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I have recently (and not for the first time) been in conversations with other nonprofit professionals regarding how to be most supportive to individuals and groups who are seeking to make a difference within their communities via organized, grassroots community-based efforts.  Quite often, these individuals or groups have created or are in the process of creating tax-exempt, nonprofit organizations.  More often than not, the reason they have taken this route (or plan to) is because they have been told that there is grant funding available for nonprofit organizations to help them fulfill their missions.  And this is true.  The Nonprofit Hub reports that there are literally BILLIONS of dollars’ worth of funding available from a variety of sources, for the right organizations doing the right things.  The question, then, is whether yours is that “right” organization, and are you favorably positioned to take advantage of all of these funding opportunities?

What I am finding in my interaction with organization leaders and future leaders is that most want to get to the money — and thus, the work for which it is needed — without doing the necessary foundational work to position themselves favorably to be able to take advantage of the opportunities out there.  I call this “organizational readiness.”

There are several degrees and levels of readiness to which organizations need to attend (new organizations and often even established ones, as well) .   The most basic need is to establish your organization as a tax-exempt nonprofit.  Most funders are primarily interested in funding organizations that have received tax-exempt, charitable purposes status from the federal government (IRS).  Even though an organization may be working without plans to create profit, until the organization has the official status granted by the IRS, you will not be recognized by funders who require this status. Gaining this status is not complicated, but it does require an extensive application process, that can be tricky if you don’t understand it.  It is generally best to work with a nonprofit development specialist to achieve this status.  This is the first step.  It will require a board of incorporators to complete basic planning (e.g. development of articles of incorporation and bylaws, preliminary planning, etc.).  This board may later become the governing board of directors for the organization (required).  As a note, there is a relatively new 501 (c) (3) EZ status that is easier to obtain, especially for new/emerging organizations.  The primary qualifier is that the organization must not have had an annual budget of over $25,000, nor anticipate that they will have over the next year.  For more information, contact the IRS (information available online, as well).

Beyond that, most funders require that you have certain things in place to even be considered for funding opportunities.  These may include:

• Committed Board of Directors (Governing)
• Clear vision and mission
• Coherent strategic plan, including clear organizational and program goals, and objectives
• Capable management, staff, and volunteers
• Legal standing to do business in your community
• Appropriate tax status
• Accounting systems and financial management protocols
• Programs that are vital to the well-being of the community
• Fundraising plan, which seeks support from many different sources (not just grants)
• Facilities, equipment, and maintenance, as needed and appropriate
• A track record of service

That last item — a track record of service — is often critical to getting a funder to even consider your proposal for funding, as most funders want some assurances that you are able to deliver whatever project or program you are proposing, and the best assurance is a history of having successfully done the same or similar thing before.  Experience.  Many funders are not interested in funding “new” or “start-up” organizations who do not have a track record of providing the services for which they are requesting funding or serving the constituency for which they plan to work.

For this, I generally counsel emerging organizations to not be afraid to start working, even before having major funding.  Start small.  Build on successes. Utilize volunteers, which has the added advantage of engaging the community in your work while the organization is still young, and creating community buy-in and ownership (another key ingredient for a positive view from potential funders).  Seek small donations from community members and/or small local businesses or other local partners.  Donations need not always be financial (money), but may come in the form of volunteerism, materials, and supplies or other resources.  You will also have the benefit of reporting the financial value of these donations as in-kind contributions to your work.

Strategic planning is also critical, as many funders will ask how the project you are proposing fits into your long-term strategic plan.  Here I will emphasize the difference between a strategic plan and strategic planning. Dwight D. Eisenhower’s is reported to have said that “Plans are useless, but planning is everything.” Put simply, “strategic plans” are often documents that are created (in various ways) but end up in a binder on a shelf somewhere collecting dust. Strategic planning is more fluid, flexible, and adaptive, and requires making constant strategic choices to continue toward meeting the organization’s mission.

So…where are you and your organization in terms of “readiness”?  How can we help?

“Return to the way, the way of reciprocity. How easy, how just the way. Yet how easily, how utterly you have forgotten it.” – Ayi Kwei Armah

Bartering and trading is the oldest form of commerce and exchange known to man, and is in fact the basis of any economic system. Community currency is one means of designing an internal, community controlled system of exchange. Community currencies, or local currencies, are not a new concept, but the utilization of them is experiencing a major resurgence throughout the world. Such internal currency systems provide a tool for addressing issues such as unemployment, community breakdown and economic disenfranchisement. Several systems have been established around the country that are providing practical success for the communities involved. The key element to success is the ability to link unused or underused human resources to otherwise unmet needs. For the African American community, in this time of increasing economic instability, our survival and continuance may depend on our being able to develop means and methods to utilize such a system within our local communities.

UMOJA MONEY AND GAWAKAZI: BEYOND BUY BLACK is an overview of how a system of community currency might work for us, and suggestions for getting started.

“It is for the spring to give. It is for springwater to flow. But if the spring would continue to give, and the springwater continue flowing, the desert is no direction. Receiving, giving, giving, receiving, all that lives is twin. Whatever cannot give, whatever is ignorant of receiving, knowing only taking, that thing is past its own mere death. There is no beauty but in relationships. Nothing cut off by itself is beautiful. All beauty is in the creative purpose of our relationships.” – Ayi Kwei Armah.

Now available in the Books for Conscious Evolution, on right sidebar, or at Amazon.com.

WHEN I AM OLD

When I am old
and my tired, aching body
begins to fold in upon itself,
and my spirit holds the valued keys
to every lesson learned;

I will sing sweet songs of joy and freedom
On my way home.

© Maaskelah K. Thomas 1998

As individuals pass through youth and into adulthood, there is also a stage past adulthood where the cumulative learning of a lifetime is embodied. We call this Elderhood, and although our current systems in the United States have increasingly marginalized those in this group, traditional African societies throughout the continent understood the invaluable resources this life stage represents. In traditional African societies, transitions from one life stage to the next, from birth through elderhood, were marked with specific and predetermined rites of passage.

African Americans are generations removed from these traditions. The increased urbanization of African Americans from Reconstruction through present times fractured this intentional practice of acknowledging and marking. However, the African American community, up through the era of Reconstruction, maintained cognition of the purposefulness of acknowledging and marking these transitions. Racism, social stigmatization, social and economic disenfranchisement, community disorganization and other societal challenges have resulted in an overabundance of negative psychosocial and health outcomes for African Americans. In spite of that or perhaps as a consequence, Africans in the Diaspora – including us in the United States – continue our attempts to hold onto some parts of our cultural legacy, in spite of the mass adoption of alien social and cultural norms.

Calling the Elders – Reclaiming and Transforming Our Communities through Elder Wisdom: A Guide and Toolkit for Developing Local Councils of Elders is a simple guidebook, designed for those interested in our continuance. In it you will find one model for community Councils of Elders, along with practical steps and processes for ways to engage our entire community in reconnecting the links that have historically been our strength. The guide contains a brief overview of the historical importance of such Councils, as well as practical steps and tools to plan and develop such a foundational structure in communities throughout the United States and the Diaspora. My desire and ultimate goal is that communities will then be able to utilize these institutions to reconnect our communities – local, nationally and internationally – based on our common ground, as exemplified through the wisdom of our Elders.

Now available at http://on.fb.me/nmI7eH or http://amzn.to/gkOPG7 (or click on the link under “Bookstore” at right sidebar).

Visioning for service to individuals and communities is an absolute first step toward the provision of meaningful services and responses to needs. In many, if not most cases, African American human service organizations begin as a result of identified or perceived needs of a local community. An overarching vision statement will include within it acknowledgement of current realities and communally agreed-upon values to imagine a future that truly benefits those to be served. In order to achieve this, it is paramount that the appropriate stakeholders be involved in the development of organizational vision and mission. Unfortunately, many organization founders and leaders approach this most foundational of activities from a much more narrow perspective, even in some cases seeing the organization as an achievement of their own personal goals and objectives. The ultimate, inevitable outcome of this is lack of ongoing and sustaining support, both internal (community) and externally (potential funders and/or supporters).

 
Human service providers seeking to assist African Americans may be better equipped to provide meaningful service if they have some sense of, some grounding in, the collective sense of history and the social reality shared by African Americans. Historically based and socially constructed meanings and definitions are important both for understanding many of the social and economic challenges of African Americans and for developing meaningful responses to those challenges. These ever emergent, dynamic meanings and definitions guide and articulate the ideas that substantiate the actions and responses of African Americans to everyday reality and experiences. It is not enough for organizational leaders to just assume they know what the “problems” are and then go about the business of designing “solutions.” How providers in organizations serving an African American clientele go about explicating and transforming meaning for their constituents and the larger community has implications for the types and quality of services delivered. These are the premises and principles that ground the ways such organizations are structured for optimal functioning.

An “Afrocentric” paradigm or approach to human service delivery for African Americans better articulates the value orientation of the constituency being served, as opposed to “generic” practice philosophies and approaches, which carry with them a value orientation that often ignores or fails to fully utilize cultural meaning systems to enhance service development and delivery. What service providers understand and believe about those they serve and the environment in which they live and work (premises) and how they conceptualize what will be most useful for client success (principles) has implications for both practice and service delivery. The importance of appropriate methodologies that take into account local contexts and needs should not be ignored. A human service organization’s capacity is directly tied to how well it is situated to work toward progressive social outcomes for those disadvantaged groups it is established to serve. This is made possible by progressive development philosophies that take into consideration culture, context, and connectedness. A more expansive and integrated development approach must include a  multilevel analytical framework that incorporates the strengths of the African American community and collaborative partnerships to achieve deeper level changes. Such approaches give valuable credence to values and meaning systems important to African Americans, resulting in more empowering practice.

Organizational purposes, or vision statements, define an overall idea of how the community will be changed/better because an organization exists and based on a timeline in the distant but foreseeable future. That future could be five years, ten years, or twenty years out. It is important, though, that there is a predetermined point at which you would expect to see noticeable impact, and what that impact will be should be succinctly described in your purpose statement. The purpose statement should be inspiring, and should energize both your planning team or board of directors, and ultimately the community you will be serving. Your purpose or vision statement is not your mission statement. We’ll talk more about that later. However, a good purpose or vision statement will assist you in formulating the organization’s mission, as they are complementary in nature.

An organization’s mission statement clearly outlines the prime purposes of the work of the organization, including clearly identified markers and measures of success. The mission statement is both a declaration to those internal to the organization, as well as those without, to keep the organization on point as to what it hopes to achieve by any and all activities in which it engages.

The vision statement is equally important, but is more overarching, defining and declaring the operational values, guiding assumptions and beliefs that give impetus to the organization’s very existence. For internal stakeholders (board members, employees, volunteers, etc.), it provides inspiration and motivation, as well as expressing expectations for how each will behave and perform to exemplify the organization’s highest standards. For those external to the organization, it provides a rationale for partnership and collaboration, based on beliefs and values they also share.

In the next post, I will provide some simple exercises for you and your planning team to perform the work of developing a vision and mission statement.

I often get requests from individuals wanting assistance to start a nonprofit. Usually the requests come from individuals who genuinely feel they have a service to offer to others and need a vehicle for providing that service. Nevertheless, even those with a genuine desire to help are also thinking that starting a nonprofit will immediately position them to apply for and acquire grant funds to do the work, and more importantly, to pay THEM for doing the work. In a few cases, individuals really have entrepreneurial ideas, and want to find a way to fund them. So, I feel a need to clarify the distinction between a nonprofit and an entrepreneurial venture.

Many people misunderstand about nonprofits. Oftentimes, especially in difficult economic times, individuals think that starting a nonprofit is a way to garner additional personal income. The primary focus of nonprofits is to bridge the gap between unmet social/public needs. Nonprofit doesn’t mean that individuals who direct them or provide services through them can’t benefit (e.g. earn wages or a salary from the work they do). However, the IRS designation of a nonprofit is only given to organizations who are established for CHARITABLE PURPOSES or “exempt” purposes. The definition that the IRS uses for exempt purposes can be found here: http://www.irs.gov/charities/charitable/article/0,,id=96099,00.html.

In addition, no individual “owns” a nonprofit, as they cannot be operated for private interests, or to benefit those running the organization. Thus, nonprofits MUST have a governing boards of directors, who are primarily responsibility and LIABLE for all of the work of the organization. The buck stops with them. Generally, particularly in small, grassroots organizations, the board is unpaid, but have the responsibility to hire someone to direct the work of the organization. That paid staff works exclusively at the pleasure of the board, who also has responsibility for replacing them, if they are not able to effectively run the organization.

On the other hand, if you’re looking to start a business that will garner you personal income, that’s an entirely different playground, with totally different rules. In that case, your first steps will need to be conducting a feasibility study for your business, and then developing a well-researched business plan. With that in hand, if you don’t have the capital to finance it yourself, you have a tool for seeking willing investors. There are few, if any, grants (free money) available for for-profit ventures.

That being said, nonprofits CAN be entrepreneurial. There is this idea and concept called social entrepreneurship whereby entrepreneurial ideas and practices are utilized in the service of social change. But, we’ll talk more about that later….

Hope this was helpful! If you have questions, please feel free to leave them in the comments section. I’ll answer any and all that I can.

Grant Writer vs. Fund Development Coach:
Leveraging Scarce Resources to Increase Organizational Sustainability

In these current economic times, many if not most nonprofit organizations and nongovernmental organizations, throughout the U.S and abroad, struggle to maintain operations and services at pre-recession levels. In some cases, funding has all but dried up for some services and activities. Many of the major foundations, who have historically provided funds for new and novel community projects as well as support for traditional and tried and true organizational work, are finding their own coffers becoming increasingly limited in a post-Bernie Maddoff world. In a word or three, times are tight.

Add to the lean times, the fact that some organizations have had to downsize staff and/or staff hours, while at the same time seeing demand for services increasing. Historically, nonprofits have depended overwhelmingly on the grants funding from a variety of sources, including private donors, foundations and the various levels of government. However, accessing such resources always requires the work of a skilled grant writer or grant writing team. Ironically, when staff cuts happen, that person is often one of the first to go, as opposed to those providing direct services to the organizations clients and consumers.

But, you still need someone to help with finding and procuring funds. Some organizations outsource the work, hiring independent contractors to help search and apply for appropriate funding. Generally, independent grant writers work for a fee – either hourly and a percentage negotiated per job based on the size and complexity of the grant. Payment is always required in full, generally at the time the proposal is completed and submitted. No reputable grant writer will work on contingency – paid only if the proposal is ultimately funded. That’s just not good business sense.

This is a viable option for some organizations, depending on how much of the work of the organization is generally dependent upon grant funding. However, if the organization is surviving primarily from grants – never a good idea, but often the case – it can become very expensive to contract with someone to write several grants in a year’s time. On top of that, it does little to build the overall capacity of the organization — which is essential for the long-term sustainability of the organization. Additionally, in the never-ending search for funding, organizations run the risk of losing focus on their primary vision and mission as they adapt to what is increasingly becoming a funding marketplace, complete with its own economics. Organizations with human empowerment, social justice and social change agendas often find themselves challenged to compromise core organization values in order to continue to fund empowerment and social change activities. But, finding funders with similar core values, as well as the vision and passion to put their money where it can work is not the first job.

The creation of a comprehensive fund development plan is crucial to every organization. Generally, an organization will include some fund development strategies within its periodic strategic plan. However, a fund development plan is a more comprehensive plan that includes clear and quantifiable financial targets, identification of some potential and promising funding sources, clear-cut strategies for how those sources will be approached and accessed, and clearly defined responsibilities for members of the organization’s fund development team (which generally includes board members, executive and other staff and volunteers).

Organizational assessment is a critical part of fund development planning. In particular, organizational leaders need to determine the readiness of the organization for targeted fundraising

Another option holding considerable promise for both resource acquisition and organizational capacity building and sustainability is to contract with a fund development coach. Fund development coaches are usually successful grant writers, but more importantly, have the necessary skills to facilitate more comprehensive planning related to organizational funding needs. A fund development coach generally has two primary responsibilities: 1) facilitating organization stakeholders in the creation of a comprehensive fund development plan; and 2) building, training, coordinating and critiquing the work of an internal organization fund development team.

With a comprehensive plan, the fund development coach can then begin developing the team to work the plan. Developing the team can include providing group workshops or one-on-one training on all aspects of fundraising, from grant searching to initiating and nurturing relationships with potential donors. In addition, coaching can include oversight of and coordinating the team process of developing proposals (e.g. research, narrative development, evaluation design, and budget development),as well as review and critique of proposal components.

While fund development coaches work as independent contractors, with pay negotiated by the hour or per project, the benefit is that the goal is for organization members to gain valuable skills that remain with the organization even after the coach is no longer working directly with the organization. Utilizing a fund development coach can build the organization’s internal capacity, add value to and show appreciation for staff and volunteers, and more broadly distribute responsibility for the organization’s overall success. Ultimately this has the effect of improving the prospects for the organization’s long-term sustainability.