Summary: In today’s podcast episode, Stephen King from GrowthForce and Stephen Halasnik from Financing Solutions discuss five ways that nonprofit organizations can be successful after the Covid-19 pandemic. These solutions are helping nonprofits recovery from economic disruptions.
Summary
Evaluate Your Mission
Recessions are a normal part of a functioning economy. The seemingly quick recession caused by the Covid-19 pandemic put pressure on businesses to make up for temporary losses. Nonprofit organizations should take the time to evaluate their programs and see
what worked and what didn’t during the time of the recession. Organization leaders should analyze the functionality, reliability, and cost-effectiveness of programs during a recession, taking note of which ones aided or hindered operations.
Analyze the Economics
An organization’s success after Covid doesn’t necessarily mean exponential growth but instead developing more outcomes that help the business. Many nonprofits have saved money during lockdown due to the cancellation of travel arrangements for conferences or meetings. During this stage, organizations should analyze how they are currently spending funds and allocating them to programs within the organization. Leaders should focus on the economics of fundraisings such as revenue earned and costs of clients and programs.
Donors of nonprofits often donate due to the desire to make a difference. Nonprofit organizations can show donors tangible results from their donations by calculating the revenue and costs generated from each program and dividing the number of people served, resulting in the cost per person served. Showing donors tangible results can cause the return on investment from their contributions to rise.
Making Program Decisions
During this stage, nonprofits should decide which programs adapt, continue, or eliminate based on their evaluation completed in the second step. Eliminating less successful programs allow nonprofit organizations to make up for losses in other areas, specifically in donations. Using the cost per person served calculated in step two, nonprofit leaders can understand the cost of the outcomes generated by various programs and make informed decisions regarding how to move forward with a program.
Revising the Plan
During this stage, nonprofits should evaluate the impact that the program decisions made in step three will have on the organization’s goals and budget, then put it into written form. Many nonprofits fall short when telling stories with numbers. It is important for leaders to be able to attach a metric to the organization’s outcomes.
Nonprofits benefit from using stack ranking systems that reveal the most valuable people and programs an organization needs to be successful. Quality, quantity, and profit are three important characteristics used to determine the value that leaders of nonprofits should consider when revising or restructuring plans and ideas. Having the revisions in written form ensures that everyone within the organization has a reference to look back on when moving forward and helps keep everyone on the same page.
Establish a Monthly Giving Program
For many small nonprofit organizations, generating cash flow is the number one issue they struggle with. Nonprofit leaders can generate cash flow by requesting smaller, monthly donations from sponsors or donors rather than larger donations once a year. The monthly giving program should have a name that lets donors know that they are a part of something special.
Relationships with donors should be cultivated by showing them the tangible outcomes of their donations. One established, some nonprofits use systems such as QuickBooks that monitor cash flow and spending, quantifying the organization’s efforts to donors. The success of the program depends on the capacity to give to the donors as well as the ability of the organization to draw them in.
About Stephen King from GrowthForce
From tech founder to nonprofit CFO and fundraiser, Stephen King brings a unique combination of vision, foresight, and experience to help nonprofits maximize their cash flow and operational efficiency. He’s been a dedicated board member of many nonprofit organizations – including seven years working for Amnesty International USA – where he was the Director of Development and Chief Financial Officer. His time at Amnesty reinforced Steve’s life-long commitment to giving back to the community through charitable causes. Regarded as one of the accounting industry’s top thought leaders, he’s currently serving as President & CEO of GrowthForce, where nonprofits now represent 35% of their clients.
About The Host Stephen Halasnik, Financing Solutions
Stephen Halasnik is the host of the popular, The Nonprofit MBA Podcast. The Nonprofit MBA podcast’s purpose is to help nonprofit leaders. Stephen is the Co-founder and Managing Partner of Financing Solutions, a leading provider of loans for nonprofits in the form of Lines of Credit to nonprofits. Stephen is a best-selling Amazon author and is considered a leading authority on building great, purpose-driven businesses. Stephen lives in New Jersey with his wife, Gina. Mr. Halasnik’s number one purpose is raising his two boys, Michael and Maxwell, to be good men.
10% of profits from Financing Solutions is donated to charity.
