Category Archives: Non Profit

Benefits of innovative nonprofits

Posted by on November 15, 2011 No comments

A non-profit organization exists for almost all causes and all, think what you can and in some cases, several organizations exist to serve. If multiple non-profit organizations are for the same thing, potential donors and contributors know how to donate non-profit organization and volunteer campaign. This is where innovative benefit non-profit organizations, as it creates less of a competitive environment, fills an unmet need and makes lift the non-profit innovation of the mass of profits.

Less Competition> The main advantage of a non-profit organization is innovative, that there is less competition. If a nonprofit is a different thing from the other non-profit organizations out there, it also means that the association is less competition in the conquest of the possible contributors, volunteers, board members, members and participants have with the organization. Less competition means more donations from the non-profit organization more innovative than their counterparts all of which have the same mission or cause.meets a need unfulfilled

A new and innovative non-profit is also filling an unmet need in the niche or community in which the non-profit organization operates. Innovation nonprofit creates a win-win situation, because it is the organization for a cause that allows receipt of assistance and still not earn the most money to charity and financing. For example, if the municipality has a large homeless youth population, but not about a homeless young organization, a non-profit with the new task, the homeless in the teen-help section, arises a need that does not begin earlier, be filled.

stands out from the crowd

Fund for donors, funding agencies and other sources of funding that the non-profit organizations trust are limited to the function. Can increase innovative non-profit organization more donations to organizations that exist for the same purposes as the innovative organization to stand out from the crowd for their services can not ask for money. If a charitable cause and a specific one, which is of other nonprofit organizations, has, it stands out from the crowd. Donors may feel that their money better in an innovative organization that the organization has spent millions of dollars in donations from other sources.

Non-Profits and fiscal responsibility

Posted by on November 12, 2011 No comments

Many brings non-profit organizations and charitable States from property tax, income tax and many other forms of personal property taxes. The original intent of these rules was to allow non-profits to operate without the worry of raising funds to the Treasury to pay expenses. But as time passed, and many nonprofit organizations have become huge political, economic and social rights, there has been an increasing demand for accountability.

Many of these services are not wealthy, big business. They produce large amounts of income, but also because of their nonprofit status, they are exempt from the tax system is very used to them alive. There are many forces at work to keep tax-exempt non-profit, even if the reasons are not so benevolent.

Big business has also entered the non-profit sector of society and the economy, and now some of the charities that were heavily dependent on both the revenue generated, refuse to share responsibility, which should be for their communities . Once upon a time, are non-profit institutions that comes to mind when we speak of charitable institutions such as hospitals, universities, think public and other nonprofit organizations. Most of these organizations have been working on shoe-string budget, and had very little in the way of assets. Today the scenario has changed incredibly, though still as a non-profit organizations generate this much income. They are now owners of property in major cities, including some of the properties to the most popular non-profit institutions are more beautiful than anything Services are private and not necessarily free. Today there are many classifications of non-profit organizations is virtually impossible for the average citizen to truly understand a true non-profit organization, the border barely veiled non-profit. This contributes to confusion and growing political power of the non-profit organizations, they also have the power to cover their tax liability. Many thanks to the complexity of the situation and the fact that federal regulations can vary considerably from state, county and city regulations and not the municipalities have the resources to fight against the complex, most of these organizations are never as their non for-profit status called into question, and no taxes are not to judge. What does this mean for our local economy? Often in the cold. The non-profit organizations in a city can be very numerous, if you have some guidelines to follow to define the complex “non profit”, and although the non-profit organizations in order to benefit handsomely from revenue, not necessarily revenue city, county, state and receives no financial support or involvement organization.

As already mentioned, the political weight of this non-profit organizations has grown right along with their real estate assets, and you’d be hard pressed in changing some of the rules and laws that could affect the tax status of a non-profit organization to be successful. They were what is referred to in Washington as “special interests” and their influence is great. Religious groups, universities and research centers in America, they continue to make money without sharing the tax burden. We have school systems that lack the funding, but the counties and cities in which they operate, have no support base around them. We have school systems, including abuse of leadership, the drain-financing. Than their non-profit status, the management is questionable. The U.S. tax system and the methods for the classification of organizations, companies and other entities is used needs to be updated urgently. Not only companies, profit and nonprofit, to evade their tax obligations, the government has made it extremely easy for this purpose.

Profitable Non-Profits

Posted by on June 17, 2011 No comments

My guest post today is from Randy Seitz, a 17 year veteran of community and economic development specializing in new industry attraction, local industry development, workforce development, and international trade.  Randy currently serves as the President and Chief Operating Officer of the Oil Region Alliance of Business, Industry & Tourism. Randy is taking the traditional approaches of ‘non-profits’ and turning them on their ear – challenging status quo in every aspect of his operations. I’m inspired by Randy’s innovative thoughts on turning a non-profit into a self-sustaining entity.  This is a fabulous example of defying Gravity for all of us.

I have recently finished the development of my agencies next five-year strategic plan.  Our 2 main goals were to become substantially more efficient in the way that we achieve our corporate mission and vision, and to become financially self sustaining in the next five-years.  The plan’s success is going to require that the organization adopt a change in the way they normally operate and to redefine how they generate and develop funds.  In other words, we have to challenge the status quo and defy gravity to achieve major success.  That is why I have recently purchased, for my entire management team, a new book by Rebel Brown called “Defy Gravity.” The book defies the status quo and provides practical advice to help corporate leaders avoid crash-and-burn strategies of yesterday.  I highly recommend this book to all CEOs struggling with change; change in how to implement new and unique ways to take organizations to new heights.

Rebel suggests that the way we’ve always done it may be limiting our success and I agree!

Status quo in the nonprofit world is fund development.

Traditional fund development is simply the acquisition of resources to advance the mission of an organization.  It is the process by which an organization uses fundraising to build capacity and sustainability and it is part of the strategic marketing of a nonprofit organization.  Fund development has two sides though; it is not only concerned with raising money, but also in developing reliable sources of income that will sustain the organization through the realization of its long-term mission and vision. Successful fund development requires a strategic plan that relates funding to the purpose and programs of the organization.  However, I contend that in these tough economic times nonprofit organizations must radically change its view and take the concept of fund development to a whole new level.  They must, as Rebel Brown teaches in her book, Defy Gravity… challenge the status quo!

It is my contention, in these tough economic times, that nonprofit organizations are becoming a burden on the business community.  It seems that individual businesses are being hit over and over and over again by local nonprofit agencies for donations and memberships in mass numbers. Everyone from chambers of commerce to the humane society is asking for small business support.  Now, these are all fantastic, mission driven organizations that are doing wonderful things to improve the quality of life in their respective communities, but unfortunately they rely heavily on donations from small business.  As the economy weakens there is less and less of this money available by small business to support these groups and the competition for these dollars among all of the nonprofits in a community is at an all time high. There is simply not enough money to go around and I am afraid that you will see many nonprofits closing their doors over the next several years unless they make a fundamental change in the way they operate. I believe that nonprofits just can’t continue to operate using the same old model.

The solution to this problem, which I have adopted and I am encouraging other nonprofit CEOs to also consider, is how we look at social entrepreneurialism.  Social entrepreneurialism needs to be looked at in a whole new way.  Social entrepreneurialism is typically the use of traditional entrepreneurial techniques to address a social issue or cause.  I want to challenge the status quo, defy gravity, by looking at social entrepreneurialism as a way for nonprofit organizations to develop new funding sources through for-profit means.  I want social entrepreneurialism to be defined as a nonprofit organization creating and operating a separate for-profit venture to support their nonprofit mission.  In other words, any profit from the new venture would go to support the long-term mission and vision of the nonprofit.  Therefore, the nonprofit would require less money in private contributions.  For example, the humane society can market and sell a private-label brand of dog food in grocery stores nationally.  The YMCA could market and sell exercise videos in the United States.  An economic development group could develop and sell commercial and residential real estate. By adopting a new way of operating, there would be the potential to generate millions of dollars in revenue for these groups that could go towards the long-term financial sustainability of the nonprofit.

The organization that I serve, serves the entire community through the creation of new jobs and investment in the region and the promotion of the area’s assets to attract tourists that spend money with local merchants.  For the most part, we are considered a member-based organization.  The funds that we raise come primarily from among the members themselves and are used for the purpose of sustaining the organization’s needs.  For example, the money required for our programs and operations is collected in the form of fees paid to belong to the organization, or in the form of donations.  There is a high degree of correlation though between the economy and membership.  Therefore, if the economy is bad, we can expect membership to be lower.  Simply, the organization requires funding to maintain its service to the community year after year.  So, there is no way that we can rely completely on membership dollars and still survive long into the future.

In addition to membership dollars, we must also rely on a small base of government support for specific tourism and heritage preservation programs.  And, the fact of the matter is, that often we must raise funds from a variety of sources just to maintain our budget. That is why I feel it is so important and crucial to create a fund development strategy that allows the organization to generate new revenue through for-profit means.  You can see how, as an organization, it would make sense for us to develop and sell commercial real estate as a way to generate new revenue.  The more money we can generate on our own, the less money we will require from the community.  This is a new and radical way to look at nonprofit fund development, as well as, social entrepreneurialism, and is definitely not the status quo, but is, none the less, necessary if the nonprofit wants to survive in this new economy.  This is a way for the nonprofit to take their destiny into their own hands; to become less of a burden on society, and to gain long-term sustainability in tough economic times.