whether you're starting a non-profit or
growing an existing nonprofit designing
and carrying out an effective program is
the key to fulfilling your nonprofit's
social impact mission no matter what
that mission is from
combating food insecurity to
ending homelessness to helping kids get
a good education but how can you know if
your program ideas for your nonprofit
are going to be the most effective
programs or how do you know which ones
are going to make the deepest social
impact or what if you have multiple
ideas for programs how do you know which
one to choose in this video i'm going to
share six questions that you should
consider when you are designing a new
program for your non-profit that will
help you get to the heart of the answers
to these questions welcome or welcome
back to my channel i'm amber melanie
smith i'm a non-profit founder and
executive director i love making these
videos here on youtube all about topics
like creating a social impact starting
non-profit organizations and a lot more
don't forget to give this video a like
if you find it helpful and subscribe to
my channel for more content like this i
also have a website founder to
fulltime.com where i feature a couple of
online trainings that help people who
want to start or grow a non-profit
organization so be sure to check that
out and if it's for you i look forward
to seeing you in my online training all
right i'm just gonna jump right into
these six questions with question number
one and i think it's my favorite one the
question is this
if your program succeeds if you achieve
it achieve your goals everything's great
if your program succeeds
how does your community or the world
look different
than it would have before your program
existed this is such a critical first
question to consider and here's why when
i'm talking to people who are developing
their non-profit concepts and thinking
through the first stages of their
programming i often hear them describe
the activities that they want to do as a
non-profit the day-to-day things that
their programs will do they talk about
these things first or their ideas for
these things first before they talk
about the community's needs the feedback
that they've gotten from the community
the ultimate outcome or mission that
they hope that their nonprofit will
achieve through these programs and the
reason that is dangerous is because if
you think about the activities first
before studying the needs and thinking
of the ultimate outcome you want to
achieve you might be coming up with
programs or activities that don't
actually really meet the needs of your
community so this particular question is
inspired by stephen covey's book the
seven habits of highly effective people
and if you're familiar with that text
then you probably know that the question
that i asked aligns best with his notion
of beginning with the end in mind the
idea here is that you're going to zoom
out you're going to look at the big
picture of your organization and you're
going to imagine yourself and this
organization years in the future what
time when you've achieved your goals and
you've achieved your organization's
mission you're going to ask yourself
what does it look like
how is the world different now and this
is a question that i find also often
trips people up who are not used to
thinking in these terms so here's my
advice
it is a little bit of an abstract
question it requires a little bit of
imagination but keep it simple you don't
have to get too complicated in fact the
best answers to this question are short
and to the point think of it as
completing this sentence
if my non-profits programs succeed blank
so here are a couple of examples and
i'll show you just how succinct and to
the point we can get with these
if my non-profits programs succeed no
child will ever be hungry in my city
again if my non-profits program succeed
the blue whale will no longer be
endangered if my nonprofit's programs
succeed there will be an affordable home
for every veteran in my region so see it
doesn't have to be too complicated
you're just dreaming here this is this
should be the why of why you're starting
a non-profit in the first place because
kids being hungry in your city makes you
angry and makes you want to take action
or
veterans not being able to afford homes
makes you angry makes you want to take
action and start a non-profit and tackle
this problem this is ultimately you
saying
why you're doing this in the first place
so i encourage you to practice this you
know get out a piece of paper or write
on your
whiteboard if you were like me and
you're a huge nerd and you have a
whiteboard in your room or just you know
practice writing it out text it to
yourself whatever and let me just
reiterate doing this step first is
important for two reasons the first is
you need to be able to clearly
articulate your why to strangers off the
street who have no idea who you are what
you're about what your organization's
about you need to be able to clearly
articulate why you're doing this to
people like that and second the answer
to this question will become you and
your organization's north star as you're
taking on other programs in the future
and developing this program it will help
guide the way you message your
organization how you talk about your
mission the types of people you recruit
to help your cause it will affect so
many other decisions in your
organization so if you can just clearly
articulate your why
now then you'll be able to use it as a
guide for many years to come okay so i
hope that that was clear and the second
question is going to build on your
answer to that first question here's the
second question
what obstacles are standing in the way
preventing that future that you just
described in question one from becoming
reality so thinking of some of the
examples i gave before how i would
approach answering this one
okay well thinking through
why are children
hungry in my city why is the blue whale
endangered so asking yourself what are
the root causes what's going on with
this problem in the world
that it hasn't been solved yet so
basically what are the reasons this
problem exists what are the root causes
underlying and causing this problem to
persist
so here's the thing
problems are often very very complicated
and you're not going to find
one usually you're not going to find one
simple clear explanation for why
people are hungry or why there's not
enough homes for everyone
problems are very complicated there's a
lot of people and players and
stakeholders and sometimes unfortunately
politics and there's all these reasons
something might be the way it is so i
recommend brainstorming at least three
to four
contributing factors to why this problem
still exists this is a really great
exercise that you can do with your team
whether that's
if you have staff or your board of
directors or your team of volunteers
that's helping you get this thing off
the ground or if you're by yourself you
can do it that way too but this is a
great exercise to really help you think
through
how would you
legitimately solve this problem and and
end it for good if that's what you were
trying to do and just like question two
built on your answer to question one
question three builds on your answers
from questions one and two and the
question number three is this
what obstacle
from the list of obstacles that you just
came up with should be the one that your
program that you're designing focuses on
one way to think about making progress
in your community or in society
is to
focus your programs on removing the
obstacles standing in the way of
progress so you're going to take a look
at the list of three or four or possibly
more root causes or obstacles to
tackling the problem that you listed in
question two you're going to think about
two aspects of that list the first thing
you're going to think about is which
items on this list if solved could move
the needle the most towards affecting
this problem so that's part one and part
two is going to be
which aspect or which problem on this
list which obstacle on this list is
getting the least amount of attention
from other organizations or other people
right now let's think about that first
part first
looking at the list of obstacles which
one or i guess two
could you remove first to make the most
amount of progress on solving that
problem and if this is still a little
bit of an abstract concept let me go
back to our example of
children being hungry in our city to
talk you through it all right these are
purely hypothetical examples but let's
say you're analyzing the problem of
child hunger in your city and you
determined that there are four
interconnected factors that are
contributing to this problem still being
a problem let's say those four things
are lack of access to fresh and healthy
foods in under-resourced neighborhoods
or
school lunch programs funding has been
decreased or
lowing families are
having to face high costs on rent and
utilities and other necessities so they
have to make hard choices and can't
afford the food or perhaps it is a lack
of access to affordable health care that
is forcing them to make those hard
decisions about purchasing food so four
possible reasons that child hunger in
our city
is continuing to be a problem now all of
these might be important factors as to
why the problem is still a problem but
the key here is for you to think about
which one or two
if you tackle those will make the
biggest impact on the problem right now
and this is not necessarily an easy
thing to answer so i always always
recommend talking to people in your
community finding experts on these
issues interviewing other organizations
doing good work on these topics really
really study and do heavy research to
get to the heart of these things and the
second factor i mentioned earlier in
determining which of these
obstacles you might focus your program
on is which one is getting the least
amount of attention so let's say you
determine um
access to health care is is a pretty big
reason that child hunger persists for
families but there are three other
organizations doing really really solid
work on making sure that families can
get access to affordable health care and
so perhaps since it's getting some
attention you would want to focus your
efforts in a different angle so to get
at the heart of this one again you want
to identify the other organizations and
leaders in the community that you are
serving and take a look at what they're
doing talk to them collaborate with them
and understand which areas are getting
the least attention it might be a place
or a space that you might want to focus
your program's attention on all right
now we're getting into some of the
logistics here question number four is
what specific activities can your
program focus on that will effectively
get to the root of these issues at this
point you've thought about your your
ultimate outcome that you're going for
you've thought about the obstacles and
the root causes behind the problem that
your nonprofits program is trying to
tackle and you've prioritized and talked
to other experts in the community to
identify which areas are the most
critical and also getting the least
amount of attention now it's time to
think through the actual day-to-day
activities that your non-profit program
will do
to
tackle the root causes that you decided
to focus on i mentioned at the beginning
of this video that this point right here
talking about the day-to-day activities
of your program is often the starting
point when people are thinking about
their program but i hope that you see
that by taking a step back and zooming
out and starting with the end in mind
that by thinking through the ultimate
outcome and the priorities of the
community and which areas are getting
the least attention that you're actually
going to be able to come up with a
deeper more effective program than you
would have been able to if you just
started here instead okay so how do you
come up with the day-to-day activities
of your program
let's think back you have gotten the the
list of obstacles and you've talked to
your community you've decided using the
example that we've been using already
child hunger in your city
you've determined that
school lunch programs being
defunded is one of the top reasons that
kids are still going hungry in the city
well this is helpful because now you can
figure out all the various ways that you
can tackle that problem increase school
funding get other resources to those
schools for lunches etc maybe the
program that you design is going to
focus on mobilizing the community to
petition for
increasing that school lunch funding
backup maybe the program involves
building out food pantries within
schools maybe it's going to involve
identifying which children and families
are most impacted by this issue within
each school and bringing resources
directly to their neighborhoods you'll
know your unique community and which
options might play out best but another
way to decide which approach to do to
take and which activities to focus on
day-to-day for your program
involves your particular skill sets and
the strengths of your team
if you have a team
that is full of really excellent
carpenters then maybe building the
shelving for food pantries is going to
be the most effective thing you can do
because not only is that a need but
you're also really good at it it's your
core competency or maybe your team has a
bunch of leaders in the community who
are really really well socially
connected and it would be easy to
mobilize a lot of people to create an
impact here well then maybe your
approach involves
something more like that petition to get
the school funding school lunch funding
back up so you want to think about what
skills and talents and resources do you
uniquely possess
that will be effective in tackling this
issue all right question number five
we're getting down to the nitty-gritty
here what is your plan
for the program you've done your
research you've picked your angle you
figured out the basic day-to-day
activities
what are your goals for the first year
what are your goals for year number
three what are your goals for the
long-term future and how are you going
to define them each year to create your
actual program plan i recommend using
smart goals
perhaps you've heard of this but just in
case you haven't smart stands for
specific
measurable achievable
relevant
and time-bound had to think there for a
second so one example of a smart goal
might be using our example from before
of child hunger
our program will build three food
pantries in schools in the next year it
is specific you're talking about three
food pantries that's pretty specific
that's also measurable it's achievable
it's not too big of a goal not too small
of a goal it's relevant to your ultimate
mission the ultimate vision that you
talked about in question number one and
it's time bound you're gonna do it this
year so what are some smart goals for
your programs first year or two and the
final question is also a very important
question
what resources do you need to carry out
your program plan by resources i'm
talking about money
human power
tools equipment supplies materials
marketing whatever it might be we all
know that these projects take resources
and even
wonderfully generously gifted volunteer
time is still a resource that needs to
be effectively managed so at this stage
you're thinking down to these details
what are the specific items or
staffing or
marketing that you're going to need in
order to effectively reach the smart
goals that you laid out to tackle
the priority problem that you identified
to achieve your ultimate vision
of that better world in the future
is it five thousand dollars is it
three staff members is it a really great
website whatever it might be you need to
list it on your
pr program plan your piece of paper
whatever you're working with right now
and then you need to figure out your
plan for how are you going to obtain
these resources that is built into your
program plan as well if you need to
raise five thousand dollars how are you
going to do that if you need to recruit
a hundred volunteers
where will you find them who will they
be and what will your messaging be to
inspire them to join your cause these
resources are the fuel that goes in the
gas tank of your vehicle
to make your program run so there you
have it if you can answer these six
questions you're gonna have a program
that is very deeply and effectively
aligned with the ultimate mission of
your organization and the needs of your
community
and it's going to be a very very
impactful program so i'd love to hear
about what you think at this point are
you
starting a non-profit or growing a
non-profit or trying to think of a new
program to launch what are some of the
questions that you're thinking through
as you are developing your program
concepts share in the comments below i
always love to hear from you and as i
mentioned before if you are starting a
non-profit or trying to develop a
sustainable fundraising plan to grow
your nonprofit my website founder to
fulltime.com has some featured trainings
that are available for you to check out
and i hope you can join me there if
you're looking for resources for
non-profit leaders and change makers i
also do have a pretty awesome of course
i'm biased
newsletter that i send out about once a
month that you can subscribe to and i'll
leave the link for that in the
description below as well and of course
you can opt out anytime finally i have a
facebook group change the world or bust
we've got i want to say almost 3 000
people in there from
just all around the world it's really
inspiring
everyone who just wants to make a
difference in their own unique special
way talking about how they're doing that
and getting some encouragement from
others in the group so i hope you can
join me there too once again let's
change the world or bust
i am amber melanie smith it's been great
chatting with you today and i hope to
see you next time bye