There are so many pieces to keep track of when establishing a nonprofit organization that it can overwhelm the would-be founder. Most folks who are inspired to change the world have a great idea and just want to get to work. But then they learn about the rules and regulations required when hiring staff, and […]
If you’re like most nonprofit founders I’ve met, you’re excited about setting up your programs and getting to work, but this may mean you’re less attuned to things like “what are all the supporting activities I’ll need to plan for?” and “who are our customers going to be?” That all sounds too businessy to bother […]
I was approached to help an organization by an acquaintance. “It’s a classic case of founder’s syndrome,” she said. I knew immediately what she meant. I imagined that the founder was a bright and charismatic person who needed to do everything or micromanage everyone who tried to help. She wouldn’t settle for imperfectly completed work, […]
At a local gathering of the Nonprofit Startup School here in Portland I presented a session on how fiscal sponsorships can help new nonprofit organizations. One thing that surprised me (just a bit) was that several attendees assumed a fiscal sponsor was a for-profit organization that could help your nonprofit find money. Not so! Normally […]
I’ve seen it many times. When a nonprofit starts up its members earnestly and diligently begin to work on delivering their mission to the community, but soon enough they need to start paying the bills. In their hearts they secretly hope someone else will step in and begin to look for corporate and individual donors, […]
Back around Halloween, I released a short animated video about the reasons to incorporate a nonprofit organization. Since it was a spooky time of the year, the metaphor I used was Frankenstein, an artificial person. A friend of mine watched the clip and came to the conclusion that I was anti-incorporation. Not true! Basically, creating […]