The cheapest way to save money is to take a little time and clip coupons that come out weekly with your local paper. If you plan meals around the coupons that meet your dietary needs you are guaranteed money. For a family of four this is easily a $20 savings each week. Nonprofit organizations can save 100’s. You can prepare during the commercial breaks when watching TV. For those of you willing to do some research try the Internet and contact the manufacturing of products you like or coupon sites.

According to the Wall Street Journal and checking out some web sites myself, there are two web sites which I feel offered the best return for coupons and worth checking out to save money.   The web sites are:

http://www.thecouponclippers.com/

https://www.centsoff.com/default.asp

Become an educated organization and begin to make changes. As nonprofit organizations you will recoup you costs more quickly than for-profits.

Check out Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia and its information on Alternatives to Oil. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alternatives_to_oil

Check out this web site on the use of Hemp and all of the products produced from it. http://everything.hemp.com/

Steps to take to lower impact to the environment and lower your costs.

1. Take advantage of video conferencing
2. Buy products on line, in bulk and those that have a lesser impact on the environment and ultimately lower your costs. Look for recycled or local products.
3. Request local businesses carry products that are made of recycled material.
4. Send email instead of mail.
5. Create a web experience for volunteering and delivering some of your services.
6. Raise money to be make changes to be carbon neutral.

First there was Whale Oil and then there was fossil fuels. It is time to start planning and make changes.

Steps to take:

1. Access the organization’s energy consumption, the waste produced across all operations and product choices.
2. Find out what the natural resources are in your geographic location.
3. Use locally produced resources to lower the impact to the environment and in the long run lower your costs.
4. Come up with a plan to reduce the impact of your organization and a plan to move forward.
5. Educate your organizations staff and community of your priority list to change your impact and how everyone can help.

Here are a few quick suggestions:

1. Recycle printer cartridges; I have used http://www.ecyclegroup.com/ and got money back. Have the whole community participate.

2. Stop using bottle water. Stop sending bottles to landfill and using trucks to drivery water bottles at the office. Put in filtration systems and give staff containers. I have used Atlas http://www.atlaswatersystems.com/

For reducing the impact and costs for driving try:

1. Reduce to a four day work week.
2. Conduct scheduled car maintenance
3. Drive during non rush hour periods.
4. Do not use air conditioning
5. Car pool
6. Rent a Hybrid

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.

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.

Mandated health insurance with a combination of sponsored government and private insurance is necessary to prevent bankruptcy of small businesses and individuals due to medical costs. One element of mandated insurance should include catastrophic insurance for those exceptions where regular insurance will not cover.

To a certain degree government has mandated the ability to gain treatment. However, the government has not guaranteed that you will not go bankrupt. This is especially more important because of the number of medical fields that are now selling the debt to third parties, like GE who charge interest on the debt. The transfer of the debt is not base on your ability to pay. The medical establishment gets paid a percent of the bill immediately and closes your account. Affordable health care requires standardization of rates. It also requires the setting of a ceiling of how much any one citizen should pay.

Medicine should be treated on two levels; like a utility service in that rates are set by one entity for all of us; and like an entitlement that government has guaranteed equal access to treatment regardless of an ability to pay.

Solution:

The federal government has specified that 7.5% of a persons adjusted income paid for medical expenses is not deductible on Form 1040 Schedule A. Thereby, setting the standard that anything above 7.5% of a person’s income spent on medical expenses should reduce other liabilities. The other standard the federal government has provided is the creation of the Medical expense flexible spending account with a $5,000 maximum.

Therefore, I would propose that individuals not be held liable for medical expenses, which exceed 7.5% of their adjusted income. Any amount to exceed such should be paid by a portion of a catastrophic health insurance policy that is mandated as a component of health care insurance and then the government as the payee of last resort. However, the cost of the procedures must be set at the government rate for any amount above the 7.5%.

The election process is in full swing for selecting nominees for the various parties. I have not heard any conversation yet from any candidates of the role they foresee of nonprofits in their goals for America. I have heard over and over and over the words “An Agent of Change” and “Making Corporate America Accountable”.

Here are just four questions for your organization and its employees to think about as to which candidate really will make the difference.

As a tax exempt organization you still pay a tax on gasoline and fuel. Exxon made 20 billion in profits. The other fuel companies made comparable profits as well. Government and nonprofits do not have enough money available to heat peoples homes who need it. How does your organization absorb the increases in the gasoline and fuel costs without making cuts?

The government pays farmers, mostly large conglomerates, not to grow food. This policy was to help the small farmers to have fixed prices on food. People are going hungry, cannot afford to buy enough food, and food pantries are unable to meet demand. Most of your employees make less than a living wage and worry about feeding their family. How does paying millions for not growing food help people buy food or make food available to people?

The government has been trying to resolve the credit crunch due to the bad deals that big financial businesses created. The securities were in many ways a pyramid scheme that was dependent upon prying on US citizens and others peoples money. Now the government wants to help the investors pain and change the rules under the guise it will help everyone. What help has the government provided your organization to lower your exposure to cover costs they do not fund? How does the fact that in foreclosures the investors evict paying renters. How does this help the fact that most of your employees struggle to find affordable housing?

Government has mandated educational standards and yet does not allocate sufficient funds to bring schools up to the standard. While there has been an increase in funding that is to be spent in each corner of the USA. Not much for each school to help students. Business demands tax breaks, uses tax loopholes to lower or not pay taxes. The US government spends billions overseas to help the economic growth of other countries and people. How has the standard helped your organization obtain the trained people you need?

We all have a choice. Vote and be heard.

Winter is the time across the country when many cities and towns count their homeless populations. The increase in homelessness in most areas has predominately been families.

Across the country record a record number of homes are boarded up and no longer used for housing.  The number increasing each day due to foreclosure.

Government and nonprofits are using shelters and motels for temporary housing the families and individuals.  These organizations spend million of dollars monthly for  putting people under a roof, usually in mass. These situations do not create permanecy and stability for families.

There are thousands of properties abandoned by its owner, including institutions. The foreclosures occurring over the past year and continuing into the new year bring even more abandoned properties.

Government has the tools to create permanent housing options: seize the abandon properties under eminent domain, issue summons for code violations, issue fines, place liens on properties and ultimately seize property for payment of liens.  Affordable housing has been at a crisis point and government needs to take a hard stand.  The use of local government powers and the courts can make a difference.

The for-profit sector creation of affordable housing is a joke when the definition of affordable housing does not allow  a person with a living wage to afford to own.

Create permanent affordable housing  by creating cooperatives.   Government should gain control of the properties and land; work with nonprofits and the faith base community to fix the properties and then place families and individuals into  permanent housing that can be supported by a living wage.

For the new year replace all conventional light bulbs with compact fluorescent bulbs.

Have the cooling and heating thermostats on timers.

Build breezeways to the outdoors to prevent heat or cool air from escaping from the building.

Have lights on motion detectors and timers.

Use newsprint to wrap gifts.

Buy preused or returns products. Usually save a minimum of 25%. Most of time the item was just not wanted, wrong size or was a duplicate.

Most musuems have a free time, call them and find out. Arrange for your organization to attend during that time.