Not-For-Profit: Are You Ready for Free Money?

In spite of the many experiences and case studies of organizational development among NFP organization, many still believe that lack of funding is the main hindrance to successful program management and completion of projects.

Project managers and consultants however don't count lack of funding as a primary cause of project failures or program development. Their logic is really simple. A good planning session would have already cancelled out programs or projects that are clearly not viable. They never get off the ground in the conceptualization face in the first place.

Project managers or program implementers believe that you simply don't ask funds for projects that don't even pass the conceptualization phase. You'll be surprise by the kind of project proposals NFPs sometimes prepare for funding.

You encounter proposals asking for multimillion funding for projects that clearly cannot be delivered base on what you know about the proponent. If these proposals were coming from entrepreneurs you would think that these projects are really a good excuse for a rip off.

With NFPs you cannot think this way.

You meet really honest people with big dreams of helping the less fortunate, of saving the environment, of protecting children or helping farmers. What I see are people who simply don't know the implication or the enormity of the responsibility that comes along with serious or large funding.

NFP organizations must realize that the real issue is not where to get funding. The issue is not even how much. The real worry for organizations is their readiness to receive funding if it is made available to them.

I suggest that you or the officers or leaders of NFP ask yourselves candidly serious questions about your readiness to receive financial assistance. You need to see, to realize if you or the organization you manage and represent, are prepared for serious funding now.

Before I go out helping NFP organizations, I ask the most influential or most active leaders and members simple questions.

You can start asking yourself these same questions now.

Who do you serve?

What bigger picture will this fund play in your plans?

Where are you going to use it?

How are you going to use it?

What exactly will you spend it on?

Do you know how long it will last?

Do you have a way to keep track of the funds?

Do you know who will be responsible for using and supervising the use of the funds?

Do you have somebody responsible for monitoring and reporting the actual use of the funds?

Do you have an organized paperwork for all of the above?

The answers to these questions will not be solving the most common problems of NFPs but it will be quite an eye-opener for starters. If the answers are honest enough, it will lead most concerned leaders and members to take the necessary action to bring about changes.

Making changes can be daunting but seeing the need is even more difficult to do. It will require a certain amount of knowledge and degree of maturity to do so. Most of the time this will require professionals from many fields of knowledge and expertise.

It will not be easy but if they're lucky enough they can get really good consultants and other experts to volunteer.

I for one will volunteer if the cause is legitimate and the leaders and members are dedicated enough. In so many instances I have stuck out my own neck aside from my knowledge to support causes I truly believe are worth fighting for literally.

The questions above are like mirrors on the wall. You get to see things the way they are if you look hard enough.

Not-For-Profit: An Organizational Dilemma

NFP organizations all over the world have played critical and far-reaching roles in their respective societies. Every country has each evolve organizations that made meaningful and lasting impact on people's lives.

You will see NFP organizations in far-flung and depressed areas of countries. You will meet volunteers of these organizations during calamities, in the heat of war, and even in the dark secret prisons of totalitarian states.

These dramatic experiences are not really the typical variety even in these organizations. The more common experiences are really those that concern routine tasks of getting services to beneficiaries or meet project schedules.

The Challenges of Contemporary NFP Organizations
The challenge of not-for-profit organizations today is that it must accomplish A goal or a mission, it demands leadership, it has to manage people to accomplish this, it has to provide its people with tools and resources, it needs to develop competence, it needs to coordinate projects, and it has to acquire money just like any business. What it cannot do very well is acquire profit.

This is not only a challenge but also an irony.

Admittedly, not-for-profit or NFP organizations by their operation or activities are for all intents and purposes run just like any enterprise. It requires the same amount and quality of talent, knowledge, skills, and labor costs but it is deployed not to gain profit but to accomplish an altruistic or supposedly noble goal.

I have volunteered my own personal time to help not-for-profit or non-government organizations (NGOs). Most of the time, I don't help organizations raise funds. I help them prepare to receive and use them.

The difference may not be apparent but raising funds compared to being prepared to receive them are to me two distinct actions. The reason why I took the liberty of creating a distinction is for my own reference of accepting a consulting project pro bono or not.

Raising funds can be very controversial especially if you have very prominent community personalities running the fund-raising initiative.

Raising funds is getting money from someone and putting it in your hands or technically into the organization's bank account if it has any. Helping organizations prepare to receive funds is about creating the process, systems and mechanisms to effectively use funds and monitor its flow from its infusion to its final payout to projects.

NFP or NGOs have almost the same likelihood of being recipients of funds. I mean funds of any kind and amount. What they don't have in equal footing is the ability to use them.

The one thing a consultant will gain when volunteering time to help NFP organizations is the intimate knowledge of processes and structures. Even a consultant with expertise and experience in process development and improvement will find the realities of NFP organizations a challenge.

This is the single most strategic reason I help out NFP organizations. The learning experience for me as a consultant is invaluable.

Some of the approaches I have developed in communications, organizational development, leadership, competence development, and team building are direct result of my involvement with NFP organizations.

Let me list down the difficulties or "challenges" that a typical NFP organization faces on a fairly regular rate. These are just mere examples of the most common. If you are a member of one, go email me some I have not mentioned here.

Here's a few samples:

• Raising funds using a team without a single salesman led by a retired person with no business sense.
• Managing a project without a plan nor funds to start with.
• Working with a project team led by a retired desk clerk.
• Organizing 300-strong small-scale miners against the abuses of fifteen families who are backed up by a military contingent, a police station, a mayor and a governor.
• Improving an organization's image after a project team ruffles the sensitivity of beneficiaries and insults local legislators because of bad behavior and questionable conduct.
• Coming up with a relocation plan for urban poor dwellers while their association officers are fighting each other during confederation meetings.
• Convincing local government leaders to help in relocating urban poor dwellers knowing full well that this will mean lesser voters in their locality in the next election year.
• Requesting endorsement for the organization's programs to community leaders after they have formally requested their local government to terminate one of the projects under these programs.

Common Problems of NFP Organizations
When you facilitate brainstorming, planning and project management meetings, you get to know all stakeholders up close. You get their opinions and contributions first hand, you hear their biases, you get acquainted with their most excellent and their worse moments, and you experiment with th most creative to the most absurd ideas to solve society's perennial problems.

The problems that commonly plague NFP organizations:

• Poorly defined goal or purpose.
• Lack of leadership.
• Absence of a competent project team.
• Badly conceived strategy.
• Organizational structure does not support strategy.
• Programs are not effectively driving strategy.
• Absence of a viable project plan.
• Lack of expertise or knowledge resource.
• Lack of or poorly created alliances.
• Lack of dedicated volunteers.
• Absence of appropriate hard assets.
• Absence of sound policies and process.
• Lack of funds.

There can be a lot more problems you can put on paper but the above are the most common that not only cause projects to fail but can lead organizations to eventually shutdown.

You can check the list above and compare it with the most common reasons why most industry cooperatives become inactive or go bankrupt and you will find that they are almost identical.

If you haven't notice, lack of funds is in tail end of the list. When you have a clear goal and you are passionate about it, are led by the most charismatic and creative leader, and you have the most dedicated team of volunteers behind you, lack of funds is the least of your worry.

I have seen more programs and projects fail simply because of the absence of a strong and inspirational leadership than by lack of funds.

Endeavors great and small throughout ancient and contemporary civilizations have demonstrated man's capacity to move mountains, change beliefs, forget the unforgivable, and build from the ashes of devastation.

Not-For-Profits: A Value Proposition in Fundraising

The blogs in this session was lifted from my e-book: "Are You Ready For Free Money? A Guide To Getting Grants". The e-book was written to provide a free resource for non-government organizations (NGO) or what is commonly referred to in other countries as "Not-for-Profits" or NFP. In its original context it included cooperatives, people's organizations, trade associations and other organizations with social goals. This edition includes educational institutions or support organizations whether private or government.

Although, the title refers to grants-in-aid this blog goes beyond conventional sources of grants. Funding sources today comes from many sources and do not necessarily come from foundations or governments. You will get a glimpse of some of these other sources of funds here.

Many fund seekers may feel like they are begging for alms and they have good reasons to feel so. In many interaction with community leaders, environmental activists, advocacy volunteers, and community development workers, I have seen how the process of raising funds have turned into a humiliating experience for some and a totally messy legal battle for others. In many countries, fund-raising has become such a professional cluster of activities that certain businesses have thrived to provide support services for NGOs or NFPs to raise funds. A lot of consulting businesses in this field in fact, do not come cheap.

From here on you will never use the word "solicitation" ever again. What you will learn in this blog is the word "Value Proposition". You will no longer write and mail "solicitation letters" but business or marketing proposals. You will not be lining up into some politician or businessman's office and beg (or God help you "plead") for donations, you will now call for an appoint, set up your presentation and make a close.