No More Shoestrings!
If I had a dollar for every time a nonprofit leader said to me they couldn’t afford something because they had a “shoestring budget” I’d have enough money to buy them all slip-ons by now. At some point in our history the word ‘nonprofit’ became synonymous with things like poor, needy, make do, sacrifice, zero/balanced budgets, no growth, trudge along. Not every organization runs like this, but many do. And I’m on the verge of pulling a Moonlighting version of Cher. Snap out of it! Nonprofits are businesses that must operate with a mindset of sustainability and growth. To do this, each organization must plan a budget that exceeds its annual expenses. A budget that nets out to zero (income matching expenses, dollar for dollar) does not do this. I urge every nonprofit leader to examine their annual budget thinking “what would I like to be able to do next year that I don’t have the funds for this year?”. When you’re planning next year’s budget ask yourself (and also your staff and board