Being transparent is important, regardless if you’re a for-profit or not-for-profit organization (NPO). Communicating your goals to your key stakeholders is essential to the organization’s success. Here are 4 tips summarized from Charity Village that will help you measure and improve communication to your stakeholders.
1. Tell Your Story
Your organization’s story is a measurable way to communicate to your staff and donors. Take a look at the following example given by Charity Village:
We raised $1,000,000 to provide 10 fully supported housing spaces for one year. We spent $800,000 directly on securing physical locations and $100,000 on improvements and upgrades to ensure the spaces met the needs of the residents now and going forward. The remaining funds provided program support to individuals for one year. We noted successful tenancy for each of the individuals, creating stability and sense of community.
2. Maintain Up-to-Date Bookkeeping
In the last few years, the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) increased the requirements for registered charities in order to provide documentation supporting the end use of all funds raised and spent by an organization as per accounting standards for NPOs. Displaying this information to your funders can help maintain that open relationship with them because this, to them, means their donations are going where they want them to go and they feel respected.
3. Be Transparent
Transparency is key! For instance, strong bookkeeping and providing financial reports to your key stakeholders can be used to show your organization’s successes in a transparent way.
4. Analyze and Review
It’s important for your management team to understand what the numbers mean from an operational and organizational perspective. This allows the team to connect the dots when it comes to resources needed for future programs and activities.
If your NPO implements these 4 tips, you may start to see improved measures and communication to key stakeholders! For more detailed information, read the full article from Charity Village. Please feel free to contact RLB’s specialized NPO Team at 1-866-822-9992 if you have any questions!
