So I'm guessing you might know this - but starting a non-profit can be hard! And I'm not even
really talking about all the paperwork, or the filing process; that stuff can be complicated,
yes. But the real work comes after that. I'm talking about stuff like leading your board and
your volunteers and your supporters to support the mission and create positive meaningful change in
your community. I'm talking about raising all the money and getting all the resources that you need
in order to be able to do that. And I'm talking about sticking to it when obstacles come along and
make it harder. I have been there! As a non-profit founder and executive director, I have faced
countless setbacks, numerous failures, and days when I just wondered if I should give
up on the whole endeavor. But I'm so glad I did not. I am so proud of the work that we've been
able to accomplish despite of those setbacks so in this video i want to share a little bit of
encouragement to my fellow non-profit founders and leaders out there as well as a few tips and
strategies for how to stay motivated when it gets rough if we haven't met before my name is amber
melanie smith and i am a non-profit founder, if you hadn't guessed from my other intro there,
an executive director and uh someone who makes these videos here on YouTube to help other folks
starting a non-profit on their social impact journeys folks who just want to make a difference
in the world and need a little help figuring out how check out my website founder to full time for
some resources and help if you are on a non-profit journey yourself and don't forget to give this
video a like and subscribe to my channel for more content like this funding shortages application
rejections board members or volunteers quitting the public just not getting what you do
there are many many obstacles that could and do get in the way when you're trying to start or
grow a non-profit organization but as a non-profit leader i know that you are dedicated to your cause
and your mission and to pushing through the hard times so here are seven of my strategies and tips
for how to stay motivated when you're trying to start or grow a non-profit organization
strategy number one is to analyze and make a plan when things aren't quite going how i want them to
it helps me sometimes to take a step back gather data and feedback from other people on what
might be going wrong analyze that feedback and data and then make a step-by-step plan
on how to fix it i found that doing this helps me turn a setback into an opportunity to learn
and also that active creating a plan helps me gain this sense of control over the ultimate outcome
which can be very very motivating strategy number two is to engage with your community
sometimes it really helps me to get away from the computer and my desk and to go out there
and talk to our supporters to the people we're serving to my team members or to other partners
of our organization the reason this works is very simple and that's that talking to other people can
encourage you and show you that you're not alone in this work and if you're a non-profit
that provides direct services to people going out and engaging with the very people you are
trying to support and amplify the lives of can remind you why you're doing this work
and help you stay motivated that way strategy number three is to take a deep breath and take
something one small step at a time sometimes when i try to look at my very long to do list it can be
very demotivating so when i catch myself feeling that way i just remind myself hey amber you don't
have to do all of these things right now you just have to focus on this one thing so i make
plan to focus on that one thing i shut off other distractions i put my phone far away and i put my
head down and i work on that one thing and then i feel accomplished and then you end up getting
a bunch of things on your to-do list done anyway because once you accomplish that one small thing
you can move on to another small thing strategy number four is take a break i know this one can
seem a little counter-intuitive but when you're facing what seems like an insurmountable problem
it is very helpful to take a break instead of trying to push or power through the problem
this is one of my favorite tips because it's easy it's fun and it challenges us to think through
the meaning and the power of rest and relaxation and full disclaimer i'm still working on this one
myself there is so much research out there and so many reports out there talking about the power
of rest and play and sleep on productivity and creativity and of course rest and sleep and play
are important and have value in their own right but when we're talking about accomplishing the
mission of our organizations and needing to get all these things done these things can also
play a role in that a recent article in harvard medical medical school's journal even talked about
how the brain is sort of designed to help you solve problems while you sleep so some really
great research research out there talks about how you can study a problem or think about a problem
right before bed and then while you're sleeping in theory your brain will be helping you calculate
how to fix it so that's pretty awesome go take a nap my fifth strategy slash tip for staying
motivated is to take a moment to look at how far you've come when you're focused on how much you
still have to accomplish or how much change you have to create in the world in the future
and it feels like you've barely gotten anything done it can be a bit demoralizing but we know that
it's not often true that we haven't accomplished much i think we are hard on ourselves and we think
that we've accomplished much less than we actually have so sometimes when i want to
remember i take a moment to take a trip down memory lane i will look at old blog posts or
journal entries or photographs and fondly remember that time we made a difference
it's important to take pride in all of your progress so far from where you began strategy
number six is to celebrate small victories similar to taking pride in your past accomplishments we
can celebrate small victories in the present this might sound a little cliche but there are actual
couple of practical ways you can exercise this tip or this strategy that i found at
least personally to be very motivational and those two things are post-it notes successes
and friday fives now a post-it note success board is when you write down an accomplishment even
a small one and you put it up on a board above your computer or your desk so you can look up and
think wow i actually did accomplish quite a bit this week or this month or whatever your
timeline is for your board these can be things like a major success like you got a major grant
to support your work and fund your program it can be small things like you got an email from
someone affected by your organization who just wanted to share that you made a difference for
them that's actually not a small thing but you get the idea now a friday five is when you share five
positive things that happened that week with your team your team can be your board of directors your
staff your core group of volunteers or volunteer leaders but the idea is that you're helping people
get a quick snapshot of some positivity that happened that week for the organization some
impact that you made some resources you were able to obtain good things for the
organization you're sharing them with your team and helping everyone stay motivated alongside you
strategy number seven the final one i'm going to share tonight is to remember your why when you're
feeling down when you're feeling demotivated take a moment to just reflect on why you
started a non-profit or got involved in the cause that you're involved in in the first place some
practical ways you can reflect on your why include having a meaningful discussion with your team
about the cause that you are working to support it can be private journaling for yourself or it can
be looking at some data or statistics about your cause to help you stay motivated to help show you
that the need is important and that you're doing good work to address it
so now i want to hear from you are you in the process of starting a non-profit organization
what are you struggling with right now or how are you staying motivated throughout the process
share your thoughts with me and the community leave it in the comments below if you need some
additional help or resources on starting a non-profit check out my website once again
founder to fulltime.com and also check out my group on Facebook called change the world or
bust lots of folks starting non-profits creating a social impact and encouraging each other along
the way in that group so i hope you can join us i hope you found this video helpful and of course
motivating please let me know give it a like and subscribe to my channel for more content on
starting a non-profit and creating a social impact and i hope to see you next time bye
you