As a business owner who donates to non-profits, a former employee in a leadership role in two non-profits, and as a former board member of multiple non-profits, I have had to look at the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) form 990 for a number of organizations from a variety of perspectives. You can get a surprising amount of information about most non-profits from their 990 if you know what you are looking for. While I think this document will be helpful to staff and donors, I am going to go through these points as if I am either a current or prospective board member.

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The key to developing a successful nonprofit is having an external focus.  While this is how most nonprofits start, as they grow they often become unbalanced, focusing on internal issues. (i.e. fundraising, staff issues, etc.)  For example, is the board getting direct feedback (not only through staff) from the people that they serve (clients) and their donors?  

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A good case statement is one of the most important tools your nonprofit can have in seeking outside funding. It takes time and effort to produce a good case statement but the investment is well spent because it serves as your chief tool in fundraising and is the foundation document from which all other publications must be derived. It needs to grab a prospective donor’s attention, and then offer a solid reason for investing in your organization.

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Among businesses and nonprofit organizations, there is a sad truth about which no one likes to talk about. It is that success kills as many organizations as failure. Failure is understandable when an organization cannot get enough revenue, does not have the proper staff, and/or does not have a clear mission. It is easy to sympathize with those involved in such failures; but no one likes to think about the organizations that are highly successful, well funded and have great talent to call upon but end up closing or—in order to survive—shrinking to a fraction of their former glory.

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Successful event planning starts long before the event and includes a lot more than getting a good events manager—paid or volunteered—to plan and oversee the actual event. Good event planning must include marketing and promotion, and these efforts must be made weeks or months prior to the event. Even before marketing and promotion, the organization’s leadership needs to have a clear idea of the desired outcomes and a good understanding of the resources available to support and promote the event. In fact, all organizations have three resources: money, manpower and time. Understanding these resources and how to mix them to promote an event is the single greatest tool for increasing the number of people
who attend.

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One of the great truths of life is that successful people often do the exact opposite of their not-so-successful peers. All nonprofits and businesses go through various revenue cycles. Traditionally people spend a lot of money advertising in times of high economic growth. Conversely in times of poor economic growth, most organizations quickly cut their marketing dollars. People who take this approach are missing out on the chance to capitalize on the opportunities that even the worst economic situations provide. Why is this so? The answer is three-fold.

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If you have ever looked at the little URL box in a website address, you have seen that before the address is either, http:// or https://. You probably have never thought about it, but there is a big difference.

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Whenever you do a search you will see two kinds of results. Some will have the word "ad" and others will not have this designation. Find out why.

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For the majority of nonprofits that I have worked with over the last fifteen years, it is very common to hear the nonprofit's board members wishing for more or higher quality board members. At the same time, these same boards typically do not have a formal recruitment and orientation process.

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I think the oldest of the adage I was raised with was the phrase, “Nothing ventured, nothing gained.” I really believe that what has made America a great country from an economic standpoint is the free market and people being encouraged to take chances, but then allowing them to reap the reward for those chances when they paid off and knowing that often many failures would occur before success.

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Finding a photo is never a hard task these days with Facebook or Instagram at our fingertips via tablets, laptops or cellphones. But what happens when this digital world changes, as it inevitably will, and all those photos stored in cyber space can no longer be accessed?

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I have watched with interest how most marketers promise too much or too little to their clients. Marketers generally only control one of three important aspects needed to grow any nonprofit or business. Let me explain. What a marketer should be held accountable for is getting the phone to ring, getting increasing numbers of people to know about your business, and then helping you identify a brand that communicates what your business is. Marketing by itself cannot promise longterm growth. Marketers who promise this are literally guaranteeing too much. Likewise a marketer who doesn’t take any responsibility in helping you grow your business is promising too little.

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If you understand the need to be different in your marketing, the critical question becomes: “How can I be different?” Many nonprofits and businesses have competing or similar organizations in their area. On the surface, it seems like most organizations of similar purpose are for the most part identical. Churches seem the same. Builders, car repair shops, dry cleaners, charity thrift stores all seem generally the same. One of the biggest struggles that business and nonprofit owners have is identifying how they can be different from their competitors.

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Let’s start with what branding is not. Branding, or at least good branding, is not just artwork, logos, slogans or taglines. It is about a promise. Every great brand makes a promise. Most people volunteer for organizations or buy from businesses based on promises. Get the full story in our white paper.

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As much as possible, Nehemiah Communications encourages organizations to consider “the new demographic.” Traditionally most marketing has been geared around targeting people based on their age, race, gender, industry, and professional or economic standing. While these are still important, there is a new demographic that overrides the other considerations. To understand the new demographic, answer the following two questions.

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