How to Overcome Challenges Facing Not-for-Profits

Not-for-profit organizations (NPOs) are generally quite different from for-profit organizations, and therefore, face different challenges. Managers and executives of NPOs require different sets of skills to operate their organizations effectively.

 

1. Leadership Skills

As a not-for-profit organization, there will be times where it is difficult to receive funding or donations, which may demoralize the organization’s employees. Therefore, one of the competencies that a leader of an NPO should possess is the ability to inspire and to motivate. Finding a leader like this, who also possesses a combination of other general business skills, can be challenging to find, but worthwhile. A leader with the innate ability to drive employees and increase morale is crucial to overcoming discouraging situations. However, it works both ways – employees who are highly motivated, or are easily motivated, will complement these leaders well.

 

2. Goal-Setting

A challenge most NPOs face is goal-setting. It can be tough setting goals (i.e. rallying up people to help, the amount of donations to bring in, setting fiscal goals). At each fiscal period, an NPO will know what fundraisers it is holding and the amount of revenue it expects to receive. From there, the organizations plan to disburse the revenues to pay for various services. If their revenue number is lower than what was forecasted, the services which the NPOs intended to provide will be stressed. This may make them unable to help as many charities and organizations as expected, both in terms of scale and in terms of impact. Having a skilled team to deal with such issues is important to achieve goals and have a successful year.

 

3. Doing More With Less

Tying in with the previous point, the biggest challenge facing NPOs is trying to do more with less. Organizations are receiving fewer donations due to increased competition, yet the need for their services is increasing every year. Furthermore, due to the increase in NPOs, in terms of numbers of organizations, and subsequently competitiveness, funding has been spread out much more sparsely in recent years than it ever has been in the past. The increased number of charities does not mean that people’s contributions per year will change in dollar value, but instead, they will simply allocate the same amount of money differently.

 

Managing an NPO may be difficult. However, keeping these 3 tips in mind will lead to a positive impact on your team and organization, and by extension, the community!

For more information, contact Steven today at 519-822-9933.