Nonprofit Connectors

Have your dessert first

Why does dessert follow dinner? Why do we wait to have the most anticipated part of dinner for after we’ve stuffed ourselves with the sensible part of dinner?

About two years ago, Stacy Brice, owner of AssistU, had a What’s Next retreat where six fabulous women business owners met to work on taking our businesses to the next level. Stacy planned this weekend event so that we spent our dinners together. On this one night, I decided that I really didn’t want dinner. What I wanted more than anything was to have some crème brulee, first! So, I ordered my dessert. It arrived at the same time as everyone else’s dinner. We ate our food, and then it was time to order dessert; I had another crème brulee.

I’m sure you’ve heard the saying, “Go for what you really want!” Well, that’s exactly what I’m saying in this post. Don’t settle for just getting the job done, but actually go for the highest thing you can imagine for you and your business. Take the steps to make your new nonprofit exactly what you envision it can be. And, take your time making that happen. My friend Dawn Goldberg is launching a new site with exciting new news. Her goal was to have it released this Friday past, but it wasn’t up to her specifications. So, she’s delaying her launch until she’s got exactly what she wants to present to the public.

Happy Anniversary NPC

Nonprofit Connectors (affectionately called NPC) is a year old this month! It’s been an amazing journey to see my business go from a thought at Stacy Brice’s What’s Next to the reality it is today.

We experienced a huge setback early this year, when our community portal crashed, and we were unable to save it. However, we do have it on the planning board to re-introduce it the upcoming year. The community portal will be another place for support and building relationships with other nonprofit organizations.

Another great accomplishment has been the submittal of three articles posted on several article submission sites. The upcoming year finds me writing at least six more articles specifically for individuals starting nonprofit organizations. We moved the website to the TypePad site. So, you’ll see very nice buttons on the side bar (thank Jon Nix) that allow you to access the web pages. In addition, NPC has had the pleasure of helping individuals complete the 1023 form and attachments.

Out upcoming goals the first quarter of the new year include: writing six articles, assisting at least six clients with the start up process, and finalizing a resource tool we’ve been working on to help individuals start their nonprofit.

So how can we assist you? Do you have a nonprofit idea that you would like to have Showcased on our blog? Are you trying to start a nonprofit and need assistance? Or do you have a burning question that you would like to ask? Reach out to us; we would like to help make your nonprofit vision a reality.

Directors & Officers Insurance

Directors & Officers Insurance (commonly referred to as D&O insurance), is often overlooked by nonprofits for the simple reason they are uncertain whether or not they really need D&O coverage. Read this article noting compelling reasons to protect your organization. This should reassure you that D&O insurance has significant value to even the smallest nonprofit organization.

When a person becomes a board member, she assumes a level of responsibility for the organization and thus exposes herself to claims for not managing the organization properly. Even if the case brought against a board is thrown out, the organization still bears the brunt of having to pay the legal fees. Legal expenses could be brutal for a small organization and could even put them right out of business.
In general, D&O insurance includes coverage of an officer or director in the discharge of his/her duties. This includes but is not limited to:

• Any actual or alleged act
• Misstatement or misleading statement,
• Neglect or breach of duty
• Omission and/or error

As with all insurance policies, read the policy carefully to ensure it includes all the necessary components for your organization. Here is a checklist of issues to review when looking to purchase D&O insurance.

Creating Press Releases

Creating Press Releases

This isn’t necessarily a nonprofit specific topic, yet it is quite relevant. Press releases are an excellent source of marketing, and have the potential to connect you to the people you are trying to reach through your community work.

There are several great web resources that you can use to guide you through the process. Check out Microsoft Online free press release templates. There is no need to struggle in figuring out how to make this happen, just take the help and use it to your best advantage.

The key thing to note you must have a newsworthy piece to report. So consider what contribution your organization has, or will, make to the community, and write about it in five paragraphs or less.

Have fun spreading the word about the good works you are doing!

Five things to know when creating policies and procedures

Setting up a nonprofit is complicated and overwhelming. So, make the creation of your policies and procedures basic. Here are five things that will help you to keep it simple:

Keep it general- At this point in the creation of your policies, your goal is to keep it basic. You are only doing the preliminaries at this stage in the game. Once the final board has been identified, and put into place, then together you’ll revisit what you’ve started. It is up to the entire board to make the final decision on the policies.

Don’t reinvent the wheel- Take help and use available templates.

Make sure your policies support your Bylaws- We talked about the Bylaws and their importance. Make sure your policies agree with and support your Bylaws. You don’t want contradictions between the two.

Remember to tie in your organization’s mission statement- At all times, remember to reiterate your organization’s mission statement in everything you write, share, and produce. Your mission statement is one of the key elements of your organization; make sure to promote it.

Ease into the process - Don’t stress and feel as though you have to complete this document all at one time. As your organization grows and changes, you’ll find that you’ll revisit your policies quite often. This is a growing and changing document.

Enjoy this time of discovery as you explore the depths of what your organization can be!

Online resources for starting your nonprofit

There are many resources you can tap using the internet when starting a nonprofit. I thought it would be helpful to you to list some the resources I’ve found for clients.

About.com - There are a list of articles pertaining to the start up steps for a nonprofit. There’s a check list that you can follow to ensure that you’ve covered all your bases.

Free management library - Here you’ll find articles, websites, and resources for assistance. There is even a link to add a resource if you come across one.

Nonprofit Connectors - This is an online membership community. Not only does this site offer a community of nonprofit experts, there is also a resource database of over 200 resources consisting of books, websites, periodicals, and weblogs.

Idealist.org - This is a great source for nonprofit information from A to Z. There are articles that will connect you to resources for starting a nonprofit was well.

Foundation Center - This is a website that all new nonprofits should have bookmarked. It is full of resources for start up purposes, classes that you can take to build your skills, and grants/funding information.

Bookmark these sites and visit often.

Where do you find volunteers?

Volunteers are every where; you just have to speak up and let people know what you need.

A client of mine runs a housing organization for low income families in Virginia. Well, she decided that in addition to helping people with their housing needs that she would also like to assist them with developing job skills. So, she reached out to many of her friends and asked if they would offer classes in their specialties. It has been a huge success. People are learning job skills, getting better jobs, and improving their financial outlook.

Another client is looking for board members. We’ve been scouring the various Leadership groups within Pennsylvania. Quite a few counties within many of the states offer Leadership programs. In Maryland we have Leadership Prince George’s County and Leadership Montgomery County. I know people who’ve graduated from Leadership Washington, DC and Leadership Alexandria in Virginia. What makes the Leadership groups a great place to find volunteers is that it is made up of individuals who’ve already shown an interest in their communities.

There are organizations that conduct searches for volunteers for your boards some for a fee, and others do it for the shear benefit of helping a nonprofit. I have used Volunteer Match one time to make a connection with a board group. It was a successful match, and now I highly recommend to others.

So, start right in your own back yard looking for volunteers. You’ll be surprised by the number of people you already know that are anxious to serve the community. They were just waiting for someone to ask for their participation.

5 steps to using online resources to start a nonprofit

New sites are added to the World Wide Web every day to answer the call we have for anything we can imagine. So, to help you find online resources for starting your nonprofit here is a five step process.

Step 1: pick your favorite search engine. Google and Yahoo are the top general search engines. Pick your favorite one or try both.

Step 2: formulate your query. This can be the toughest thing because if you don’t formulate your query just right you can end up all over the place. Here are a few suggestions, and always use the quotation marks to narrow your search parameter (but leave out the commas): “starting a nonprofit” and “steps to starting a nonprofit” As you can see make your query simple and to the point.

Step 3: research the various sites. Pick a few of the top sites to peruse.

Step 4: search Technorati as well. There are great blogs that have awesome “how to start” information on them. This blog that you are reading now is one of them. When you go to Technorati, make sure to click on Blogs tab, as the search will automatically put up the Posts tab first.

Step 5: take your time with the information you’ve gathered. You may find yourself inundated with options. Take your time and go through the information thoroughly. You may find that one site helps to answer some questions, while another site gives you practical information. Either way, you can always come back here and ask specific questions.

Have fun.

A visit to your local library just may land you a nice grant

The local library should be the first place a new Executive Director makes a second home. There you have access to knowledgeable individuals and a plethora of resources at your finger tips. All for the low cost of FREE.

Visit your local library and start researching grants for your organizations type. If you are not sure start, ask the librarian. Librarians are trained to help draw you out in order to get you to the best resources for your needs.

Happy researching!

Know your target audience

While you may think, you’re starting a nonprofit business for the community and that’s your target audience. The community has a make up that you should get to know well.

What does your target audience do for a living? Where do they live? What are they asking for that the community isn’t providing? How can you provide? What will make them want it from you? How will this improve their lives? I could keep going on, but you get the idea.

In order to gather this information, you really need to do some field reconnaissance. Create a brief questionnaire, and then poll people. Attend town hall sessions, homeowner association board meetings, or any other venue that will give you access to the people in your targeted community. If there isn’t one, then organize it. Listen to what the people are saying, and if appropriate ask a question that may lend itself to research for your project. (Be appropriate, otherwise you’ll just turn off your targeted community.)