Starting a non-profit takes some special skills! But the good news
is I believe that with practice and effort any non-profit founder can master them. So
in this video I'm going to talk through six of the top skills that a non-profit
founder needs to master in order to ensure that their new organization gets visibility
can attract funding and can deliver on its programs and Mission successfully [Music]
welcome or welcome back my name is Amber Melanie Smith I'm a non-profit founder and
executive director who makes these videos here on YouTube to help people who want to make an impact
navigate the various ways to do that as always I hope that you find this video helpful and useful
don't forget to give it a like And subscribe to my channel for more content like this if you're in
the process of starting a non-profit or developing a sustainable fundraising plan check out my two
online courses at my website FounderToFulltime.com that cover those topics and might be able to help
you out being a successful non-profit founder takes a lot of different unique skills so let's
get into these skills right away the first one that I'm going to cover is strategic thinking
strategic thinking is all about first being able to identify the outcomes you need to reach the
goals that you need to set in order to reach those longer term outcomes and then the steps that you
need to plot out in order to achieve your goals so kind of like being a big picture project manager
in a way strategic thinking is all about being able to then prioritize which of those goals uh
in order to most quickly and effectively get to your ultimate outcome and achieve your mission as
an organization if strategic thinking is something that you're not sure you're strong in or maybe you
feel like you need to refine a little bit here are some tips for how to practice and hone your
strategic thinking skills in the non-profit space the first thing you need to be able to
do and practice in order to hone your strategic thinking skills is to have a super clear vision
this helps not just you as a non-profit founder but it can also help the other leaders need your
team working with you to help get this non-profit off the ground so a super clear vision can help
you learn how to prioritize what actions to take and the best way to make sure that your vision
is clear is by formatting it as a smart goal that's s-m-a-r-t that means specific measurable
achievable relevant and time-bound so to give you an example of a social impact mission that might
be formatted as a smart goal um we want to end homelessness for 100 people so that's pretty
specific in our city so that's relevant to your local community in the next two years so it's time
bound you've got a very specific goal you know when you got to do it by and you know what the
scope of it is it's in your city the second element of refining your strategic thinking
skills is by just writing it out as a strategic planner strategic Vision strategic planning is
this process of basically working backwards from your ultimate Vision your outcomes to defining
those goals to defining those tasks that you need to take in order to reach those goals and then
deciding who on your team and what skill sets are needed to carry out each part of the plan there's
no shame in writing it down no one can expect you to keep a strategic plan or strategic Vision just
in your head all day so if you've never done this before I highly recommend just searching online
for non-profit strategic plan template something like that to get you sort of a blank canvas to
work on and once you get this template you want to start with the ultimate outcome in a certain
period of time so let's say your mission is to end homelessness in your city while thinking about
what you might be able to accomplish towards that goal in the next year or two years or three year
period and don't plan too far beyond that because the world changes pretty fast and it's pretty hard
to plan that far ahead without something changing your plans all around so start with that outcome
work your way backwards and then don't forget to get feedback from other people on your team
and in your community to make sure do that gut check that your vision is clear and the strategy
to reach your vision makes sense the second top skill that I want to talk to you about today is
team leadership and of course this is a really important one because as a non-profit founder
at the very least you're working with a board of directors but it is also very possible that even
currently or in the near future you're also going to be working with some paid staff or full-time or
part-time staff so as a non-profit founder you've got to be able to inspire your team around your
goals so that you're all working effectively towards those goals you've got to be able to
manage this team delegate tasks and communicate effectively not just with your team but with all
the stakeholders of your organization one super easy way to practice becoming an inspirational
or motivational leader for your team is to just find Opportunities to restate the purpose of your
organization the why why are we all here at this meeting doing this thing talking about this thing
why are we doing this so that ultimate Vision that we talked about in the strategic planning
part of this video One easy way you can do this is by simply building in a couple of minutes
into meeting agendas to take a moment as a team to just reiterate remember the mission and talk
about the mission and possibly some impact that your organization has had in the recent history
sharing the impacts is another one of those ways to refine your team leadership because
like I just said It reminds everyone why you're all there and it's encouraging to see that your
actions matter and are making progress another really important way to practice team leadership
is simply to lead by example what that looks like is showing your enthusiasm for the mission of the
organization sharing updates about things going on behind the scenes being transparent with your
team about things going on so that they have a sense of ownership over the future of the work
too the third top skill that non-profit Founders must master is perhaps a less fun skill to have
to master for some but it is nonetheless a very important one and that is financial management
a non-profit founder really needs to have a strong understanding of financial management
which includes budgeting how to create a budget how to manage a budget for the organization
um forecasting so being able to anticipate upcoming expenses and revenue coming in and
of course fundraising your strategies to bring in the money in the first place all of these aspects
of the financial management skill are really critical to ensuring that your organization cannot
just grow its impact and your capacity to make an impact whether by hiring more staff or purchasing
needed equipment but also ensures that your organization can be sustainable over the long term
honing your financial management skills really starts with creating a solid budget for your
organization and for those who haven't created a budget before they're sometimes confusion about
well how do you know what to put in the budget well it's all about research and estimating and
forecasting right so you've got your strategy you know what actions you're going to need to
take at least in the short term future in order to reach your organization's goals so it's just
a matter of taking taking a look at those actions and thinking what Staffing what equipment what
um you know internet services online things are we going to need in order to effectively complete
those actions right so as a new organization you might need liability insurance you might need a
website you might need equipment to execute on the programs of your of your organization
um materials and supplies um if you're in a position to bring on staff then staff salaries but
all of these things are things that you could put in your budget and in order to know how much those
things cost you can simply do some comparative research on the internet there's nothing like
going through the process of developing a budget that helps you understand better how to forecast
because you will see what expenses you're going to need to incur throughout the year as well as
how much money you're going to need to raise in order to pay for all of those expenses so at the
very least that will help you forecast in the short term what's going to come down the line
for your organization financially the other aspect of financial management that's really
important is the ability to create and explain Financial reports so one of the responsibilities
of your board of directors is to monitor your organization's financial status making sure
that it has enough cash on hand in order to do the things that needs to do that quarter and
half a year and year so um you might go online and find a template for a financial report and
practice inputting data into that to be able to explain it to your board if you're using
accounting software something like QuickBooks then most of the time that software will just produce a
financial report for you so just practice reading through those making sure you understand those is
a great way to practice your financial management skills skill number four is very important and a
little bit more fun at least to me anyway and it is networking and relationship building so
relationships are everything a non-profit founder has to be able to build strong relationships with
all kinds of stakeholders that's donors and potential donors volunteers and potential
volunteers and everyday people in your community and you might have other types of stakeholders too
depending on what kind of organization you are whether you work with your local government or
you work a lot with area businesses those are also stakeholder types and you need good relationships
with all of them to be able to develop a positive reputation for your organization which then
contributes to your ability to secure funding and support if you're someone who's a little bit
nervous about networking and putting yourself out there then I have two tips that might be helpful
for you the first thing that I like to do is think of questions I can ask people people typically
love to share about themselves their stories their background what they're interested in so come up
with questions and hopefully make them questions that you genuinely care to hear the answers for
that when you're in a networking situation you have in your back pocket ready to pull out and ask
someone that you meet the second tip is I like to put myself in the shoes of the person I am talking
to if I'm trying to possibly form a relationship with a person because I think that they might be
a good future supporter of my organization then I want to put myself in their shoes and I want to
think to myself what are their goals here today what is their ultimate Mission what are they
trying to achieve or get and once I feel like I have a solid understanding of their motivations
I think to myself well is there anything that our organization does that might align with something
that they want to accomplish also and then when the time is right I can propose that means of
partnering with that person and then hopefully they meet their goals and we meet our goals
and it's mutually beneficial skill number five is strong verbal and written communication non-profit
Founders need to be able to communicate their Vision clearly to a wide variety of stakeholders
and audiences they need to be able to craft compelling messages both written and spoken
that are not just clear and easy to understand but that compel people to take action towards the
mission one of the hardest things about this skill for me in the beginning was I have a tendency to
be long-winded sometimes so something that really helped me was just figuring out how to take away
as many words as possible when I'm trying to explain our mission to make it as concise as
possible sometimes less is more so how can you choose the most powerful words in as few words
as possible to inspire people with your mission I really believe that the shorter more powerful
phrases will also be absorbed and remembered more by people you talk to and the sixth very
important skill that non-profit Founders need to develop and master is adaptability and resilience
non-profit Founders have got to be able to adapt to constantly changing circumstances because
circumstances are constantly changing I can tell you that they must be able to Pivot quickly when
needed and really be flexible in their approach to problem solving one piece of advice I would give
on this one because I have a history of being a perfectionist and the advice is this once
you realize that nothing is going to go exactly perfectly you can at least have peace of mind
knowing that but it also gives you this mindset of well you know I can make a plan and I can hope
that it is executed on perfectly but I'm going to in my mind and heart be ready and vigilant
for having to change something that happens one strategy that can really help you develop a sort
of adaptable mindset but also help you put in place concrete plans to be adaptable is something
called a pre-mortem it's when you sit down when you're planning some kind of event or project or
program and you and ideally you and your team sit there and you list all of the possible challenges
or things that could go wrong with this event project or program you brainstorm together you
really think hard okay what are all the crazy things that could happen maybe it's an event
that needs a lot of volunteers and only half the volunteers show up maybe it's an outdoor project
and there's a hurricane that day um what if it's a long-term fundraising strategy and then we hit
an economic downturn so just listing things big and small that could go wrong but then what you do
is you go back through the list with your team and you write out how you would mitigate each of those
things one by one and that helps you and your team sort of think on your feet and have an idea of
what you would do in that particular circumstance should it arise it helps you ironically become
adaptable through even more intense planning um and if you are someone who likes to plan and feels
um less anxious and More in control when you can plan this is a great way to train yourself to be
adaptable through the planning process there's so much that goes into being a non-profit founder but
those are six of the really really critical skills that um I see that I can tell you I've seen other
non-profit Founders really master and Thrive once they've been able to master those things and I'd
love to hear from you at this point what are some other skills that you think are important for
non-profit Founders what are some of the skills on the list that we talked about that you are
really strong in and what are some that you want to work in work on leave in the comments below as
I mentioned before if you are in the process of starting a non-profit or you want to think about
starting a non-profit or you're in the process of developing a sustainable fundraising plan check
out my website FounderToFulltime.com where I have those two online courses that can guide
you through the process of both of those things I also have a newsletter for change makers of
all types and non-profit leaders you can find the link to subscribe to that right below this
video and of course opt out anytime you'd like finally I have a Facebook group called Change
the World or Bust. We've got 4 000 people from around the world and they're all trying to make
an impact some starting non-profits some starting socially conscious businesses but whatever your
method is for making an impact you are welcome so come on by to our group change the world or bust
that's all I have for you today I hope that you enjoyed this you found it useful don't forget to
give it a thumbs up subscribe to my Channel all that good stuff and I'll see you next time bye
foreign [Music]