Tips for Management of Small Non-Profit Organization

Many people are involved in helping small nonprofit organizations in a variety of roles. Organizations ranging from semi-organized teams for children, the local chapters of professional societies, a well-established providers of charitable services. The range of organization and management also varies, from the seat-of-the-pants, one or two people swept away from doing the hard work, professionally managed by paid staff, and all the rest. Here are some tips to help you and your organization become more effective and successful.

Definition of Non-profit

Many people are confused about the concept of a non-profit organization. The terms non-profit, non-profit or tax-free, all mean the same thing and is simply a particular type of business entity. An organization that is recognized by the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) as a non-profit or tax-exempt business is treated differently than a normal for-profit business for tax purposes. Meaning non-profit organizations generally do not pay taxes. Some tax issues can be complex, so if you have any questions or concerns, contact an accounting professional familiar with the non-profit tax issues. In general, however, if you're a small organization, have received your nonprofit by the IRS (you must apply for it), and adhere to your defined mission, you're fine.

The most important thing to remember is that non-profit does not mean the loss. You must still make money. The only real difference between a non-profit and for-profit company is where the extra money goes. For any organization to remain viable, we must have more money than you have coming out. What happens to this excess between what goes in and what comes out is what makes the difference between a non-profit and for-profit business. In a non-profit, the excess is to help the organization achieve its mission. In a for-profit business, the surplus (profit) is distributed to the owners of the business. It 'so simple.

So, remember, you must still make money. You must have more money coming in what you have to go out. Just use all the money to help the organization to do what has been created to do.

Planning

One of the most useful and least used for any organization is planning. Instead of starting to do things, first sit down and plan what you are going to do. Then, on a continuous basis, sit down for regular planning sessions. The benefits are enormous.

The level of detail of your plans, and the amount of time spent planning will depend on the size of your organization and what you do. If you are helping with the sports team of their children, and you're doing the bulk of the work yourself, you might only have a short to-do list that you put together in 15 minutes. More likely, though, you need to sit down with the other board members or volunteers for an hour or two, in different sessions, to develop a plan with enough detail that will give you a clear direction and help you to lead the organization.

When planning, always begin with the end goal in mind. Set the target. Identify the specific objectives you want to achieve. Again, depending on the size and the nature of your organization, the lapse of time schedule can vary. If you're just getting started with your planning, your time horizon is shorter. As you become more experienced with planning, you can expand your horizon a bit 'over. For the sports team of the child, the plan might also relate to the duration of the season, maybe even three or four months. Most organizations, however, you want to schedule two or three years out. Each longer than that, generally speaking are wider, well defined, and organizations more complex.

So, what's in these plans that you are doing? There will be 'two parts to the plan, the goals you want to achieve, and how you are going to achieve them. If your work on a plan for two years, the objectives will define where you want to be, what you want to do, two years from now. Let's say you're a type of service organization that helps homeless people. Your goals could include that two years from now you are going to provide two meals a day to 500 people per day, up from a meal a day to 100 individuals. Perhaps you are a rugby club, and your goals might include that in two years you're going to have a coach paid for the staff, two sets of jerseys team game of ownership, or funds to start building your own club . OK, which could be a stretch for most of the club, but you get the idea.

After setting these goals, identify how you are going to achieve them. If you are going to increase from one meal a day to two meals a day, or go anywhere knit owned team play two sets, how are you going to do? What are the steps in between? Who is responsible for what? If you are going to provide more meals, you need more food. You may need larger or equipped facilities. You may need more volunteers. If you determine that you need 20 volunteers per day, but now only 5, you must determine how you will get additional volunteers. Maybe advertise more, apply for more scholarships, or hire a volunteer coordinator. Whatever steps are to achieve these goals, write them down so that everyone knows what needs to be done and who's responsible for it.

When planning, you should monitor your progress against that plan. You do not want to wait until the end of the period of time the plan to see if you achieved what you were aiming for. You want to monitor your progress along the road, so that if things are not going as planned, you can make adjustments to get back on track. Or, if things are going as planned, you can focus on other areas that need more attention, and not waste time on things that work well.

Another benefit of planning is that you have something to evaluate against new or unexpected opportunities, rather than trying to figure out on their own if they are a good idea or something you should pursue. Something that sounds like a good idea might not be something you want to pursue when it is evaluated with respect to the plane. Of course, if it's a good idea, and has been adequately analyzed and assessed, you can change your plans. It 's always better to plan and modify the plan when called for, that no plan at all. Planning helps you focus, and this is what you need.

Board of Directors

The board of directors, or persons who are about to run, drive and lead the organization, is always an interesting and fun. Except for smaller organizations, you should have an official board of directors whose task is to address and fix the direction of the organization. Many times, these are the same people doing all the work, but not always. Once again, depends on the size and the nature of your organization.

The big question is who should be on the card. This can be difficult because people, or the type of people who should be on the board are not necessarily the people who actually will be on board for a number of reasons. Many times it is difficult if not impossible, to attract people who really want on the card. One reason is that people who make the best board members are already on other cards, and they only have so much time. In addition, many people may not know about your organization, and many people simply are not interested in what your organization does. So, what to do?

I always like to start by stating what I want. Identify the persons or types of people you want on the card. If you do not start with what you want, you do not get them. You may have to take what you can get, but at least identify what you want. If you identify the type of people you want, you can then identify and work to get them to help. If you do not, you'll always be stuck with whatever comes your way. Identify the skills and attributes of your ideal board members. Do you need specific skill sets, individuals with a lot of contacts in the community, or perhaps wealthy individuals who contribute to your cause? Whatever you need or want, to be precise. You can also identify the specific individuals that you want on your card.

Why would anyone want to be on your table? It 's often a thankless job and that takes time, so you have to really on the market. Do not lie or sugarcoat it too, but to communicate the benefits of being on the table and tell the people why you want to help. If you're passionate about your organization, board members pick up on this potential and that might be enough incentive for them to help. Other benefits include creating new contacts, help a good cause, and the fact that it looks good on their resume. Of course, people who have no need of these benefits will be a harder sell, but a lot of times people will help just because you ask them. You'd be surprised how often people are just waiting to be invited.

One thing you absolutely must do is define the roles and responsibilities of board members, and shall notify the board members. Although they are rather simple, and it seems obvious, it is critical to your success. Everyone needs to know why they are on the table and what we should do. Can not afford to have a dead weight on your table. Be hard, and keep the board members of their duties to their agreements.

Meetings

You're going to have meetings, possibly different types. The card will have board meetings, and you could have staff meetings, volunteer meetings, general membership meetings, or some other type of meeting. Many meetings terrible, and for good reason. Dating poorly managed, not only do no good, can hurt. Then, run good meetings.

Always, always, always, an agenda defined. Distribute the day before the meeting so that everyone knows what is being discussed. Stick to the agenda. Set up a meeting defined length, and assign a time for each agenda item. Respect the limits of time.

Together with the agenda, define the expected outcomes of the meeting, which means defining what will be done during the meeting. A simple expectation is to discuss each item on the agenda and vote on all items to be voted. Depending on the reason for the meeting and the agenda items under discussion, you may have other expectations of what should be done.

Board meetings are intrinsically different from that of many other types of meetings. The board sets policy and direction of high level, so the board meetings are similar level. Most of the work of the board of directors shall take place outside of board meetings. Board meetings are usually fairly simple. Information and results of activities outside presents a summary of the final discussions of important issues are made, and the items are voted. There should be no surprises in a board meeting. Most of the information should already have been distributed, analyzed and discussed. The elements are made clear, the discussions that are made face to face are made, and votes are held. If you're making the most of your work in the board meetings themselves, you can immediately become more effective as an organization making the changes mentioned above.

Volunteers

For most small nonprofit organizations, volunteers are the backbone that allows you to continue to operate. Without the volunteers of quality, does not exist as an organization for a long time. At least it will not be able to accomplish what you start doing. So be sure to take care of your volunteers.

All volunteers should have defined roles, no matter how simple their tasks. Make sure you train all volunteers, no matter how simple of tasks. The training shall include the specific tasks the volunteers will undertake, as well as the mission, philosophy and political organization. Again, no matter how simple activities, mission and policies.

Always assign tasks, rather than let the volunteers do what they think is best. It should be flexible, of course, but in order to keep the organization moving in the direction that is defined by the table, the volunteers should be assigned tasks that support the objectives defined.

Recognize and reward volunteers. Some organizations are very good at this, but others take their volunteers for granted and fail to provide the necessary recognition and rewards. This is not usually design, only to be abandoned. No matter how busy you are, take the time to praise the volunteers for all the hard work they are doing.

Do not overload the volunteers. Some people can not say no. Do not let them take more work than they should. Some people are motivated to help, and are almost impossible to contain. Retain them. They'll be more valuable to you in the long term, and their health, mental and physical, is of fundamental importance.

Make new volunteers feel welcome. Again, some organizations are good at it, while others argue for volunteers will understand what is happening and find their own way. This is not true. Each volunteer new single should be formally welcomed, said they are appreciated, and told where they fit with the organization. The training referred to above should be followed.

Accounting and record keeping

Keep a log. Keep good records. Protect your car, protect the board members, volunteers, clients, partners and customers, and protect your organization. Do not rely on your own, or anyone else, the memory. Have proof of what you did. This is particularly important with everything that has to do with money. As with everything else, the system of record keeping will depend on the size and complexity of the organization. It could just be a book, receipt book, bank statements, or you may need a real management system that includes accounting and finance, sales and customer relationship systems and manufacturing, warehousing, and inventory systems. Use what is appropriate for you.

If necessary, hire people like any other business. Some of the smaller non-profit organizations to take part-time administrative help. In today's world, you might also find it appropriate to take virtual administrative help.

Set the controls. This is another area where it is particularly important for everything that has to do with money. Set the controls means putting in place systems to prevent or detect any unlawful or impropriety. For example, if your organization has a checkbook, you want to limit the number of people who have access to the controls and can write checks. It 'a good idea to have several people who control the checkbook and have the authority to sign checks. Or, you might want the bank to send your statement to someone other than the person who writes the checks or make deposits. Other controls include the separation of duties or have someone check the results of another person. Basically, you want to remove the temptation and make it difficult for anyone to do anything improper.

Even if you set good controls, you should regularly check and check up on things. This not only helps prevent anything nefarious going on, it helps keep the organization on track and moving in the direction you want to go.

Conclusion

Go out and do good things. Put a little effort into planning and infrastructure of your organization and you will reap the rewards in the long run. Maintain the level of commitment and complexity of the case for the organization, and try to keep sight of when it's time to add more formality to your systems. Good luck to you and your organization ....