what we're going to be discussing are
several elements of a non-profit
business plan and why they might be
important for your success and starting
a nonprofit organization hi I'm Eric
Hazel Road I am the CEO here at Apple
software here at appleís I am an expert
in entrepreneurship I've written a
textbook on the subject and I help
people start businesses and nonprofits I
have a passion for helping people start
organizations nonprofit and social good
companies and I'm part owner of several
social good companies and believer in
philanthropy and so it's been a lot of
time helping other organizations be
better at what they do and giving to
those organizations in many different
ways so a non-profit business plan is
essentially a document that helps a
non-profit entrepreneur put their vision
on paper so that one they can record all
their ideas in a systematic way but two
they can share that vision with other
people so that other people would
understand what they're trying to
accomplish I think there's a lot of
misconceptions about what a business
plan is and what it's supposed to do
there's many people think you need a
business plan to go get money from a
bank which doesn't usually happen
especially with a startup most of the
time if you need a business plan to get
money from a bank for your nonprofit or
for your regular business it's after
you've been in business for a few years
so an initial like you're starting a
non-profit why would you do a business
plan it's it's really so you can gather
all of your thoughts and be clear about
what it is that you're trying to
accomplish it has nothing to do with
anyone else except for you it's really
about making sure that you've thought
through all the things that you need to
think through so that as you're
launching this you know this
organization that you've thought of all
the details so that when you actually
physically go file your paperwork with
the state or with your city or you start
providing services for people you're not
caught off guard by something that you
may not have thought of depending on the
organization there can be several
elements in a non-profit business plan
one essential piece that's specific to
nonprofits is some sort of fundraising
plan whether that's a series of events
and you're gonna have golf tournament
fundraisers or car washes or you're
gonna rely on volunteers and you're just
coordinating events for providing
services the fundraising aspect of a
non-profit has to be thought out how are
you gonna pay your own salary for
example or are you going to start a
non-profit as a side thing and you have
your regular day job and then hopefully
if it grows big enough then do you pay
yourself so a fundraising plan would be
in there a service plan or some kind of
something that identifies what your
cause is and how you try to solve it so
from a planning standpoint the cause
really is the problem that you're trying
to solve so maybe it's homelessness and
you want to fight homelessness so what
you would do is you would identify you
know how many homeless people are in
your area what are their needs how
specifically do you plan to help because
there could be several nonprofits one
may just want to feed homeless people
another may want to provide housing for
homeless people so your solution to that
problem is your specific cause so there
would be some kind of outline of how it
is that you want to attack the cause or
help the cause and and solve for those
needs so those would be specific and
you'd want those in there you would also
have some sort of financial pro formas
projections it's not because you want to
go get a loan or anything like that it's
simply so that you make sure your bills
are paid in the future so if you have
your fundraising plan that's essentially
your income and then whatever your cause
that you want to serve you're gonna have
things that you serve those cosmic so
maybe you're running events that cost
money maybe you're providing meals for
almost people that cost money so you
just want to make sure that you've
planned for that
coming in when are you going to need it
and make sure we have enough of that and
so a financial plan would be part of
that some nonprofits will include a
marketing plan that's just really it's
more about launching the nonprofit to
the community it's for the benefit of
those who would receive care and it's
also for the benefit of people who would
want to come alongside that nonprofit
and maybe be donors maybe be fund
raisers maybe but be volunteers that
believe in that cause so some kind of
marketing plan would be relevant to most
nonprofit business plans and it doesn't
have to be a paid for advertising plan
it's it could literally be I need to go
print a bunch of flyers or I need to
have all of my friends over for dinner
and tell them about what I want to do
and it can start that simple but it
could be if we're going bigger to be
even more dynamic than that typically
most people want to help most people are
really good when it comes to the idea
generation with helping and starting a
non-profit and we love bouncing ideas
off of friends and this is all a very
important piece of starting a non-profit
but you we almost want to make sure we
go to that next level of writing it down
thinking how does my marketing plan a
line with my fundraising plan or my
fundraising events at the right time of
year for when I'm going to need the
money to actually provide for this cause
so it just helps us to see it as a whole
from a you know top level view maybe
30,000 foot view to make sure everything
works together because one-off things
sound great and often are fine but
sometimes when we have this thing going
over here and this thing going over here
and we haven't thought of them together
they're not gonna work out and so having
that plan will help us to have more
success and that you know means serving
more people really
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