10 Tips For Running a Non-Profit

You’ve always dreamed of using your passion to help others, so you’ve decided to start your own non-profit organization. While running a charity is a generous and kind way to help your community, do you know what it takes to run a non-profit successfully?

Unfortunately, being altruistic isn’t enough—you also need to know some savvy marketing and management tips. Otherwise, your charity risks running out of money, losing focus, or upsetting donors.

To learn more, keep reading to find ten tips for running a non-profit organization.

1. Do Your Research First

Before starting a new non-profit organization, we recommend doing plenty of market research first. Do other non-profits already exist that will be similar to yours?

If so, you might find it hard to attract funding and supporters. The non-profit space is competitive, so really try to find your niche—what can you offer that no one else can?

Work out what makes your organization unique, as this will give you the best chance of success in the long run.

2. Diversify Your Funding

When running a charity, money is always going to be an issue. For most charities, it seems like they’re just isn’t enough to go around!

For this reason, it helps to diversify your funding sources, since you never know when one might dry up. Try not to solely depend on government funding, for example, as if that suddenly ends, you’ll no longer be able to operate.

If you have multiple income sources, it’s more sustainable and will provide more peace of mind to your finance team.

3. Hire the Best People

A non-profit needs to attract talented, passionate staff if they want to be successful. Although money is likely to limit your staffing numbers, try to hire those who you feel are really able to make a meaningful impact.

4. Recruit Volunteers

Even if you’re running on limited staff, don’t underestimate the power of volunteers. With a talented, trained volunteer network, you can spread your message far and wide.

Volunteers can help with just about anything, from fundraising to government advocacy, so make sure you use them to your advantage.

For the volunteer, it’s a meaningful way to help their community, which they’re sure to value. Just be sure to thank and acknowledge them for all the time and effort they put into volunteering. 

5. Invest in the Right Technology

A non-profit can’t run on excel spreadsheets alone—even small charities need to utilize technology. This will help with everything from managing your database to running marketing campaigns.

Consider tech upgrades for non profits like cloud computing and donor engagement tools, as they can help you become more efficient. It will make it easier for your staff, volunteers, and stakeholders, as you can communicate more effectively with the right technology.

6. Watch Your ROI

Another financial tip—always keep an eye on your ROI. This stands for return on investment and is an important metric for charities to measure.

For example, for every dollar you spend on fundraising, how much comes back? If you’re spending more than you’re bringing in, your charity has some serious problems.

7. Build a Solid Fundraising Strategy

To avoid a poor ROI, it helps to have a solid strategy for marketing and fundraising. When it comes to money, you need to run your charity like a business—you want to bring in as much money as you can so you keep doing good work.

Write a marketing and fundraising plan for your charity, outlining exactly what you’ll do to increase awareness of your non-profit and bring in income. Depending on your audience and target demographic, this is likely to be a mix of digital and traditional fundraising. 

8. Partner With Others

Another great way to improve how you run your non-profit is to extend your reach by partnering with others. Together, two charities combined can increase success by teaming up for an awareness campaign or a fundraising event.

This also helps with brand awareness, as each charity can introduce the other to their audience.

9. Have a Clear Focus

To run your charity well, you need to have a clear focus of who you are and what you want to achieve. Express this through your charity’s mission statement, which should act as the mantra for everything you do.

A clear focus also helps you work out what falls outside your scope, which helps you use your resources and time wisely.

10. Apply for Tax Exemption

If you haven’t already, be sure to register your non-profit for tax exemption status. As long as your charity operates for charitable, scientific, religious, or public safety reasons and purposes, then you can apply to the government for tax exemption.

This will save you huge amounts of money each year, as you won’t be required to pay tax. You’ll also be exempt from having to pay both sales and property tax, another useful benefit.

Improve Your Non-Profit With These Tips

Whether you’re standing a new non-profit or are looking for a way to improve your current one, these tips are sure to help.

After reading through the above, spend some time thinking about how you make your non-profit better, in terms of finances, productivity, and management. With a few tweaks, you can make your non-profit even better, focused on doing what you do best—helping others.

Did you find this article helpful? If so, please keep reading to learn more.