest way for your organisation to raise money is the key to success.
Need some help developing your Funding Strategy 2020? Contact us to talk about your Not For Profit group or club.
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If each of us picked only 1 or 2 Not-for-Profit organisations to invest our money or time in, there would be enough support to go round all those organisations. So here’s a simple tip or two for choosing who you say yes to, and how to say no without feeling guilty. Giving regularly vs giving […]
If each of us picked only 1 or 2 Not-for-Profit organisations to invest our money or time in, there would be enough support to go round all those organisations.
So here’s a simple tip or two for choosing who you say yes to, and how to say no without feeling guilty.
Giving regularly vs giving one off donations
Consider choosing to support a few charities regularly e.g. by regular monthly donation of your money and or time, or even your blood!
Why are regular monthly gifts instead of one off amounts more helpful?
Charities have budgets too – their ability to commit to undertaking support projects is determined by how much money they will have for the duration of the project. Giving regularly, helps them to know what income they can expect 2020 to be able to do their work helping others.
Local, national, global
Choosing a charity is important. I recommend the local – national – global principal when makings these choices.
You can’t support everything – unless you’re super rich – but even then you should probably be discerning about what you support.
As a family we make the decision together.
- First, we look at local needs (this might include, for example, a neighbour who needs a meal after having a baby, a local sports club that you volunteer to coach at, or a local charity helping young people stay in school).
Each quarter Sydney Hills Living will feature a couple of local charities/service groups to make you aware of what’s happening in The Hills and how you can help them – beyond $$.
- Second, we consider charities that work nationally or within the greater Sydney area – serving Australian people in communities that are less affluent or in high schools, or farmers struggling to make ends meet.
- Third, we support a charity doing work serving people in another country – Australia is a wonderful place to live and there are many across the globe who have none of the riches and privilege we and our kids enjoy (this may mean sponsoring a child, or donating to a fund that rebuilds poor communities after a disaster or builds a new well for good drinking water in a drought ravaged country).
The key in choosing a charity to support, is that you should believe in what they are doing, and care genuinely about the people or cause they are using your resources to help.
Should you say no – even to phone raffles and the small $2 buy a ticket or pin requests?
When you are clear about your YES charities, you can be honest when you respond to those phone calls from various charities when you say: “I’m sorry we’ve already decided which charities we’re supporting 2020 and our funds have been allocated to them at the moment”.
If you have some pocket change and you want to buy a raffle ticket and sausage sandwich, or $2 pin at the checkout to support health research of some kind, then of course do so – but even larger charities depend on the regular monthly donation, more than the $2 one of. So, if you really care about that cause, find out how you can support their work beyond the one off token gift.
Donating Time and skills can be just as valuable as money.
Charities need volunteers in just about every type of job imaginable. From flipping sausages at Bunnings to bookkeeping and admin, IT and website design, to board members and business consulting to help to them be more effective and organised. Most charities are staffed by caring people who have particular skills or experience (eg counselling or community work) to meet the needs of the people they are serving – few have business management experience.
Even donating your time and expertise for small periods of time for free to a charity, is very helpful.
Be purposeful in your giving, and make a real difference.
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