Eleven Powerful ways to grow your Non-profit in 2020

Published on 9th January 2020

ELEVEN POWERFUL WAYS TO GROW YOUR NON- PROFIT : Nonprofit organizations are by definition not competitive. They tend not to try to “grab a market share” or “poach key customers” as is the nature of profit making organizations. However, this lack of competition may make them forget how important growth is. Every organization has a unique purpose and people dependent on its success. Continual growth is therefore essential to staying relevant in any sector.

Nonprofit growth is like a circle. Start with your vision at the center and continue to grow the circle by attracting people to that vision. The clearer the vision, the easier it is to grow. Of course, it takes more than vision. Here are 11 steps that will help you to continually expand and
achieve success. Read through it and think about your strength in each of the areas. Making improvements in any one of the areas will impact the others. Significant growth requires combined strength in all areas. Start by preparing your organization for success in these four areas:

1. Your vision –Dream it, define it and share it. Serve as your organization’s visionary leader. Be sure you know exactly what the big picture dream is and share it with everyone you know; your enthusiasm and passion will get the circle growing. Make sure that the vision is specific, the more unambiguous your vision is, the easier it is to get people to buy into it.

2. Mission and Goals – Turn your vision into a practical plan by creating a mission statement that says how you are going to achieve your vision, who will benefit from your work and how you are doing it different or better than anyone else. Again, it is important to be specific. A clear mission statement will be handy at this stage.

3. Your Unique Brand – Bring your vision to life with a brand that is yours. Give your organization a look and feel that tells the world exactly who you are and what you are doing. Your brand includes your name and logo, colors, taglines and other words and images you use daily.

4. Creativity – Make new ideas and creativity a part of your culture. Inspire and be inspired every day. Now you are ready to grow your circle and expand your capacity:

5. Entry – Create a clear way for people to come into your organization. Be prepared to share your work and create opportunities for it to be seen.

6. Marketing – Provide the tools you need to share your work and accomplishments through a website, brochure, annual report and press releases.

7. Making Friends – Add new friends continually to your circle and keep the old ones involved and motivated. This includes all your constituencies – staff, board, donors, volunteers, members, the media and the general public.

8. Fundraising – Prepare to ask for what you need. Run mission-focused fundraisers that help you raise more money while you are raising awareness. Finally, you are ready to acknowledge your success:

9. Recognition – Show appreciation for work that is done, time served and anything that helps you reach your goal.

10. Celebrating Success – Provide opportunities for fun to keep everyone motivated and involved.

11. Review – Conduct an annual appraisal of the previous 10 steps and add new goals and keep growing. Be sure not to get caught in the trap of 5-10year strategies or documents that do not reflect the world around you. Write a strategy but review this annually to ensure that the world and sector demands around you are still as relevant as they were when it was first written. Amend and re-strategize where necessary.

Good intentions and hard work are an excellent place to start but you need more. Make sure you are working at improving with each step.

Findev Consulting Limited is a UK based consultancy that provides grant management training to NGOs and civil society organisation. We have worked with numerous nonprofits across 3 continents, focusing on proposal development, strategic planning and project evaluation.

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