The Lifecycle of Nonprofit Organizations

Is your organization just starting up, and full of excitement about its mission? Or does your agency have a long track record, assets to manage, and a big staff? Nonprofits - like people - travel through different stages of development over time, and each of these stages poses specific challenges. Identifying your organizational stage will aid in your ability to effectively analyze agency issues as well as plan for the future.

• Stage One: Your agency is just starting up. There is tremendous passion about your mission and what you want to accomplish. What you don't know about nonprofit management is more than compensated for by your boundless enthusiasm and willingness to work. Your focus is on services; policy-making and fundraising happen on an as-needed basis. Your strengths: excitement, commitment to mission, lots of volunteers. Your challenges: lack of expertise, funding, and a track record.

• Stage Two: The work you want to do to serve your mission begins to crystallize. Your organization hires paid staff to do the nitty gritty work, but board members run ongoing operations. Board and/or staff are beginning to see a need to formalize systems for management and oversight, but there is a deep reluctance to giving up the fun and informality of the early years. Your strengths: ability to provide services on a shoestring budget, creativity, friendly and casual atmosphere, a highly committed board and staff. Your challenges: lack of consistent funding, long-range planning.

• Stage Three: Staff begins to oversee programs and services, while the board tries to figure out its changing role. Much of the board's time focuses on governance and financial management. Fundraising becomes absolutely central to the board's role, often in face of great resistance. Your strengths: growing relationships with donors who believe in your cause, the development of systems to sustain your organization over time. Your challenges: board/staff struggles over who is in charge, increased expenses, the board's reluctance to fundraise.

• Stage Four: Your annual budget is significant in size, as is your staff; you have assets to manage. Staff and board must formally establish their distinct responsibilities. These roles will be different than before, requiring everyone to be thoughtful, communicative, and open to change. This can be a challenging and contentious process, but if handled properly will strengthen the organization. Your strengths: established relationships with donors, successful programs. Your challenges: more board/staff struggles, resistance to change, keeping your commitment to your mission vital.

• Stage Five: Your agency is big, well-known, and well-funded. Your strengths: name recognition, established procedures, consistent resources. Your challenges: avoiding complacency, maintaining oversight of complex operations.
  

Numerous books and websites about nonprofits will outline all the procedures you should be following and all the policies that need to be in place. These are important to know, but be sure to exercise judgment about appropriate structures and solutions based on your developmental stage. Understanding the challenges of each stage is key to defining board/staff roles and responsibilities that match the organization's needs and further its mission.

Database 101

Now that you've made it through the holidays and have a moment to take a breath, it's a good time to do some nonprofit housekeeping to prepare for your 2010 fundraising and program planning. And the key to all your efforts is your database.

Ask yourself: can you use your database to do these essential functions?

Provide basic demographic and organizational information:

• Quickly find mailing addresses, 9-digit zip codes, email address, phone numbers (including cell phones), and appropriate salutations for all of your clients, donors, and volunteers
• Tell what age people are, and whether they have children (and if so, how old)
• Track program participation and ticket purchases by year and specific event/program area
• Identify folks who do not want their names/addresses exchanged or shared
• Look up all past board members, find out when they served, and on which committees

Let you know about your donors and donations:

• See and date every donation made over at least the past ten years
• Track specific interests of individual donors i.e. specific program interests, community affiliations, level of involvement in your organization
• Look up donors who have given to special appeals and/or like to give for specific programs or purposes (such as scholarships)
• Find out who has been the contact person/solicitor for each donor
• Differentiate between donations of cash, stocks, materials, and volunteer time
• See which fundraising events your donors have attended
• Provide detailed information about donors who have committed to multi-year donations, monthly contributions, and/or planned gifts
• Find lapsed donors
• Identify which donors want to remain anonymous and/or prefer not to receive phone solicitations
• Track all foundation, corporation, and government donations over the history of your organization including contact person's name and phone number

Document the work of your volunteers:

• Track the number of volunteer hours by month and year
• Find volunteers who like to help out with specific tasks and/or events
• Look up volunteers with specific skills i.e. carpentry, hauling, fundraising, finance, etc.
  
• Identify the volunteers who have given the most hours per year

Create and print reports, letters and labels including:

• Customized solicitation and thank you letters
• Donor lists by fiscal year, amount given, and zip code
• Reports tracking in-kind donations
• Volunteer lists by year, month, and task
• Mailing labels and name tags for specific purposes.

This may sound like a daunting task (and may require a re-evaluation of your chosen software), but the work you do now to put your database in order will benefit your organization for years to come.

Fundraising Stocking Stuffers

Recent news and polls have decidedly mixed messages for nonprofits right now; some predictions are gloomy, others surprisingly hopeful.

The unemployment picture continues to be bleak and people are still being cautious about spending. Yet according to an American Red Cross survey, only 20% of those polled planned to reduce charitable donations this year. In fact, 68% of respondents agreed that it is even more important to give right now because of the economy; 59% said that making charitable donations gets them into the holiday spirit. And folks who had their salary and/or work hours reduced this year were no more likely to cut back on donations than those whose employment has remained secure.

Even so, these continue to be challenging times for fundraising that call for creativity and extra hours in order to raise the money for your good work. Here a few simple and inexpensive Christmas "stocking stuffers" for your fundraising program:

• Use free social media. Are you on Facebook? Twitter? if not, now's the time. It's a great way to get the word about your organization, send invites to events, and ask for donations.
• Try new internet-based tools. Check out this website about a way for supporters to contribute $5 to your organization when they give someone a gift card: http://www.givecard.com/. Consider registering your organization for a possible donation at http://facebook.com/ChaseCommunityGiving. If your organization serves school-age children, take a look at http://www.escrip.com - donations come from participating merchants, and all your supporters have to do is sign up.
• Seek out corporate matching gift programs. Many local corporations - including Charles Schwab Company, Autodesk Inc., and Wells Fargo Bank - will match employee donations. Publicize and take advantage of these opportunities (for a list of businesses with matching programs, email me at cjay@horizoncable.com).
• Ask your local bank to help out. Many banks have charitable giving programs. Tamalpais Bank contributes to a customer's chosen nonprofit based on account balance; Bank of Petaluma dedicates money annually for the management of each branch to make gifts to nonprofits of their choice. Talk to the place where you do your banking; ask members and supporters to do the same.
  
• Reconnect with lapsed donors. It's likely that you have lost a significant number of donors in the past two years, but don't give up. Try reconnecting them to your organization by asking them for modest donations via a phone-a-thon or a focused email/snail mail appeal.

Whatever strategy you use - whether it be personal contact, email, snail mail, or the internet - continue to speak from your heart about the importance of your mission. Every dollar counts, and every donor counts.