Not knowing what a program costs
I have worked with leaders of multimillion dollar organizations who had no idea whether their operations made or lost money. If you cannot price it, you cannot defend it.
Free first chapter
Why do nonprofits fail? Because they deserve to.
That is how Beyond Hand to Mouth begins. Tell me where to send Chapter 1, and you will also get occasional notes on running a nonprofit like a well-managed business, written plainly from the lender’s side of the table. Fair warning: it is blunt. If the tone is not for you, one click takes you off the list.
What I write about
The mistakes I see in almost every boardroom
None of these feel like mistakes at the time. They feel like being a good nonprofit.
Giving it away
Free and underpriced programs breed abuse and a false sense that you are richer than you are. If people will not pay anything for a program, they are telling you they do not value it.
Running the deficit, then passing the hat
Spending first and scrambling in December for gifts to cover the gap puts the cart before the horse. Build the budget on your weakest recent giving year, not your best.
Waiting for the white knight
The wealthy patron who will make every problem go away is not coming. Boards that wait for one put off the hard, rational decisions they would make without a second thought in their own businesses.
Leading with guilt
Most fund-raising begins and ends with the emotional appeal. “We need the money, so you owe it to us” feels like begging. Your best supporters will quietly stop answering the phone.
A board with nothing at stake
When the board will not give, why should anyone else? People are less careful with other people’s money when nothing of their own is at risk. Donors notice.
Your funders are customers. They pay for perceived value.
Stop treating your community as a source of charity and start treating it as what it is: savvy consumers. Donors, foundations and program participants all want the same thing a customer wants. Show them what they are buying, what it costs, and that you are a careful steward of the money.
For passion to matter, it has to become personal. How someone feels about your mission is irrelevant. How someone feels about your organization is everything. The surest way to kill that feeling is to bombard everyone within arm’s length for money.