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.

Credit Unions are nonprofits and owned by their members. These organizations, while functioning as banks, are not making business decisions to maximize investors’ returns. They are making business decisions to maximize their ability to serve their members.

Micro-lending by banks is a profitable area. It is even more profitable overseas. The interest being charged approaches in many cases 80% plus with fees. Micro-lending is projected as an option to help out individuals who are motivated to break out of poverty.

Credit Unions should get into the field and make a difference for many people and provide more reasonable rates. The nonprofit community is especially use to many of its employees sending money to their overseas family members. The nonprofit community knows what it takes to make a difference with those in poverty looking to start small businesses or buying an item. Many individuals in poverty pay cash and do not carry credit cards. Credit history is their word and reputation. Today, traditional banks have lost the “know your neighbor” banking.

Credit Unions are the institutions closest to the true meaning of community banking.

A nonprofit according to the IRS is expected to raise funds to lower the costs of providing their services.  More and more funders and government are requiring a match by the nonprofit to programs the funder supports.

Track the use of donated space and know the market rate for similar space.  Staff out-posted to another location assign a value to that space.

Provided free advertising, assign a value to it and document it.

Provided goods, place a value on them and document it

Volunteer help, use minimum wage and keep track of the hours.  If the individual is doing a credentialed required service use the Department of Labor salary schedule.

Keep track of those travel and transportation costs employees and volunteers provide to the organization.

You will find it all adds up to thousands of dollars.

Outsourcing functions and hiring consultants for specific projects is a double edged sword. 

If a consultant always makes you feel good, have they helped your organization to make tough decisions?  A good consultant should not be afraid to identify problems in the organization that prevent a funder, donor or customer from wanting to associate with the organization.  While a report does not have to include every fact, it is important that a report shows areas for improvement and potential problem areas that should be addressed.   There is no perfect organization. 

If your organization has not had a serious discussion among its Board and Management of its direction in the past five years it is being too complacent.

Look out the window, what has changed around you in five years?  When was the last time your organization evaluated the services it provides, reviewed its referral system, reviewed the characteristics of the population being served, reviewed the funding streams,   and made decisions balancing business needs vs. program needs?

If not in the last three years, the organization is out of touch. 

Health costs are making the cost of an employee much harder for an organization to support.

Make sure employees know the total costs of all insurance benefits, taxes, unemployment and workers compensation paid out by your organization in addition to their individual salary. By showing the increased costs that the organization is incurring each year, it provides for a clearer understanding of why raises are harder to obtain.

Organizations that provide staff with a clarity on costs and a compensation bonuses pool Create a pool of funds as a one time expenditure), makes it easier to control costs. Further, staff whom have the knowledge of what it truely costs to employee staff are more engaged with the organization.  An organization where staff have an understanding where the money is being spent are more committed to that organization when spending is viewed as being distributed fairly.

The change in accounting standards will cause two surprises for nonprofits.

Audit costs are likely to increase up to 20%.

Your audit will cite internal controls and other processes in your organization which it had previously ignored in prior years.

To control your audit costs, be better prepared to provide your auditor the financial material in an organized manner. Your organization will be billed for each minute. Your mess is billable for them and they are not required to tell you how to decrease your costs.

Second, make sure more employees are trained on your internal control processes. The more you can document the checks and balances the better for management and the board to show their fiduciary responsibility.

If you took a moment to understand where bottle water comes from and its degree of regulatory safety review you might rethink its purchase.

Bottle water is one great sales gimmick.  You pay for the plastic the bottle is shipped in, you pay for the truck carbon imprint that delivers the bottle water, you pay for the production of the fuel to support the truck, you pay for the drilling for water, you pay for the environmental impact of the drilling.  You take your chances with the unregulated or tested bottle water industry.  You take chances with the bacteria and mold that builds up in the water coolers due to the air entering the system each time you change the bottles. 

Oh, how about the fact that you’re paying the square footage to store all of those bottles.

If you review the amount you spend on the water and what perks you could do for your employees in lieu of it, you would be surprised.

You can create the same if not better result with Reverse Osmosis Systems and lower your costs dramatically.

Water coolers are connected to a filtration system. Gone is the need to store bottles, change the bottles, clean up the slippage and running out of water.

If you want a recommendation, check out the company the Commonwealth of Massachusetts has selected at: http://www.atlaswatersystems.com

I have no association with any company but feel that this option is a great one for any nonprofit that goes through 6 bottles plus a month. 

Circle Lending now called Virgin Money is a great resource for creating personal and business loans between between associates, relatives and friends. http://www.virginmoneyus.com/Home/tabid/36/Default.aspx

Governing Magazine:  A resource on states and localities.  Great for keeping the pulse on what is happening in states and localities.   http://www.governing.com

Nonprofit Quarterly:  A magazine that provides valuable management information and proven practices. The information is cutting edge, relevant and useful.    http://www.nonprofitquarterly.org

Mission Fish:  The easy way on Ebay to convert in-kind donations into cash or a new way to invigorate your fundraising efforts http://www.missionfish.org/ForNonProfits/fornonprofits.jsp

In my review of sites and services I have come across several that are great tools for organizations to use to keep costs low or to utilize for information about events.

Consumer Reports: http://www.consumerreports.org/cro/index.htm

Great value for your money in identifying products that are the best buy and providing a review on the products. Saves money and staff time.

Vista Print: http://www.vistaprint.com The best price anywhere for most printing and some free stuff to go with it.

AAA: http://www.aaa.com Low cost way for back up transportation roadside services, discounted college loans for employees, travel, insurance, financial and accessing discounts from many different vendors.

Who Fish: http://www.whofish.org/ for Massachusetts, Rhode Island and New Hampshire is a free service of local events that is great to use for planning outings. There are many other similar sites for other parts of the USA. If you have a hard time finding one just send me an email with information about your location.

Constant Contact: A low cost email service for making your organization professional and able to keep donors and interested parties in the know and up to date. You can create and send professional email newsletters, fundraising appeals, renewals, and event updates.
Another feature offered is Survey by Constant Contact, where you can easily and cost-effectively get feedback and evaluate programs to report to your donors and interested parties. Click on the link below that best describes your organization or call 1-866-876-8464 .

http://www.constantcontact.com/market/nonprofits/index.jsp nonprofits

http://www.constantcontact.com/market/associations/index.jsp Associations

http://www.constantcontact.com/market/religious/index.jsp religious organizations

Example of pricing:

Your Email List Size		Your low monthly fee
		Email Marketing		Survey*		Bundle*
0-500		$15		$15		$30 $22.50
2,501-5,000		$50		$50		$100 $75.00
10,001-25,000		$150		$150		$300 $225.00