Are you a trend setter or a follower?

Do you follow individual trends or institutional trends?

Are you a conformist or nonconformist?

Do you follow the norm or create the norm?

Do you question authority or comply with authority?

One should not always blindly follow trends, whether they are set by individuals or institutions. Integrate trends into your mission when it best suits the health of the organization.  However, it is not always clear if a change is a trend or a shift in thinking that is permanent.  Time will be the ultimate measure to whether something is a trend or permanent change.

Access to child care, access to adult care, access to coordinating care, access to after school programs, access to higher education, access learning environments and the list goes on.  In your community have you conducted a needs assessment of the services needed, what assets of the nonprofit are underutilized and how you can offer a service at price that private and publicly funded individuals would pay.

For-profits are building more child care capacity, more companies are opening adult care services, new schools are being created at all levels,  and many after school and summer programs require early enrollment.

Success does not come to those whom wait for it to happen.  Success takes time and vision.  Success takes energy and effort.  Nonprofits have strengths that most individuals do not realize can make them very competitive.   The strengths of a nonprofit organization just need to be identified and used strategically to tap into positive cash flow ventures.

Does a company’s type of incorporation define whether it should do no harm?

Should the goals of a company be for the greater good of the public?

Should the goals of a company be for the greater good of the community?

Should the goals of a company be for the greater good of the world?

The success of any organization requires that it be responsible to its financial well being as well as is mission. The merging of non-profit and for-profit ideas and best practices can bring social responsibility and social media to the forefront.

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

A measure of whether your nonprofit is growing in support is the percent of new people that become involved in your organization each year. The creation of a data base of each person the nonprofit comes in contact with is an important means to promote the organization. The inclusion of businesses, community leaders and government agencies in the geographic zone the nonprofit serves provides for growing the community involvement. Have a specific plan to communicate, otherwise you do not exist in the minds of most of the community.

Energy costs are going to drive an increase in costs at every level of an organization. The costs of goods purchased will be effected by the cost of energy. I have provided below a few ways that nonprofit organizations can begin to design a Strategic Plan to address the effects of the energy crisis on their costs and to implement measures to be less effected or harmed by an energy crisis.

Invest in technology for teleconferencing for meetings and consultation.

Join or create Cooperatives for group purchasing

Implement telecommuting and flex scheduling for employees

Install alternative energy sources for heat and cooling

Renovate facilities to be more efficient

Purchase fuel efficient vehicles

Grow some of your own food and learn how to preserve the perishables.

1. List Your Priorities of Programming Ideas
2. Elements to Use in Action Steps/Approaches/Strategies (Working Together)

• Strategic Planning (What, where, when and why baseline)
• Maximizing Assets: People, Organization, Effort, Space, Allocation of costs, Labeling, Cost allocation plan, Assignment of job function.
• Referral and Intake Systems
• Cross Pollination: Using resources already available and maximizing capacity.
• Whom do you serve: Geography, community, age and service type. (Who shows up in the Service Plan or the Strategic Plan?)
• Reality Check on ability to serve
• Equal Access Goal (Where are the cases? Where are the resources?) Geo coding for allocating resources. (Transportation weight to consider. How do you manage yourself to complete all of your daily tasks?)
• Low Lying Fruit
• 20-40 Minute Rule
• Day Job Syndrome (Capacity to change, evolve, develop vs. the day to day job) (Capacity to change, evolve, develop vs. the day to day job)
• Investment Risk Scale of Capital (Can what I am committed to doing be used for something else if I am wrong?)
• Management Choices for change vs. Institutional Choices for change
• Defining Outcomes
• Branding: Ownership, reporting, sharing, confidence and leadership
• Communication: web, telecommunicating, Co-location, transparency, team responsibility, and risk
• Continuous Quality Improvement (How do you learn?)
• How do you compete? Niche vs. General and Narrow vs. Broad. What does your mission allow?
• Who are my Funders?

1. 1. Donors
   2. Foundations
   3. State
   4. Federal
   5. City/Town
   6. Community
   7. Individuals
   8. Your Organizations Assets

If you are interested in overcoming barriers check out the previous post:

http://mynonprofitwebsite.com/blog/2008/04/30/nonprofits-evolution/

How does your brand effect your nonprofits’s ability to reach Donors? What level of trust has your organization created for the donor? How well known is your brand in the community you serve? When branding include the logo and motto of your organization.

Do you want to changed the business environment of your organization? Try the outline below.

1. List Your Barriers and Challenges

2. Evolution of the Non-Profit Business Environment (Supporters Working Together) List supporters.
   1. Donors
   2. Foundations
   3. State
   4. Federal
   5. City/Town
   6. Community
   7. Individuals
   8. Your Organizations Assets

3. Successful Approaches and Innovative Strategies

• Strategic Planning (Why do you exist? Whom do you not serve? Why do you not serve them? Why do you do things the way you do? Whom do you consider a competitor? When was the last time you asked a person you served what’s missing?)
• Whom do you serve: Geography, community, age and service type. Who shows up in the Service Plan?
• Day Job Syndrome (What is the organization’s capacity to change, evolve, develop vs. the day to day job)
• Maximizing Assets (Review your people, organization, effort, space, allocation of costs, labeling, cost allocation plan, assignment of job function, etc)
• Systematic Evaluation at Intake (How is it done thorough out the organization?)
• Cross Pollination of Expertise
• Continuous Quality Improvement
• Thinking Out of the Box
• Defining Outcomes
• Branding
• Co-location of Programs

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.