Nonprofits Need Consulting and Coaching, Too

HOW MANY NONPROFITS START

The awful truth is that a fair amount of small nonprofits are simply winging it. The founder has a desire to help others and then:

• appoints a board (made up of themselves and likely at least two of their closest family members, friends or colleagues)

• forms an entity with the state

• turns in the required IRS paperwork

Then they are met with the reality that they have started a business and need a whole lot more than they currently have to make some impact. Ask me how I know. This was me in 2010. I had a great idea to help my community by offering services to assist with job readiness, interview skills and résumé writing. It was called Help Yourself, Inc. because I wanted people to help themselves to as much help as needed in order to help themselves level up in life. Cute, right? I completed the paperwork, added my then-husband and cousin as board members and then wanted to know how to get grants. I happened to be working for the state at the time, so I was eligible for free college courses and decided to enroll in a graduate certificate program for Nonprofit Management. It required that I pass four graduate-level courses. The first that I chose was grant writing.

The Truth About Nonprofit Grants

In all of my fervor and excitement, I began to learn how grant writing really works and it definitely slowed me down. Most grants are going to require the applicant nonprofit to have some kind of track record for their outcomes. If the nonprofit is new, the founder and board may not even know what outcomes are, how to capture them and why they are important. I certainly did not until I learned in this program. Outcomes can only occur when there are actual programs running that is getting results. For instance, outcomes for Help Yourself, Inc. could have included data and statistics for:

• how many individuals successfully gained new or better employment

• the time it took for individuals to obtain new or better employment

• the amount of increased income for that individual or family

• other gains that happened as a result of the new or better employment

I left that course with a much better understanding of the process. Most importantly, I learned that the cardinal rule of writing grant applications is to follow directions. Grant proposals should be read very carefully and every requirement thoroughly understood. Also, when in doubt, contact the grants officer to get further clarification. It also never hurts to establish rapport with them even if you don't have any burning questions to get them more familiar with the nonprofit program for when it comes time to review proposals. If they know a little bit about the nonprofit program, it could help in the process. Needless to say, at this point I was a little disappointed that progress would take longer than I had originally hoped. However, I was in it to win it and got prepared for the finance and management courses.

Nonprofits Struggle With Finances and Management

In the last three classes I took, I learned about the crucial points concerning the financial management and overall management of nonprofit organizations. In one of the finance courses, I remember having to analyze actual Form 990s(nonprofit tax returns) of large nonprofits like PBS. We looked at 2009 which was abysmal as a result of the economic downturn in that recession period that started in 2008. Massive amounts of funding were lost which created huge budget deficits and hyper-active donation solicitation. The issue being that PBS relied predominantly on government funding that was not available. Small nonprofits sometimes make the same mistake of relying heavily on membership dues or charitable donations from the public to remain viable. Also, the ones that do receive grants may tend to rely on those if they are sizable. But just like with personal finance, you must diversify your portfolio! What we learned was when looking at multiple nonprofit 990s on Guidestar (now Candid), many nonprofits operate in the red, at a deficit. This truly opened my eyes to some harsh realities I did not anticipate. I began to ask myself if I was doing the right thing.

Nonprofits need more help not more competition

The final straw came when we discussed nonprofit management including:

• fiduciary duites

• the separation of management and governance

• the need for accountability and oversight

• the importance of strategic planning and succession planning

• who really "owns" the nonprofit

These topics were not things that I thought about when I started Help Yourself, Inc. and over time I know that I am not alone. Contrary to popular belief, though nonprofits tend to be charitable in nature, they are still businesses and should be run as such. In our discussions, some students told stories of actual organizations they worked for or served and some of what they shared was unbelievable. From gross mismanagement to founders who believed they should always be the Executive Director. The central point of all this being that nonprofits do not belong to:

• the founders

• the board

• the executive director

• the staff or

• the volunteers

Nonprofits belong to everyone. The entire community, stakeholders, recipients of services, you name it. Though it's fashionable to label yourself CEO, it's often not viewed as the best way to portray your status as a nonprofit leader. It's very corporate and that is not the spirit of the public sector.

Why I Became a Consultant/Coach for Nonprofits

So, by the time I reached the end of this program, instead of being ready to start running programs that I could make grant applications for, I decided to shut Help Yourself, Inc. down. In that process I realized that with all the

• confusion

• mismanagement

• underfunding

• miseducation

and the like, I would be better suited taking my knowledge of these issues to help the nonprofits that already existed rather than add another one to the list. It proved to be the better choice because I have enjoyed being able to educate, encourage and guide countless founders and boards through some tough issues and uncertain times as either a member or an advisor/consultant/coach. I have even discouraged those who I knew were woefully unprepared from walking further down the path than I did and have been thanked for that (in some cases). Experience is a good teacher but knowledge is power. Therefore, I will continue to use my knowledge of the nonprofit landscape to help make it the most beautiful experience possible for others.

Sincerely,

-M