Читать книгу Nonprofit Kit For Dummies - Phillips Frances - Страница 11

Beyond thinking about the challenges you’ll face in starting and running a nonprofit organization, you also need to apply some common sense. Nonprofits don’t operate in a vacuum, and neither should you. Personal commitment and inspiration can take your organization far, but you also need to find out how your community will receive your particular idea. So before going full steam ahead, investigate your competition, get community support, decide how to fund your organization, determine whether you’re really ready to run a nonprofit, and develop a game plan. Read on to find out how to get your nonprofit off to a great start.

Assessing the competition

Just as if you were starting a business, you should examine your competition before starting your nonprofit organization. If you wanted to open a grocery store, you wouldn’t choose a location next to a successful supermarket, because the market can bear only so much trade. This principle holds true for nonprofits, too. You may have the best idea in the world, but if someone else in your community is already doing it well, don’t try to duplicate it.

On the other hand, if your area doesn’t have a similar program, ask yourself why. Maybe your community doesn’t have enough potential clients or audience members to support the project. Or maybe funders don’t perceive the same needs in the community as you do.

Assessing the needs of your area is a good way to evaluate the potential market for your nonprofit’s services. You may want to use some or all of the following methods to determine your community’s needs:

❯❯ Online surveys or written questionnaires to a random sample of residents in your community

❯❯ Interviews with local foundation and civic officials

❯❯ Focus groups with people who are likely to benefit from the organization

For more details on assessing your community’s needs, see Chapter 7.

Finding people to help you

Your chances of success increase if you begin with support from others, and the more help you have, the better. Sure, you can probably find an example of a single-minded visionary who battles alone through all sorts of adversity to establish a thriving nonprofit, but starting and running a nonprofit organization is essentially a group activity.

When starting a nonprofit, you need to find people who will serve on the board of directors and support your efforts with donations of money and volunteer time. The first people you usually identify as supporters are family and friends. How can they turn you down? In the long run, however, you need to expand your supporters to others who believe in the organization’s mission (and not because you personally created it).

Some people hesitate to share their idea with others because they believe someone may steal it. We think this fear is largely unfounded. No matter what your idea is, you’ll be better off if you invite others to join you in making it a reality.

To find people to help you and support your organization, take every opportunity to speak about your idea before civic groups, religious groups, and service clubs. You can pass out fliers or set up a booth at a volunteer fair. Set up a Facebook page and invite your contacts to spread the word. Talk to your friends and coworkers. Put on your salesperson’s cap and convince the community that it needs your program.

If you’re having a difficult time drumming up support, it may be a sign that you need to refine your idea or that others view it as impractical. You may need to go back to the drawing board.

Figuring out how you’ll pay the bills

Funding your nonprofit organization is a big issue. Even if you begin as a volunteer-run organization and work from a home office, you still need funds for letterhead, a website, supplies, equipment, postage, and insurance. You also have to pay filing fees for your incorporation and tax-exemption applications. Many nonprofit startups are funded by the founder in the beginning. Are you able to pay all the startup expenses before revenues start flowing to your new nonprofit?

Putting together a budget can help you decide whether the startup expenses are manageable for you. You’ll be creating lots of budgets sooner or later, so you may as well get an early start. Flip to Chapter 11 for details on budgeting and other financial issues.

If you can’t fund the operation by yourself in the early months, you need to make a compelling case that your new organization will provide an important service to the community and then convince donors that you have the knowledge and experience to provide it. You can solicit contributions from individuals before the IRS grants the organization tax-exempt status, as long as you reveal that your exemption is pending (and will be deductible to the donor if the exemption is granted), and you have met state charitable solicitation registration requirements. These contributions become deductible to the donor if you file for your exemption within 27 months of the date you incorporated and receive tax-exempt status. If your exemption is denied, the contributions won’t be deductible and you may be liable for income tax on the money you’ve received. Startup grants from foundations or corporations are rare and next to impossible to obtain before the IRS recognizes your organization’s tax-exempt status, so don’t plan to receive any grants from outside organizations.

New organizations can avoid the awkward period between starting up and receiving tax-exempt status by beginning as a sponsored program of an existing nonprofit organization. This arrangement is known as fiscal sponsorship. We discuss fiscal sponsorship in detail later in this chapter.

You also can try out your program on a small scale before filing for tax-exempt status by partnering with an existing nonprofit organization to test the success and need of your idea. For example, if you want to start a summer arts program for low-income children, talk to a local church or community center that serves that population and ask if you can teach an art class one day a week for a month. This enables you to try out your idea, demonstrate the need, and set up benchmarks for success.

Taking a long, hard look in the mirror

Ask yourself whether you’re the right person to start a nonprofit organization, and try to answer honestly. If your organization offers a service, especially in the health and social-service fields, do you have the educational background, qualifications, or license necessary to provide those services? In addition to being professionally qualified, you need to consider whether you feel confident about your management, fundraising, and communication skills.

When starting and working in a new nonprofit organization, you need to be able to stretch yourself across many different skill areas. You may be dressed to the nines one day to pitch your project to the mayor or to a corporate executive, and the next day, you may be sweeping the floor of your office or unplugging a clogged toilet. In other words, you need to be versatile and willing to take on just about any task that needs to be done.

When potential donors are evaluating grant proposals, they certainly look to see whether the organization’s leadership has the background, experience, and knowledge necessary to carry out the proposed program. This doesn’t necessarily mean that you need to be an experienced nonprofit manager, but try to assess your background to see how you can apply your experience to the nonprofit that you hope to start.

Planning – and then planning some more

If there were ever a time to plan, this is it. Planning is what turns your initial idea into a doable project. Planning is also a good way to find potential holes in your thinking. For example, you may believe that your community doesn’t have adequate animal rescue services. You may be right, but when you begin to break down the idea of starting an animal shelter, you may find that the project costs more money or requires more staff or facilities than you first thought it would. When armed with that knowledge, you can adjust your plan as necessary or scrap the idea altogether.

To begin planning, write a one- or two-page synopsis of your nonprofit idea. In your synopsis, include why your organization should exist, what you’re trying to do, and how you plan to do it. It’s a good idea to outline both short-term and long-term goals and the resources needed to meet those goals. The list of resources should include money, volunteers, and an appropriate space to carry out your activities. After you’ve prepared your synopsis and list of resources, talk to as many people as you can about your idea, asking for help and honest feedback about your project. The purpose of this planning process is to think through your nonprofit idea step by step. (If you need help in the planning process, take a look at Chapter 7.)