Telling your story requires communication on numerous levels and to various audiences. Making your nonprofit stand out requires a clear, compelling, and convincing message that is consistently delivered across all segments of populations you seek to influence. Where do you start and how can this work best for your organization’s success? 1. The Strategic Plan […]

Evaluation Nonprofit organizations are responsible to the community it serves. They are set up to provide services, solve problems and improve the quality of life for people. Up until a couple of decades ago, funding to support organizations would be handed to nonprofits without proof that the work being done was successful. With 1.8 million […]

Strategic planning is a key component of a successful and sustainable nonprofit organization.  Strategic plans guide the board of directors and staff in prioritization of activities. Focusing on the goals and objectives of the organization helps to manage the day to day work.  Strategic plans require care in their development. These 5 steps of the […]

Co-Branding When I co-founded the Northern Colorado Nonprofit Resource Center it was partly based on the fact that I’d been approached by lots of businesses to share their information with my nonprofit contacts. This became an impossible task because of how many businesses and nonprofits wanted to know about each other. So I created the […]

I obtained my first grant when I was about 20 years old working for a local nonprofit organization that provided food and education resources for licensed home child care providers. It was a $100,000 state grant that allowed us to train unlicensed providers and get them licensed. With my boss, we wrote, submitted, obtained, delivered […]

Policies and procedures are used by nonprofits for many reasons. First, there are policies that nonprofits need to have to meet IRS recommendations and Nonprofit Industry Standards. Although the IRS does not formally “require” policies, these are questions with yes and no answers on the 1023 and 990 forms AND are part of audits both […]

Nonprofit organizations are required to have bylaws.  There are known standards for bylaws, however there are also areas of confusion in what must be included, should be included, or could be included in individual bylaws for organizations.  Some of this confusion lies in different state laws for bylaws, outdated understanding of bylaws and application of […]