I have met hundreds of people starting or leading non-profit organizations over the years. I've seen
non-profits that have gotten started and then closed up shop within just a couple of years,
and then I've seen other non-profits who have become sustainable and increased and grown their
reach and impact in their communities for years to come - and whenever I meet a new non-profit
founder there's generally one thing that sticks out about them that tends to be a pretty good
indicator of whether or not they'll be successful in their efforts. So in this video, I'm going to
talk about that one thing and why it has the type of power and influence it has to determine your
success in creating an impact and in the nonprofit world and how you can tap into it to increase your
own odds of success in the nonprofit or social impact world too welcome back to my channel!
I'm Amber Melanie Smith. I am a non-profit founder and executive director I love making these YouTube
videos to help folks just starting their social impact or non-profit journeys if you're looking
for help or resources check out my website founder to fulltime.com and don't forget to subscribe and
like this video and ring the bell for alerts for the next time i post another one all right the
suspense is real i'm sure here it is here's the one thing that influences your success most at
starting or leading a non-profit you ready knowing your why your why is essentially why you do what
you do your purpose your beliefs your motivations all rolled into one i know it sounds like some
mystical force but it actually has real-life practical applications that can determine your
success this idea of knowing your why or starting with your why was
made popular by speaker and author Simon Sinek in his ted talk and throughout his writing,
Simon makes the case that the organizations and businesses that are the most successful are
those that start with their why they align their activities and their strategies around their why
their purpose their values their meaning first instead of coming up with a business plan or
tactical or action plan based on what they want to do or how they want to do it first and for
non-profits with missions of changing their communities and their worlds for their better
this is even more important not just that but knowing your why and knowing how to articulate in
simple terms what your why is to people and audiences around you is one of the most
critical things you can do when you're starting a non-profit to make sure it will grow and thrive
but why for non-profits this is true for three reasons one being able to explain your deep core
why inspires people to trust you and to join you that's join you to volunteer join your board of
directors join you as a partner organization or partner and join you as a donor when you start a
nonprofit three of the biggest most important tasks you'll have to do include developing an
effective program that genuinely meets the needs of your community building alliances
and partnerships and raising money and all of those are pretty much impossible if you don't have
enough people who trust you and want to join in your cause to support it so how do you get people
to join your cause and feel inspired to support it i'm thinking you know the answer by now you
share your why in your messaging on social media on your website in your day-to-day conversations
put it out there clearly and often and the people who align with your why align with your values and
your purpose and your vision are going to be drawn to you and want to support you it's not magic it's
good marketing the second reason this works and is so effective at ensuring your non-profit success
is that knowing and sharing your why enables you to define your values your values of course
are the rules around which your organization will operate as it works towards its mission
will your organization emphasize a value of kindness what about truth and transparency what
about fair and equitable treatment of your team or staff since your purpose in starting a non-profit
in the first place is to somehow someway make your community better doing it with high ethical moral
standards and with compassion is going to ensure that you build loyalty and trust amongst those
who are following your cause and help them stick around for the long haul let's connect the dots
here for a moment let's say your big why is that you believe people should be able to live and work
with dignity but you're running an organization where you're not paying your staff a living wage
are you living up to your why and the values that in theory align with your why no in this case
and not aligning with the values that you proclaim and your why is going to
mean people are going to stop trusting you and that could mean that they withdraw their
support whether that's their volunteer support or their financial support or other types of support
it's all about doing what you say you're going to do essentially people trust that they want to
support that so figure out your why and align your values around that and then live out your values
day to day and the third reason that your why can help determine your success as an organization is
that knowing your why motivates and inspires you to push through the hard challenges i've
said this before but starting a non-profit is hard you're gonna face many roadblocks and challenges
but if you know your why and you wake up every morning knowing this why then all of those
roadblocks and obstacles are just gonna feel like minor hiccups not the end of the world my personal
why is that i want every person around me to be able to live up to their potential to change the
world and i have failed at more initiatives and projects than i can count but knowing that that's
my why has enabled me to continue and to thrive off of small victories doing my organization's
work and doing these videos for you they all help me achieve my ultimate goal helping people
identify and live up to their potential to make an impact in the world around them so what's your
why if you're not sure that's okay let's figure it out ultimately knowing your deep core why and then
living up to the values that match that why are going to allow you to attract support and grow and
thrive so that you can fulfill your social impact mission as a non-profit organization but if you're
not quite sure what your why is or how to explain it to others you can figure it out by writing a
why statement here are five quick questions you can ask yourself to figure out your why and write
it in a why statement in fact go ahead and grab a piece of paper or open a document on your computer
or draw it in a journal whatever you want to do question number one is who cares why should
your mission matter to other people and the world you know that it does it's just about explaining
why question number two is what are your core beliefs and how do those influence how you lead
others and lead your organization or your cause number three is what was the moment you realized
that doing this work was what you wanted to do what was happening in that moment that made
that the moment you made your decision question number four is why do you feel like this work
is worth it despite all the challenges you might be facing or will face and finally
ask a team member or a friend why do they want to get involved in this work with you what inspired
them to join up look for patterns in your answers maybe you'll find that a strong belief that
everyone deserves dignity is your why maybe it's a belief that everyone should be inspired every day
like simon sinek says whatever your why lead with that in your introduction of your cause to others
and watch what happens now i want to hear from you what's your why are you starting a non-profit or
a social impact project what beliefs or values or purpose is driving you to do it share in the
comments below and as always if you need some help on the steps to start a nonprofit check out my
website founder to fulltime.com and also consider joining my newsletter for non-profit leaders and
change makers where i send out resources and opportunities and information and news that will
help you make an impact in the world i hope you found this video helpful or at least inspirational
don't forget to like this video ring the bell for alerts subscribe and all that good stuff final
thought if you're on facebook check out my group change the world or bust we've got lots of folks
in there from around the world making an impact and i hope you can join us see you next time
bye