Building a nonprofit from the ground up requires intensive work. Filing for the right designation to be recognized by the IRS, applying for a tax exemption and updating it each year, and struggling to recruit quality personnel in a sector often associated with low pay and limited career growth – it can all be overwhelming.
Tri-Universal Inc. has spent years helping nonprofits with effective communications and marketing strategies. They’ve seen all the signs that a nonprofit is struggling, and have devised innovative solutions that can bring the organization back from the brink. The first step is identifying the obstacles to success.
Here are some common symptoms of a struggling nonprofit, and tips for turning the situation around:
Lack of Donor Engagement
A nonprofit needs donations in order to exist, but when a nonprofit is struggling to retain or generate donors, it is usually the symptom of a larger problem.
For example, a donor’s earlier experience with the nonprofit may not have been a positive one, or the nonprofit may not have reached out to establish a closer, enduring partnership with the donor.
Whatever the case, perceptions about a nonprofit can be changed. In working with many nonprofits over the years, Tri-Universal has found that allocating resources to a social media presence can rapidly increase donor engagement and encourage repeat donors.
Volatility
When donations are cyclical, or are characterized by wide seasonal swings, the task of charting a course for a nonprofit becomes more difficult. Volatility is an unsustainable business model. Although a nonprofit must remain focused on its mission, it still needs to function like a regular company.
The best way to help combat volatility is to develop a stable business model from the ground up by reviewing the core structure of the organization. Examining accounting, communications, and other digital backend tasks can help identify where the most unsustainable aspects of the business are so that they can be eliminated accordingly. Using management software like SYSPRO or Netsuite can help to identify, prevent or mitigate a problem before it takes hold.
Lack of Resources
Without a base of active donors, and a system for maximizing the potential of each dollar received, a nonprofit cannot long endure.
Tri-Universal believes the solution to this problem is twofold. First, the nonprofit should take a step back and re-examine the scope of its mission and adjust it to reflect available resources. If a nonprofit is spread too thin, the help it is able to provide to individuals, families and communities will be limited, or even ineffective.
Secondly, developing a team to help with grant opportunities can transform a nonprofit’s capabilities. If a nonprofit isn’t equipped to secure funding with its own team, there are technologically sophisticated outsourcing solutions available.
For example, Tri-Universal uses their own experienced team to provide backend administrative solutions like grant research and timely creation of proposals. They search with targeted algorithms to find the options that work best for a particular nonprofit, and deftly develop a grant proposal that uses the right keywords while effectively communicating an organization’s story and passion.
Obtaining grant funding provides a nonprofit with a wider range of options in pursuing its core mission, and a greater number of options can help build and sustain a healthy organization with unlimited opportunities.
