Jennifer E Goldman, Nonprofit Consultant

Somewhere in time it became standard practice for nonprofit organizations to plan a balanced budget for their upcoming fiscal year. I don’t know where that came from, but can we please send it back? Ask any small business owner and they will tell you that the bottom line matters. They’re looking to be profitable in their year. They want their budget to indicate sustainability and growth. They’re ok with expenses going up as long as income increases even more. I encourage nonprofit organizations to adopt this mindset as well. How will your nonprofit be able to serve your community next year if you aren’t making money? Your annual budget should be a reflection of your growth plans, your program development , and the increased impact you plan to make in your community. Here are a few examples of things I encourage you to STOP doing to your nonprofit budget: ·         Stop purposely making your income and expenses equal – for two basic reasons. If y...

There's a good chance that if the nonprofit you're part of is small in terms of employees, budget, and programming it was set up to have what's known as a 'working' board. And if you don't have any previous experience with small community nonprofit organizations, your only impression of what board membership means may have come from the silver screen. While you may have visions of being chauffeured to prestigious meetings where you state your opinions and cast votes on various matters of import the reality of board service looks very different and somewhat less glamorous, although (hopefully) highly more satisfying on a personal level. If your organization isn't staffed sufficiently to carry out its mission-related programs, AND raise funds, AND take care of all administrative requirements then it's up to the Board of Directors to roll up their sleeves and perform the work of the organization alongside the staff. It's imperative that board members un...

  No matter what type of nonprofit you’re with, what their mission is, or whether it has a governing or a working board, there are standards and expectations that come with the job of being a board member. Nonprofits are constantly on the lookout for amazing community members who might climb the not-so-corporate ladder and rise from being a general volunteer to serving on the Board of Directors. Unfortunately, sometimes people rise up only to “sit” on the Board of Directors. If you suspect you’re a “sitter”, I urge you to stand up and engage in a level of service that your nonprofit craves. Here’s a checklist of 10 ways to ensure you’re serving your organization: ü   Attend ALL board meetings. Sometimes life gets in the way, I get that, but most likely when you agreed to become a board member someone told you when board meetings would be; add them to your calendar in advance and please don’t make excuses regarding scheduling conflicts. ü   Feel the mission. Hopefull...

Being on a nonprofit board of directors is a serious commitment. Many community members, even if they’ve been a volunteer for your organization for year, aren’t aware of what will be expected of them when they join your board. I hear many nonprofit staff lamenting over the lack of engagement from some (or even all) of their board members. Lack of engagement can stem from any number of reasons, but one of the most common I have found is simply that people weren’t told what would be expected of them until after they started their first term, and then they either find they can’t uphold all of the expectations and would have turned down the opportunity to serve if they’d had more information ahead of time or they resent no having been told and now they have a bad taste in their mouths. I’ve come to realize there’s a fear among organizations that if they reveal everything they expect of a board member, people will turn them down. If this applies to you, I say let them! If you tell prospec...

  I hear from several of my nonprofit clients that board engagement is a challenge; getting board members to do more than just show up once a month for board meetings has proven more difficult than they expected. I like to work from the assumption that community members who agree to join a nonprofit board do so with the best of intentions of giving back, making a difference in their local community. And I do believe that’s true. What I’ve also come to believe, however, is that the average community member doesn’t really understand what being a board member for a small nonprofit organization entails. So, how do we get our board to be more engaged? The bigger question for me is: how can you get board members who are already engaged? People who understand your nonprofit, your mission, the expectations you place on board members and what ‘engagement’ looks like to your particular organization? I’ve talked in several of my presentations and seminars/webinars about what I call the ...

 I spent this past week in Goldsboro, North Carolina for the state's Main Street Conference, (say it with me!) THE LARGEST STATE-WIDE DOWNTOWN REVITALIZATION CONFERENCE IN THE COUNTRY! I don't know if they are so proud of it being the largest because of attendance numbers, how many days it spans, or what, but I do know that the quality of what they delivered can't be beat.  This was my first North Carolina Main Street Conference, so I wasn't really sure what to expect when I agreed to come as a speaker. I was unprepared for how incredibly valuable, fun, and engaging it would be. If you ever want to put on a conference, I highly suggest you talk to Liz Parham and her people - they absolutely know what they're doing! They know how to throw a conference like nobody's business. What did I get out of it? Probably way too much to include in a blog post, but I'm going to try. I guess I could summarize it and just say it's all about the people. The people I met ...

And start funding planning for your programs, your overhead, your growth. When I was the Executive Director of a small nonprofit, I can remember feeling like I spent all of my time either fundraising through special events or running the special events. We needed the event to add money to our bank account to keep us afloat until the next special event. Essentially, each event was paying for the overhead and event expenses. It was a vicious (and exhausting) cycle. I’ve been working on two basic things with my clients recently: Proving your value by showing the impact your organization has on its community Raising the funds you need to sustain and grow your nonprofit in a way that allows you to focus on your mission and your programs. By fundraising through events, nonprofits are rarely introducing people to their organization, their mission, their impact and importance. It’s the equivalent of a retail shop having a sale or hosting a pop-up. You may get a bunch of people excite...

  I’ve threatened to toss my smartphone out the window. More than once. Of course, I’ve never done it, because I seriously doubt I could live without it. Which makes me worry. How have I become so dependent on this “thing”? I didn’t grow up with smartphones. I can still recall rolling up to my college campus with a bag phone plugged into my car’s cigarette lighter. (Wow, I just realized how old that makes me sound!) But truly, I can still remember what life was like B.S. (Before Smartphones). And while I enjoy a lot of what they bring to table – like the fact that I can now drive myself anywhere in the world without getting lost…AND my phone marks my car with a pin so I can wander away and still find it again! – I also realize how anxious I am when it’s by my side. And it’s always by my side. Why? Because I’m even more anxious when it’s not. Which is why I decided that perhaps it would be better for me to curb my separation anxiety than to remain hyper-alert to the half-million tim...

I spent five years as Executive Director for a small nonprofit organization in Northern Virginia and I constantly felt like I was running behind the 8-ball…and never catching up. It felt as if I could do that job 24/7 and never have any less to do. I was the proverbial chicken running around with its head cut off. And then I started my own company. Foolishly thinking I’d be a better boss than my board. Turns out that 8-ball scenario was all my own doing and that damn thing kept on rolling ahead of me, always just beyond reach. So I stopped running. After a year in business, working seven days a week, at all hours, I sat down (though I have no idea where I found the time) and thought to myself, “I did NOT start a business to run myself into the ground!” And the changes began. It was time to slow my roll. Let someone younger and faster go chasing magic balls. I’ma sit right here and figure out a better way. At that point, a winery was one of my clients and they needed a ton of ...

I recently attended an event hosted by our local fine arts museum; it was a roving lecture on Pablo Picasso. We walked from room to room, hearing about his art (inspiring, innovative, and thought-provoking) and his personality (philandering, explosive, and troubled) as narrated by a curator. While not on the tour, guests were treated to mulled wine, charcuterie and holiday cheer in a large, open, rentable event space. As some friends and I sat at a table chatting, a man approached us – he was clearly excited about the event – and asked if we were having a good time and had we been on the tour yet. Immediately, I knew what role this man had in the organization. I asked questions about the event space, which had one brick side and looked like it may have once been the original entrance to the museum. He very happily told us all about the renovations that had been done to the museum years ago and their plans for further renovations as well as the expansion onto an adjacent property whic...