This blog post is second in a two part series on Foundation Supported Social Enterprises. Click here to read part one.

Why did they do this? 

The Nick Simons Foundation did not have a large staff. The foundation opened in 2005 when Nick Simons, a great lover and visitor of Nepal died. Nick Simons was keenly aware of the medical needs in high altitude low income countries such as Nepal. The family foundation members were interested in funding the development of a unique anesthesia machine that neither requires electricity nor compressed oxygen to function.

This device would be invaluable for infrastructure-weak health systems in low income countries that often suffer from energy shortages or no energy access at all. They wanted to be closely involved with the venture and they want to commercially market and sell the product- a product with a social benefit. They recognized in order to be successful that they need an income stream and they did not want to become a fundraising foundation. Instead they thought of operating a social enterprise. They formed Gradian Health Systems.

“For us at Gradian, this structure has worked terrifically – as a start-up social enterprise we are able to pursue non-profitable objectives with a steady, reliable source of funding (who gets to…

Nonprofit assignments can place volunteers in precarious positions of potential, personal liability. Prior to the 1940s, the Charitable Immunity Doctrine shielded nonprofits from tort liability, but did not protect volunteers. To prevent volunteers from abandoning volunteerism because of liability concerns, the Volunteer Protection Act (VPA) was signed into law by President Clinton in 1997. The VPA provides conditional immunity for volunteers who are:

• acting within the scope of their assigned tasks; 
• not grossly negligent; 
• not operating a motor vehicle that requires state licensure; and 
• not committing acts of violence, terrorism, hate crimes, sexual offenses, or, while intoxicated. 

(Gross negligence is defined as willful, criminal and/or reckless misconduct, and conscious, flagrant indifference to the rights and safety of the injured.) To elucidate the provisions of the VPA, I have created a hypothetical scenario that presents conditions under which the volunteer might be protected. This scenario identifies an assigned volunteer task, an exigent circumstance, a discussion of whether the volunteer acted negligently, mitigating circumstances, and a discussion about the vicarious liability of the nonprofit.

In this example, a volunteer is assigned to provide tutoring to grade school students on campus. After the tutoring session, and in accordance with his training, the volunteer…

A Request for Proposal (RFP) is a common way nonprofit organizations invite bids for products and services. Any RFP includes a specific list of requirements that all responding vendors must address. In theory, an RFP’s intention is to filter vendors for quality and ensure competitive pricing.

Unfortunately, when it comes to technology-related RFPs, nonprofit organizations often write inadequate proposals that waste time and money for the nonprofit and the responding vendors. Two problems create ineffective RFPs: first, although well-intentioned, RFPs often demonstrate unrealistic expectations about the time and cost for executing on digital products or services; second, nonprofits often solicit technology they don’t need because they don’t know the right questions to ask.

Problem 1: Doing Ineffective Research and Setting Unrealistic Expectations

Instead of backing into their proposal-writing process by doing effective research and setting realistic expectations for time and costs, nonprofit organizations often say, “We have this much money and want to finish the project in this much time. We want the technology to [fill in the blank], and we need to work within our meager budget with as quick a turnaround as possible.” 

Unrealistic requests such as these are similar to a prospective home buyer saying, “I’m strapped for cash with only $600 per month to spend on a mortgage, but I’d like to buy a home in…

CRM stands for Customer Relationship Management. I like to redefine it as a Constituent Relationship Management system. Originally limited to sales and support departments, it has now been widely adopted by nonprofit organizations. Here are the Top 6 reasons your organization should be using a CRM.

Know you are about meet a donor BEFORE you enter that meeting
We are all communicating more than ever and connecting with more people than ever. How are you supposed to keep track of the important conversations happening with your constituents? Let alone share it with your team. Your CRM system will provide a simple way for all staff to record emails, phone calls and meetings with your donors, volunteers or other supporters. Imagine it: all of your organization interactions with your stakeholders in one place and no more searching through multiple spreadsheets. This consolidated ongoing communication will enrich the contact profile and start building institutional knowledge, which is coincidentally my next point.

As the owner of a Miami based SEO and digital marketing agency, I've helped hundreds of businesses solve complicated marketing problems. I can honestly say that the most challenging clients have been non-profit organizations. The combination of low funding, manpower and resources make it extremely difficult to complete your mission statement and make a positive change in the world.

When your organization is working with this many moving pieces, a lot of important tasks tend to get de-emphasized. In my tenure the most common task that falls by the wayside is having a concrete marketing plan. A marketing plan is easily overlooked in a non-profit organization because it gets lost behind the goals, ideals, values and mission statement. What most non-profits fail to realize is that a marketing plan should go hand in hand with your mission statement and will ultimately maximize your impact on the world.

Creating a solid marketing plan is vital for your success, and actually, simple to do. Sometimes it’s just as simple as getting your team in a room and having a brainstorming session is all that it takes. The following is a high level plan that has worked for my clients:

1. Identify the goals of your organization (increase donors, spread awareness, etc)
2. Identify quantifiable goals for the next 1…