How to Maintain Happy Staff

Whether it’s your support staff in the office, your fundraisers, or even your volunteers, it’s important to take steps to keep your entire team happy. After all, job satisfaction and morale have a direct effect on performance, and happy staff are more likely to be a productive one! All it takes is just one or two disengaged members to affect the mood and ability of your entire organisation!

Take the following steps to create a workplace environment that’s energising and enjoyable, and that will support your staff and encourage them to give their best effort every single day!

Trust

No one likes to feel as though someone is always looking over their shoulder trying to catch them in a mistake. One of the best things that you can do to create a healthy workspace is to trust your team and their abilities. Empower them to make decisions and act to fix minor issues. Trust them with meaningful work. Give them opportunities to learn new things by cross-training in other departments and encourage task sharing and teamwork.

Education

Make sure that your team is ready to perform its duties well by giving them everything that they need to be well equipped and prepared. This means offering them training and guidance and providing them with updated tools and equipment that will increase their productivity and make it easier to complete their assigned tasks. Nothing is quite so frustrating as trying to use outdated hardware and software to complete duties that would be easier and faster to perform with current equipment and continuing education.

Communication

Does your team know what’s expected of them? Do they understand your workplace culture and are they a good fit for your organisation’s values and goals? Do they share your vision and mission? Regardless of someone’s position in your organisation, make sure that you have clearly communicated to them their roles, responsibilities and rights. Talk with them on a regular basis about their performance, as well as their short, mid-range and long-term career goals. Learn about each member’s needs and seek ways to help them meet their career objectives, including connecting them with people and resources that can help them learn new skills and gain new experience that will help them grow on both a personal and professional level.

Respect

Be realistic in your expectations for your team regarding their performance and the commitments you ask from them in terms of time and effort. Show them that you respect them as people by being sensitive to their needs for time away from your organisation to meet other obligations and have time to rest and relax. Offer flexible scheduling and other accommodations to be more inclusive, diverse and fair. Acknowledge your team and specific members when their performance truly stands out and exceeds your expectations. In addition to regular praise, look for ways to express your gratitude for their hard work on a personal level that your individual members will find meaningful.

As you repeat each of the four steps over time, the bonds between you and your team will strengthen, performance will improve as will comradery and morale. You will have created a robust and resilient organisation one interaction, and person, at a time!

How to Maintain Fundraising Success

Burnout is a very real concern in the not-for-profits sector. It’s not just something that befalls staff members and volunteers, either. Donors can also fall victim to fatigue and decrease their interest and engagement with your NFP. To prevent burnout, you need to understand the natural cycles that affect your relationships with your donors and take steps to build your connection with them to keep increasing the results of your fundraising campaigns.

Build a Foundation

Regardless of whether it’s a personal or professional relationship, it takes time to get to know others and establish rapport. In the early days of your nonprofit, your focus should be on creating a donor acquisition plan. During this stage of development, your main goals are to find as many ways as possible to introduce your nonprofit, it’s work, and, yourself, to your community.

Maintain Your Relationships

As interest begins to build in your nonprofit, it’s important that you don’t spread yourself too thin. Recruit board members and others in your organisation to help you with your outreach to your donors. Offer fundraising campaigns that will appeal to a wide range of potential donors. Follow up personally with those key individuals who are most excited and engaged with your work.

As you work on maintaining and strengthening bonds with your community, look for ways to gain insight and feedback from your service beneficiaries, as well as your donors and other supporters. This way you can learn more about the true needs in your community, and what donors want to see from your organisation in terms of programs and services as well as information. Make certain that your programs put beneficiaries first, to ensure that your services are relevant.

Keep the channels of communication open and explain the difference that you are making in human, relatable terms. Doing so will help to build trust and credibility in your community. At this stage, you should be encouraging those who make annual or one-time gifts to consider making recurring gifts and always be encouraging your donors to support your organisation in multiple ways.

Prepare for the Future

As the relationship between your donors and organisation grows and matures, look for ways to show your gratitude to your key donors. In addition to thank you notes and acknowledgements which you should send to all donors at every level, celebrate how much your organisation has already been able to accomplish. Keep in touch with your key donors and keep them informed about the progress you are making. Share and emphasise your nonprofit’s vision for the future.

Ask donors for their insight and input on your future goals and what type of impact they would like to see occur. Use the information that you learn to create proposals that are tailored to the needs of individual donors and ask them to consider making a substantial investment in your work so that together, you can build a better future for your community.  

How to Make the Most of Your NFP/For-Profit Partnerships

Premium partnerships allow each party to focus on what they do best so that each one can leverage the synergy that is created when they cooperate, rather than compete. Such alliances allow each partner to achieve more than it would on its own and lets everyone make the best use of all their resources. This way less is wasted through the duplication of services or other assets.

The following strategies will help you and your partners reap the full benefits offered by collaborative relationships.

How Does the Partnership Serve Each Party’s Mission?

For collaborations to be worthwhile, they must serve the interests of each party. One way to ensure that everyone’s needs are being met is to look at each organisation’s values and mission. When creating the framework for your partnership, look for ways that the parties can cooperate and advance one another’s core objectives so that they are in alignment with each other's mission.

Take into Consideration What Each  Prospective Partner Has to Offer

Many corporate sponsors are content to provide cash donations to a nonprofit that they support, but, others wish to take a more hands-on approach. To make the most of this assistance, take into consideration how the for-profit partner is uniquely qualified to aid the NFP.

For example, they might lend the expertise of their staff to help with logistics, technical support, training or other similar assistance. If the company has products and services that the NFP or its members would find useful, it might donate hardware or software to help the nonprofit grow sustainably or improve its ability to deliver programs and thereby increase its impact in the community.

Use Branding and Messaging to Build Support for Each Partner

Each partner should provide high-resolution copies of their official logos, mottos and other brand messaging that can be used in public releases, news items and other communications so that each partner can benefit from the positive publicity and build their brand. Each party should share releases on their websites and social media channels. Designate key members of each organisation to act as community ambassadors that explain the work that the partners are accomplishing through their collaboration.

Create a Formal, Written Agreement

Make sure that your partnership gets started on the right track by creating a formal document that outlines the roles and responsibilities of each partner. Be very clear about what each partner will bring to the relationship.

Create a framework for managing the partnership. Designate contacts in each organisation that will be responsible for the management of the partnership. This document should define the purpose of your partnership, articulate your shared goals and outline your agreed upon policies and practices. It should include the guidelines that will be followed regarding leadership, communication and conflict resolution. Taking this approach from the very start will allow you to have more open and honest discussions and reduce potential confusion and misunderstandings.

Build Trust to Boost Your Donations

The more that your supporters trust you to keep your promises to put their contributions to good use, the more likely they are to donate to your cause. Donations from both individuals and businesses are critical to helping your nonprofit grow sustainably, as this type of funding typically doesn’t come with pre-conditions on how it is to be spent. When your NFP receives donations, you usually just need to ensure that they are used for a charitable purpose that advances your mission. The following three strategies will help you develop stronger relationships and greater trust with your donors and encourage greater giving.  

Use Consistent Messaging to Eliminate Confusion and Strengthen Your Brand

Do your supporters know what your organisation stands for? What images come to mind when they hear your name and tagline or see your logo? Are your messages consistent with your values and does it bring your mission into sharp focus? Use consistent messages across all your communication channels to create a strong brand identity for your nonprofit that will increase your NFP’s reputation.

Increase Transparency

One trend that nonprofits must stay on top of is donors’ growing desire for detailed information about NFP finances and activities. One way to increase understanding about your nonprofit’s position is to publish your financial results frequently. 

Release the minutes of your board meetings and hold your meetings in public so that your supporters have ample opportunity to review your NFP’s decision-making processes. Show your donors exactly how their contribution impacts your organisation, and how their donation will specifically be used to advance your mission forward!

Develop Relationships and Avoid the Hard Sell

Most of us are more likely to give to causes that resonate with us and because we have some personal connection to the mission.  Focus on open communication and building strong relationships with your current donors and prospects. Take the time to connect with them and learn what makes them “tick” as individuals so that you can show them how contributing to your NFP helps them as well as others. Reach out to your supporters on a regular basis to keep them updated on your activities and the progress that you are making.

Segment your donor lists and adjust your approach based on the frequency and size of individual donations. If someone declines to give a gift, thank them for supporting your nonprofit and ask them to continue their support in other forms. For example, just because someone can’t or won’t donate right now doesn’t mean that they are unwilling to advocate on your behalf or volunteer. Look for ways to streamline and simplify the donation process so that transactions are fast, secure and simple.

Finally, don’t forget to show your gratitude to your donors and other supporters. Automatically thank your online contributors, and follow up with a more personalised, handwritten thank you note. Or, if you prefer, you can pick up the phone and call them to show your heartfelt thanks! 

When Was the Last Time You Reviewed Your Volunteer Program?

Are you putting your volunteer’s talents to their best use? If you do not see the value you expect from your volunteer program, it’s probably time for a complete assessment. Once you know what parts of your program are working well, and which aren’t, you can act to improve the program for both your participants as well as your nonprofit! The following steps will help you dig deep into your processes so that you can identify areas for improvement and increase your results!

Build a Process to Review Your Program

If this is the first time that you’ve put serious effort and energy into reviewing your program, you will need to create a process for review. Break the program down into vital areas. What are your basic expectations for all volunteers? Are there positions that require specific skills and abilities? How does this impact your expectations?

Divide your expectations into categories, typically along the lines of exceeds expectations, meets requirements, and needs additional improvement. Once you have outlined your expectations, and benchmarks, create a template that you will use to review the work of your volunteers.

Create a Review Template

In this template, you will want to designate areas where you will measure items important to your nonprofit such as basic skills, punctuality and individual goals. When evaluating an individual volunteer with the template, you will then measure their performance for each category.

In addition to deciding whether they meet or exceed requirements, demonstrate their success with specific examples of how well they are doing. Another area that you may want to include in your template is one where you can gather feedback from individual volunteers about what they like about the program, and their suggestions for improvement. Use these suggestions to help you uncover ways that you can improve the program to make it better for your volunteers and the people they assist.

Increase the Frequency that You Offer Feedback

Once you have a process to evaluate the performance of your individual volunteers, decide how frequently you will offer feedback. Usually, it’s a good idea to decide on a probationary period for your newest volunteers as they are just beginning to become acquainted with your organisation and their role within it.

Once they are past this hurdle, quarterly or even monthly reviews aren’t a bad idea, although some nonprofits only conduct an annual review. The more frequently that you survey your volunteers, the sooner that you can help them take corrective action to improve their performance, as well as gain insight on how they feel about their work, and ways that you could improve your program.

Don’t Forget to Survey Your Stakeholders

Speaking with your volunteers about their work for your organisation is just part of the process. Review your program with your NFP’s stakeholders, including your donors, members and other service recipients, and any third-party partners you may have. What have they experienced in their encounters with your organisation’s volunteers? Are their needs being met? What are their suggestions to improve its benefits?

Analyse Feedback from Volunteers and Stakeholders and Act

Once you’ve evaluated the performance of your volunteers, received their suggestions for improvement and surveyed your stakeholders about your work, look at the information that you’ve received and translate it into data that can assist you in locating areas that need improvement. For example, you might be receiving a lot of feedback from volunteers that have a hard time using your existing software to capture member information. This could mean that your volunteers need more training on how to use your programs, or, it could also mean that your existing software needs an upgrade to something that’s faster and easier to use.

Your first action would be to investigate further to pinpoint the source of the problem, and once found, your goal would be to take the next action that best remedies the problem. You could decide to retrain your staff on the use of the software and then set a goal of reducing complaints by 50%. If after re-training the goal was met, you would know that your solution is on the right track. If, however, retraining did little to reduce the problem, then you would know that you would need to attempt another solution, such as upgrading.

Benefits of Reviewing Your Volunteer Program

Talking with your volunteers and stakeholders is the best way to gain valuable insight into which of your policies, practices and procedures are working well. It’s also the best way to give your volunteers the coaching and guidance that they need to learn more about your organisation’s work, how to fit in with the culture and how to stay focused and in alignment with your mission as they complete their daily tasks and fulfil their duties. Creating a formal review process for both individual volunteers and the program overall helps you to ensure that you are using the same standards during evaluations which increases fairness and transparency and decreases bias, improving the quality of the information that you receive so that you can set more realistic goals and better action plans to increase your results.

Indicators of NFP Success

Do you know the true impact, and value, of your nonprofit’s work? How far have you been able to advance your mission? Do your staff and volunteers produce work efficiently? Are you making the best use of all your resources, and are you able to leverage them to make a lasting difference in your community?

These are just a few of the questions that your donors and other supporters are likely to ask about your nonprofit before they contribute. After all, most of us want to feel that our gifts are being put to good use.

Each of these questions points to a larger one that can be difficult to clearly define: is your NFP successful?

Using Metrics to Gauge Success

There are many metrics that you can use to try to measure and quantify your progress. For example, the per cent of the funding that you spend on programs vs. overhead costs, and how much your membership rolls have grown over last year’s numbers do provide some insight into whether you are managing your finances well, and, if your organisation is growing.

These numbers, however, can be a bit deceptive because they don’t provide a complete picture. Statistics like these are primarily focused on your nonprofit’s management of two factors: it’s inputs and outputs.

Inputs look at the relationship between the number of resources that were used for specific activities, whereas outputs look at the services, programs and other activities performed by the nonprofit. The problem is that neither of these categories provides any insight into whether your program participants, or society as a whole, actually benefit from your nonprofit’s work. Regardless of how well you manage your organisation’s finances and how solid your bottom line appears, are you really successful if you aren’t making a meaningful, positive difference in your community?

A better measurement of success, which usually isn’t revealed by the metrics presented in financial statements or their notes and supplements, is to look at the outcomes that are a direct result of your nonprofit’s work.

Measuring Outcomes

In its simplest form, using outcomes to determine success is an attempt to measure whether your nonprofit is working towards its purpose. Measuring outcomes isn’t about counting up the amount of resources that you’ve used, or the number of services you’ve offered in your community. To determine whether you are making real progress towards solving the issue, you must tie your metrics to the actual mission.

Break your mission down into the steps that need to be taken to achieve it. Customise your metrics to measure just how well you are achieving these performance-driven goals.

While it’s tempting to oversimply your mission at this point,  nonprofits should be careful to set goals and take action that actually gets at the heart of the social problem they are trying to solve and not just treat its symptoms. Choose metrics and benchmarks that illustrate the impact made by your activities. Who benefits from them, and how much have they benefited from your work?

When attempting to measure how successful your outcomes are, it’s essential to examine impact through both a short, and long-term lens. Measure the progress being made towards solving the problem by looking at performance throughout your organisation. Are you setting your organisation up for long-term success and sustainability, or, are you shortchanging the future and jeopardising your NFP’s ability to drive change in the long term by failing to build capacity and neglecting the need to invest in, and develop, your people?

Is your nonprofit genuinely successful? The answer is hard to quantify, but, if you are making a real difference in the lives of your service recipients while investing in your infrastructure, you are well on our way to creating a strong, vibrant NFP capable of making a positive difference that’s sustainable and poised for long-term success! 

Survival Tips for NFPs for the 2018-2019 Financial Year

A new fiscal year has just begun for most nonprofits! The following strategies can help your NFP ensure its survival and growth in the coming year!

Know Thy Self

Do you and your board fully understand your core mission, and, does your strategic planning and other decisions consider whether an activity or expenditure is in direct support of it? There is an increasing push for organisations to offer more programs and services, often at the expense of taking the steps that are necessary to strengthen the NFP and position it for sustainable growth. Keeping your eyes “on the prize” by focusing efforts on achieving your core mission will help prevent resource draining mission creep and help you build a strong, resilient nonprofit.

Know Your Audience

Do you know, and understand, the different segments of your audience? Do you know their tastes and preferences, age, education level, occupation and other demographics? The more that you can learn about the key groups that comprise your audience, the easier it is to create content that is relevant to them, increasing your authority in your specific area of expertise, and making you the go-to source for information in your niche. This makes it easier to create meaningful content that will be consumed, enjoyed and shared by your supporters, which increases the reach of your messages and makes it easier to raise funds, reach recruiting targets, and make a genuine, lasting difference in your community.

Develop Your Board and Staff

To make wise decisions, each member of your board needs to be fully engaged with your NFP and its work. Focusing on your core mission can free up funds that can be spent on training and other development projects that increase the knowledge of all your board members, improving their ability to take wise action to advance your cause. It also allows you to invest in your key people, including staff and volunteers, so that they have what they need to perform their tasks well and actively engage with service beneficiaries and other key stakeholders in your community.

Make inclusion, diversity and equality a priority for your organisation and the people that you attract to it. By diversifying the backgrounds and experiences of your supporters, you increase your ability to create relevant services, in addition to useful content, improving your decision-making capability, as well as your performance in other areas, in the long term.

Build Your Brand and Choose Your Channels

Another key focus of thriving nonprofits is that they invest in building and developing their brand. Use the information that you learn about your audience to reach supporters using the means of communication that they prefer. Build a stronger brand image by focusing on your NFPs values and vision and keeping your messages on target. Choose specific social media, and other communication channels to reach key segments of your target audience to improve your fundraising performance and other metrics.

Don’t Remain Silent

Have figures from your nonprofit, such as your executive director, board members, volunteers and other supporters speak out on the social issues that affect your nonprofit’s community. Encourage all your supporters to share your posts, as well as get involved on their local level to speak up about your cause and the work that your nonprofit is doing to make things better. Encourage advocacy at every level of your organisation and help your people to build their connections with diverse groups of individuals and institutions to increase support for your work.

Make Strategic Planning a Priority

While no one has a crystal ball that allows them to create plans for every possible contingency those organisations that can respond rapidly to dramatic change are the ones that fare best. Make planning a priority for your board, as well as other key leaders in your nonprofit. Don’t just have one backup plan. Try to anticipate upcoming changes that may drastically alter support for your organisation and its work. Create plans that will enable your nonprofit to continue its work despite what happens with Government budgets, the overall economy, political upheaval and other changes that can harm weaker organisations that have failed to prepare for change.

Finetune Your Networking Introduction

The old saying that you never get a second chance to make a great first impression is very true, and introductions are critical because they have the power to define one’s relationship with others forever. The following tips will help you improve your introductions so that you make a good first impression and start things out on a positive note!

Selling Your Brand to Others

Regardless of the work that any of us do, we are all engaged in a type of “selling” when we meet others. When we are introduced to someone, we typically want them to like us and trust us, so we are literally pitching them our personal brand.

Similarly, when we introduce our nonprofit to others, we also want to make a good first impression. We want others to care about our cause and become willing to help us advance it forward. We are, in effect, selling our NFP’s brand.

In a great introduction, we display confidence and make it easy for others to want to connect with us and our organisation.

Focus on Impact, Rather than Activities

When introducing ourselves to others, most of us focus on the activities that we do. We’ll typically greet someone with a hello, and then state our name, our employer’s name and our job title. While this is a very common practice, it does little to tell others about what it is that we really do. It doesn’t convey anything that tells our audience why our work is important, or why they should trust us and help us.

A better way to introduce ourselves and our organisation, is to focus on the impact made by our work. When creating your introduction, think of a way to explain in just a couple of sentences, what it is that you are doing to help others. This simple technique encourages greater interest in your cause and connects you with others in a more meaningful way.

Keep it Short and Sweet

While you want to help others connect with your work on a human and emotional level, keep in mind that your introduction is not the time to go into a full, detail-heavy analysis of what you and your organisation do for others. It should only be two to three short sentences and take about half a minute.

Ideally, your introduction should be easy to remember and say. It should also be interesting and capture your audience’s attention and make them want to learn more. It should summarise what you have to offer to others in a clear, concise, succinct way.

Practice Makes Perfect

Once you’ve distilled the essence of your work into two to three short, snappy sentences, you should practice saying your introduction so that it comes naturally to you. Practice helps you to relax during introductions so that you appear more at ease and confident. This, in turn, will help others to relax and gain greater trust and confidence in you, and your nonprofit! Don’t forget to customise your introduction to better fit the circumstances of specific events and your audience.

Your Team is the Best Resource You Have

Whether your nonprofit is staffed solely by volunteers, or positions at least partially paid, your people are your organisation’s most valuable asset. Your staff is the creative engine for identifying problems and finding new solutions to hard questions as well as accomplishing all of the hard work that benefits your service community. Without them, it’s impossible to create meaningful impact.

Despite their importance to achieving your goals, many nonprofit’s neglect their staff’s needs, and the results show up as a loss of worker productivity, donor engagement and your beneficiaries’ satisfaction.

To keep your staff on task and fully engaged, you must look after them, and find ways to increase the enjoyment that they experience working with your organisation. The following strategies can boost your team’s morale and keep them motivated to help your NFP meet its objectives and goals.

Spruce up the Workspace

The environment that we work in can have a direct, immediate impact on our energy levels, mood and sense of well-being. Give your team a boost by investing in quality lighting, including natural sources of light, and ensuring that they have the tools, material and equipment that they need to perform their work well.

This means investing in quality, ergonomically designed desks, chairs, computers and other hardware for office workers, and providing laptops and other mobile devices for workers that telecommute or otherwise work off-site. Invest in current software and other upgrades to ensure that your best people don’t become frustrated by hanging apps and lost data that sap willpower and decrease productivity.

Do Something Different, Exciting, and Fun as a Team

Team building exercises are great for increasing comradery and morale and helping your people learn how to cooperate and collaborate with one another. You could do something simple, such as hosting an office party or have a potluck at work, where everyone contributes a dish to a group meal, but why not make this event something to truly remember by hosting an offsite event.

If you have the budget, schedule your staff to take a joint field trip to a local amusement park, enjoy a picnic together on the beach. Whatever activity you choose, take steps to ensure that it is something that most of your staff will enjoy.

Perks and Rewards Have Their Place

While they should never take the place of just compensation that is due to your staff, partnering with third parties to offer meaningful rewards for exceptional service and dedication can help you show your staff that you do truly appreciate their effort and hard work.

To make sure that your rewards program is hitting the mark, conduct a survey to find out what types of rewards most appeal, and then work on incorporating as many of these ideas as possible into your program.

Be Flexible with Time Commitments

Another way to show your team that you understand their needs and value them for the unique people that they are is to offer schedules and time commitments that take into consideration real-world needs. Look for ways to allow team members to trade shifts and tasks to help them be able to meet their commitments to your nonprofit and their personal lives. Try to allow as many of your staff as possible to work remotely and offer multiple shifts and ranges of time for your people to have as many opportunities to work helping out at your NFP into their other obligations.

Provide Praise and Public Recognition

Everyone likes to have their hard work acknowledged and an appropriate level of gratitude expressed for their effort. Use your social media channels to give shout-outs to your team, host awards ceremonies, and otherwise publish notifications of your staff’s dedication to your organisation. In addition to these larger, more public efforts, never neglect an opportunity to “catch” your people doing something right and offer them praise on the spot.

Whether it’s a firm handshake and a heartfelt thank you spoken out loud or sending thanks in an email on a daily basis, let your team know how much their work means to you and your nonprofit! The more you can express your gratitude to your people, the more likely they will be thankful for the opportunities that your organisation offers them to help your service community!

How Volunteering Can Help Your Career

Many individuals consider volunteering because they want to give something back to their communities. They sometimes hold back and resist taking the plunge because they worry they won’t have the time and energy to commit to volunteering and working in a paid position as well. When it comes to filling the post of volunteer treasurer, many of the duties that need to be performed can seem so overwhelming that it makes folks reluctant to take on the role.

If you have a good bookkeeping software to help back you and your processes up, so that its quick and easy to keep your accounts updated, serving as a volunteer treasurer offers several benefits that far outweigh any concerns that might be holding you back from volunteering.

This is especially true if you want to move up in the current organisation where you work, or enter a new field completely as volunteering at a nonprofit offers the following benefits for your career prospects.

Improve Your Job Performance by Improving Your Health

Many nonprofit volunteers report that the work that they do to help others improves their self-esteem, personal satisfaction and confidence. They also report feeling calmer, less stressed and more at ease. This boost to your mental health makes you more resistant to the effects of stress and can boost overall immunity.

When our minds and bodies are healthy, and our immunity and mood are high, it’s easier for us to resist common colds and other bugs as they make the rounds in the workplace. This provides an indirect benefit to our careers since being healthy and resistant to stress reduces absenteeism and makes it easier to achieve peak performance so that we get noticed and promoted at work!

Increase Your Flexibility

Volunteering can be a great way to practice your existing skills, as well as pick up new ones if the volunteer work that you perform involves tasks and duties outside of your previous background. This makes volunteering the ideal way to keep your existing skills current as well as pick up new ones.

Prospective employers that see your volunteer work on your resume, and become aware of all of the tasks and duties that you fulfilled in your role are more likely to see you as the flexible and motivated employee that they need. It can also increase your chances of promotion and other forms of advancement.

Meet New People

As a volunteer, it’s likely that you will have the opportunity to meet and talk with people you would never have otherwise. Not only will you work with other volunteers, but you’ll also probably meet some of the beneficiaries of your nonprofit’s services. You may also come into close contact with donors, staff, board members, other volunteers and advocates.

Each time that you meet and interact with someone new, you are being given an opportunity to connect with people from diverse backgrounds who share your interests and values. When it comes time to find a new position, your new connections may well be the ones that help you locate your next paying position!

Spur Your Creativity, Cooperation and Critical Thinking Abilities

Most volunteers wear many hats in their organisations. Working with different groups of people, completing tasks and searching for solutions on the fly are all activities that you will likely perform as a volunteer. Activities like these boost your creativity, as well as improve your ability to cooperate and collaborate on shared projects and improve your ability to analyse information and reach logical, well thought out conclusions.

So, what’s so great about improving your ability to create, get along with others and make good decisions? These characteristics just happen to be some of the top traits shared by the world’s most successful leaders. Serving as treasurer or other volunteer gives you a chance to polish your leadership and gives you a head start on how to lead yourself and your team to greater levels of success!

How to Improve the Success of Your Digital Team

Is your digital team achieving the results that you want, especially in terms of engagement and growth? If not, your NFP certainly isn’t alone. According to the results of a study conducted by SSIR, around 40% of nonprofits report that the way that their digital teams are structured causes problems or simply doesn’t work to achieve the results that they want and need to thrive and grow.

The same study found that many NFPs have teams that lack diversity, and, that fail to encourage greater donor engagement with their nonprofits. If you want to improve the results of your digital messaging, your organisation must become more inclusive, and representative of the populations that you are trying to reach. Your messaging must also forge genuine relationships with donors to increase engagement.

The following tips can help your NFP improve the effectiveness of your digital team.

Become More Inclusive and Digital Friendly

Increasing the diversity of your digital team begins with increasing the diversity of your leaders, and your organisation overall. Take steps to review your recruitment and training processes to look for ways that your organisation has unconscious bias or institutional barriers that discourage immigrants, those in the LGBQT community, or other minorities from joining your nonprofit.

Develop onboarding processes that help those that are new to your organisation to understand their role and your NFP’s culture. Create mentorship programs that identify, support and develop leadership candidates that are well-versed in the use of technology and the role digital plays in achieving your mission.

Break Down Silos and Unleash Your Digital Team!

Don’t confine your digital team to the bubble of a single department, such as communications. Wherever possible, encourage greater collaboration with your digital team and other departments within your organisation.  

Have digital report directly to the executive director as the head of any other department would do and involve them in the decision-making process, especially when it comes to the design and implementation of your messaging and fundraising campaigns.

Focus on Engagement

Engagement is a hot topic in nonprofits today, yet, as the above study shows, 43% of NFPs don’t have anyone dedicated to donor engagement, and 75% fail to track metrics that measure and evaluate engagement.

If you want to improve your fundraising results, then your nonprofit must invest in harnessing digital’s power to facilitate relationship building, increasing communication with donors and encouraging greater involvement.

Don’t stop at a petition or donation request. Create regular events for your donors to deepen their connection with your organisation by taking direct action in the real, physical world on a regular basis that advances your mission.

Make sure your budget is realistic, and that it provides the level of funding that is needed to genuinely strengthen your digital teams and empower them to set and achieve ambitious targets!  

The Keys To The Success Of Your NFP

Creating a successful nonprofit takes more than the desire to lead positive change in your community. In addition to making a genuine impact, your organisation must be able to survive over the long term and grow at a sustainable level.

The following strategies can help you lay a strong foundation upon which to build and grow a focused, and resilient, organisation that moves its mission forward.

Clearly Define Your Purpose

It’s so much easier for organisations to make real progress when everyone shares the same values and focuses on the same goals. Nonprofit leaders should set the tone and pace of their organisation by clearly defining the reason why the NFP exists in their statement of purpose and include a list of activities that they will and will not pursue in the organisation’s formal bylaws.

Recruit and Retain Top Talent

Every organisation is only as strong as its weakest link. The people on your team are your most important asset, which means that whether you're searching for a director, support staff, or volunteers for your NFP, you need to take steps to ensure that you can attract and keep knowledgeable, skilled and gifted candidates for both paid, and unpaid, positions.

To help in your search for the best candidates, create a written description for every position within your NFP, whether it’s paid or unpaid. Not only will this help you to have a firmer grasp of the traits and qualities you need, clarifying roles, duties and responsibilities, it helps all parties get started on a better footing. Make sure that you conduct interviews, as well as background checks on all potential candidates before they begin work.

Activities like training, career guidance, peer-mentoring and job shadowing can help you ensure that each person that you bring on board will have the tools that they need to make a positive contribution to your team. Establish formal policies and protocols to increase open communication and quickly resolve any conflicts that arise to boost morale and workplace satisfaction.

Set Goals with Realistic Expectations

Creating goals that do not have a specific target, start and stop date, and are not easily measured, are usually unobtainable at the start. Whether it’s increasing the results of your fundraising efforts or the number and quality of services that you provide your beneficiaries, make sure that you are setting specific goals, with results that can be measured. This will make it easier to hit your target.

Keep All Your Stakeholders Updated and in the Loop

Do your volunteers know how important they are to achieving your goals? Do you show gratitude and fill them in on the results of their efforts? What about your donors? Do they know what’s truly at stake and understand how even very small, but consistent donations, can add up over time and help you achieve greater results? Do your service beneficiaries understand what you can do to help make their lives better?

Provide all stakeholders with frequent updates on the status of your projects and drives, and their results. Look for ways to get the word out about everyone’s hard work and other contributions across multiple media channels. Explain results in human “real world” terms to increase your stakeholder’s emotional connection to your organisation. And last, but certainly not least, never neglect an opportunity to express your gratitude for everyone’s contributions to your cause.

Admin Bandit – Making it Easy for Volunteer Treasurers

Many volunteer treasurers long for an easier way to keep up with all of their bookkeeping and reporting requirements, but dread the thought of installing a new software system, and learning how to use it. While any time of year is a great time to consider trying Admin Bandit’s bookkeeping suite, the end of year is an especially great time to give it a try.

Save Time at the End of the Year

Since its fully automated, it can help treasurers reclaim some of their valuable time. The holidays are full of frenzied, last minute activities, so anything that can help you save time is especially beneficial.

Fast and Easy Set Up

What does it take to get started using it? About two minutes. All you need to enter is your NPF’s banking information, unpaid invoices and member details. Once this data has been entered, log back in and you’re ready to go!

Increase Accuracy and Remain in Compliance

Important tasks, such as recording transactions and reconciling statements, are basically done for users using the software’s automated processes. The software also calculates GST and other payments automatically as well, and prompts users about when they need to file reports, and when they are required to be lodged. These features improve the accuracy of your records and helps your NFP to remain in compliance with various reporting rules and regulations.

Protect Your Financial Information and Other Data

Since everything is stored online, in the cloud, you no longer must worry about losing your information to the results of a disaster, such as a flood or fire. It also makes your data more secure and reduces the risk of loss due to physical theft or corruption of your data.

Automatic Updates

Users also never have to worry about their software going out of date, since its automatically updated any time there is a change in the programming. Just login online to ensure that you have the latest version of the software, which is updated any time there is a change in reporting or other requirements.

Historical Data

Once you’re used the software for a while, the system will begin to provide historical reports which makes it easier to identify changes that occur over time. This feature is helpful whether there have been changes to your members list, or in the actual performance of a specific department. Regardless of where change has occurred, you and your board will have a handle on it!

This makes it easier for boards to make more informed decisions that will affect the NFP’s finances, and increases transparency in the decision-making process. Having a bookkeeping system that basically does much of the work for you will also go a long way towards making it easier to recruit your NFP’s next volunteer treasurer!

If you would like to see just how easy the software is to use for yourself, why not sign-up today for a free 55-day trial? 

Merry Christmas And A Happy New Year

We hope you all have a wonderful Christmas and enjoy the festive break. We look forward to catching up with you in 2018 in what we hope will be a fantastic and prosperous new year.

Thanks always for your continued support.

Tips to Improve Your Funding Options

Does your fundraising strategy consist mainly of a vague idea to raise “more money than last year” and little else? Without financial clarity, and a strategy to optimise your organisation’s sources for funding, your nonprofit will find it difficult, and next to impossible to secure the monies that it needs to operate at a sustainable level and create actual impact for your cause.

The following strategies can help your organisation broaden its base of financial support by increasing the number of sources it has for funding.

Grants

Rather than relying solely on donations from individuals, consider searching for grants that are a good fit for your organisation. Grants can come from Federal or State governments as well as public and private entities such as foundations and corporations.

The applications process is typically quite lengthy, and complex, and there is usually stiff competition for these funds, so your NFP can benefit by bringing on board an experienced grant writer to help them with the proposal and applications process.

Sponsorships

Instead of trying to do everything on your own, consider reaching out to third parties for help in securing funding, and other resources, that will enable you to provide services and advance your cause.

Sponsorships and other collaborations can come from the commercial and government sectors, or might involving partnering with one more parties from the not-for-profit sector that will allow each to focus on performing the work that they do well. Groups can also cooperate and allow each to access resources that the other has to increase the amount of work that is performed by both groups.

Maximise Individual Contributions

Nonprofits can increase their funding simply by looking for opportunities to maximise the number and amount of individual donations that they receive.

To accomplish this goal, your fundraising approach should seek out ways to make it easy for supporters to give online, and give by their preferred means of payment.

Focus on encouraging repeat donors by developing a monthly giving program.

Approach board members and other key influencers that are connected with your organisation to reach out to potential big donors to support your NFP with a large contribution.

Crowdsourcing platforms can be a great way to raise awareness about your cause and encourage donations when they use storytelling to illustrate what is at stake if the issue your organisation is trying to tackle remains unsolved. Options to customise the message and share the campaign easily on social media will increase the number of folks that see your plea and follow through with a contribution.

Special Events

Standard fundraising events, such as charity auctions, galas and balls can be a good way to raise funds for your organisation, but only if they are cost-effective to host. If your NFP will not make a net profit from the event that’s worth the time and effort it takes to plan the event and hold it, you may want to limit the number and type of events that you throw as part of your fundraising efforts.

Consider Options that Increase Your Capacity for Self-Funding

While nonprofits are not designed to operate at a profit, since their main function is to serve the public good, this doesn’t mean that they should operate in an unsustainable manner. Your nonprofit can increase the soundness of its finances to look for ways to self-fund its growth. Does your nonprofit have assets that can be used to fund operations?

For example, would you be able to offer beneficiaries a higher level of service if you charged a fee for certain services? Would rents or activity fees allow you to do more good work, without compromising your core mission and goals? Is there a way to invest some of your funds that will enable your organisation to generate a passive income stream that could be used to fund operations and build capacity? Would selling some products and services allow your organisation to raise the funds that it needs while remaining in alignment with your organisations values?

While each NFP’s answer will be different to questions like these, if income generating activities don’t violate your nonprofit’s values or create another conflict, they can be a good way to raise the growth supporting funds that your organisation needs to survive and thrive.

How to Keep Your Team Happy

High turnover extracts a heavy toll on all organisations, particularly those in the not-for-profit sector. Not only does it waste the time, money and other precious resources that your NFP uses to train its people, turnover increases inefficiency in your organisation as your nonprofit must now go to the effort of finding, training and retaining new personnel.

Long before they leave, unhappy staff and volunteers impact your organisation in terms of the quality of service it provides all stakeholders. If you want to keep your team, and ensure that they are fully engaged in their work for your service community, your NFP’s leadership must make some effort to keep them happy.

The following are a few tips to help your nonprofit better meet the needs of its volunteers and staff members.

Empowerment and Flexibility

Regardless of anyone’s job title and duties, at least some of the tasks that are performed each day seem redundant and unnecessary. Each of us is also an individual with our own tastes and preferences, so wherever it is possible, try to grant your team as much autonomy and authority as possible. Empower your people to make decisions and to take responsibility in the areas that they work in.

Allow staff and volunteers to switch things up during their workday by allowing them to cross train and do similar work, but in different departments. Not only does this help to prevent monotony and boredom, your nonprofit benefits from new insight and perspective brought by members from other areas of your NFP’s operations. It also improves your organisation’s flexibility during times when you might be understaffed in some departments but overstaffed in others.

Keep Everyone Up-to-Date

Have you ever had the experience of having people close to you keep a secret from you? How did it make you feel?

When we respect others, we bring them into our circle of confidence. Everyone wants to know what is going on, and what they need to do as a team to advance the mission forward.

Be accessible to your teams, and make yourself available to them. Have an open-door policy that works both ways. Hold regular meetings with your team members so that you can keep them updated as to your organisation’s goals, policies, and breaking news.

If your team is scattered across multiple locations, assemble them together in one central location with as many members of your team as possible. Next, bring the others in via live video conferencing on Skype or another online platform. Make an effort to give everyone a voice during your meetings so that everyone’s concerns or questions are heard and addressed.

When you openly communicate with your team, you build trust, respect and rapport. Your staff and volunteers learn that they can count on you to provide them with the information that they need to perform their tasks well. Your team also learns that you have their best interests at heart and are looking out for them.

Acknowledgement

When we work hard, it’s only natural to want our efforts to be recognised and appreciated. Make sure that you are taking concrete steps to show your team that you truly value them as people. Let them know you are grateful for all the hard work that they put into advancing the mission and meeting the needs of others.

Awards ceremonies, perks, rewards and letters of appreciation can all go a long way to show your team just how important they are to you and your organisation. While many nonprofits run on the proverbial shoestring budget, it’s important to avoid the tendency to substitute perks and recognition for comparable compensation.

For your paid staff and volunteers, offer a living wage that’s in line with what others in comparable fields and positions pay. Whether other members of your team are paid or unpaid, make sure that they have all the resources that they need to do their jobs well. Invest in replacing outdated systems and upgrading critical infrastructure. Offer updated training and use innovative technologies to reduce the strain and workload on your teams.

Truly honoring your team’s contribution to your organisation is about more than offering a token acknowledgement; it’s about being realistic about the demands that are placed on them. Give them everything they need to perform well including public recognition, realistic wages, current information and equipment.  

The Importance of Social Media for NFPs

If nonprofits wish to survive and thrive, they must have support. This support can come in many forms such as advocacy, donations, and volunteering.

Increasing Support Doesn’t Have to Be Costly

At its heart, social media marketing allows nonprofits to use one of the most successful, and oldest, forms of advertising to increase its base of support: social influence, or, word-of-mouth marketing. Social media campaigns are effective for increasing an NFP’s reach because their cost can be easily controlled by scaling campaigns up or down.

Once the initial content is created, connections within various networks spread the message on their own, creating organic support and traffic without incurring additional cost. Using social media to find and recruit supporters, however, isn’t just about controlling costs. The following is a brief overview of two additional reasons why nonprofits need to be using social media in their marketing campaigns and communications.

To Stay Competitive

Competition is a key factor that affects the impact and growth of every nonprofit, despite the increase in collaborations and partnerships between third parties.

Nonprofits compete to recruit skilled, talented people to serve on boards, and as staff members and volunteers. Funds are also a scarce resource, as there are not enough grants, endowments and individual contributions to fund every need.

Research shows that if you want your nonprofit to be able to recruit enough staff, volunteers, advocates and donors, then your nonprofit must have an online presence, and be using social media to spread the word about your cause and how others can help.

According to statistics provided in the 2016 Global NGO Online Technology Report, most not for profits worldwide are actively online using multiple social media channels to connect with supporters, accept donations and spread awareness about their NFP’s mission. A full 92% of NFPs have a website and 46% blog regularly, making it easy for online users to discover information about their mission and projects.

75% email their supporters’ donation requests and other news, and 75% accept donations online. 95% have a Facebook page, 83% have a profile on Twitter, and nearly 40% use Instagram to keep their supporters up-to-date and motivated about the good work that their organisation is accomplishing.

To be effective, nonprofits must use social media to stand out from all of their competitors in both the for-profit and not-for-profit world. They should use it to firmly establish their brand, and link their brand to their cause, their vision and the work that can be accomplished with the support of others.

To Remain Relevant

It’s not just other NFPs that are online. According to data on social media trends provided by Track Maven, nearly one third of the entire world’s population will be online by next year. Global Web Index statistics reveal that most online users have about 6 social media profiles and regularly use nearly half of them.

This data clearly illustrates why it’s so important for your nonprofit to enter this space! A growing number of us no longer get our news from traditional network broadcasts and media outlets. Instead, we are leveraging our social media networks to stay up-to-date on the latest news and events. We then share those stories that personally connect with us and then like or otherwise express an opinion about these posts with our connections.

To become a part of these crucial conversations and exchanges of ideas, you must be online, and using the social media channels where these conversations are taking place. To engage with potential supporters, you must be online where your supporters are likely to be. Otherwise your cause will go unnoticed and your projects will go unsupported. To stay relevant, nonprofits need to include social media in their marketing strategies, and engage their supporters on the social media channels of their choice.  

If your nonprofit is struggling to build its base of support, this is likely a sign that your social media strategy may need some fine-tuning to return the results that your nonprofit wants and needs. 

3 Essential Qualities Every Good Treasurer Must Have

A volunteer treasurer needs to be organised and good with figures. They must ensure they are on top of the situation from the very first day of the job. They should be passionate and motivated. They need to be trustworthy and available when the charity or nonprofit has a query or requires a report. The list is seemingly endless!

On top of these traits, and the many others we could name off the top of our head, there are three other qualities which a treasurer must have in order to make their job easier.

Professionalism

Regardless of how relaxed the organisation is, as a Volunteer Treasurer, it is your job to represent the NFP in a professional manner. Having a solid base of professionalism will make the job simpler, and you never know who may be watching. Remember your volunteer role may lead to other opportunities in the future. Conduct yourself professionally in all situations and show the NFP that you have a solid work ethic regardless of whether it is a paid or volunteer position.

Strength

A Volunteer Treasurer needs to be tough and strong. You should always stick to your guns and follow the rules and policies set in place. If there are no rules, then create them. Establishing solid business practices from the start will hold you in good stead. Financial control policies are there for an excellent reason. They prevent bookkeeping errors and fraud. Don’t let the team walk all over you or ask you to bend their rules just because they don’t like them. Stick to the rules and your colleagues will soon understand that you mean business.

Creativity

If your nonprofit has not embraced modern technology or made any changes in the last ten years, then you may have to put your creative hat on. Just because it has always been done that way, doesn’t mean it has to stay like that. A Volunteer Treasurer’s position involves a lot of responsibility, and often there are systems you can utilise to cut down your hours or improve your overall effectiveness. Look at software options such as Admin Bandit or endeavour to fine-tune those reports so they are more efficient. There are always alternative methods - you just need to find the ones which will assist you to streamline the procedures and save the NFP time and money. Do your research to understand what will fit the needs of the NFP and, of course, yourself.

Good luck!