A nonprofit organization must achieve financial balance by spending the appropriate amount of money in each spending category to ensure the nonprofit delivers impactful results. The three main spending categories are program service expenses, management and general expenses, and fundraising expenses, according to the IRS Form 990.

How to appropriately allocate a nonprofit organization’s resources for impactful results has been a long-standing issue in the nonprofit sector. There are many reasons as to why including satisfying all stakeholders, external pressures from “watchdog” organization ratings, an overall lack of resources, pressure to spend on programming, pressure to not spend on overhead, and the list goes on and on. One can see how it would be easy to get caught up in all of this.

How to base allocation decisions

Thankfully, there are solutions for nonprofit organizations. To begin with, a nonprofit should look at how they are basing their decisions. Decisions should be made first and foremost with the mission of the nonprofit in mind. Next, outcomes, or impactful results, should be what drives the decision on where to allocate a nonprofit organization’s resources. In other words, decisions should not be made based on external pressures to allocate resources a certain way, but these…

While LGBTQ+ organizations have become more visible in recent years, they have existed for decades. First, they were communities where its members could freely express their sexuality and engage in discussions about the advancement of their rights and place in society. 

But, after direct attacks of violence, discrimination and harassment toward LGBTQ+ people, these organizations began to do advocacy work in the legislative arena and some members even took to the streets as demonstrators marking the beginning of the Gay Liberation Movement of the 1960s.

This further foundation support for LGBTQ+ organizations for the first time ever and marked the beginning of a tradition of giving from people and organizations outside the LGBTQ+ community. 

Since then, U.S.-based grantmakers have awarded more than 88,300 grants to LGBTQ+ organizations and projects totaling $2.45 billion, according to reports by the Funders for LGBTQ Issues. 

While funding for LGBTQ+ issues in the United States continues to grow every year, a new …

Online fundraising has become one of the leading products produced by a technology-based world. With the internet being one of the main sources of communication, the latest news, and so on, it was no surprise that the nonprofit sector began tailoring its fundraising to fit the ever-evolving world we live in.

Aside from that, online fundraising is not as new as many people would like to think. Online fundraising has been around for quite some time, but gained a massive amount of traction in the past five years, mainly due to the COVID-19 lockdown. Although online fundraising was not new when it gained traction, many were still skeptical due to it being a foreign way of receiving donations. As time has progressed online fundraising has become a go-to for many organizations but now the question has arisen, can online fundraising help sustain nonprofits in the long run?

Like any fundraising practice that is conducted in an organization, there are pros and cons to each side of it. When evaluating online fundraising there were several benefits found that can help sustain nonprofits. These benefits are:

1. Donor relations and the ability to reach a broader audience
2. Saving time and money
3. …

A nonprofit’s mission serves as the organization’s guiding purpose and basis for existence. It is what resonates with volunteers, employees, funders, and community stakeholders. When done effectively, mission statements outline how the nonprofit addresses a social cause and who the organization intends to benefit.

Jonker and Meehan contend that an effective mission statement must have seven core elements: “It is focused. It solves unmet public needs. It leverages unique skills. It guides trade-offs. It inspires, and is inspired by, key stakeholders. It anticipates change. And it sticks in memory.” With these core elements in place, the mission statement serves as the foundation that guides decision making.

Mission attainment is the action of achieving the organization’s mission. It ensures the organization’s impact and protects their reputation in their community. Nonprofit leaders must remember that their primary responsibility is to be good stewards of their mission to improve the lives of their beneficiaries. Through effective leadership strategies, sustainable funding, and comprehensive governance practices and accountability measures, nonprofit leaders can prevent mission drift and ensure mission attainment. 

The role of nonprofit leaders is to inspire staff, volunteers, and stakeholders to believe in the organization’s mission. Using an institutional leadership style, nonprofit leaders can…

The dynamic nature of the nonprofit sector requires efficient and effective problem-solving for the challenges and opportunities organizations encounter in pursuit of their missions. Because they function in a state of constant change, from new information, and new technologies to unexpected crises, nonprofit leaders must equip their organizations with the tools to solve strategic questions.

While the normal response to such challenges may be to engage a traditional strategic planning process, nonprofit leaders now seek strategic thinking and action that provides the same positive outcomes, but at a pace and in a system that meets the constantly changing and info-rich world of the nonprofit sector.

Responsive Strategic Planning is an ongoing strategic process that maximizes an organization’s greatest assets, responds to its dynamic environment by making intentional, innovative, and timely decisions, and achieves organizational continuity and resilience to achieve scaling for lasting impact through empowerment and inclusion of its stakeholders. The valuable components of traditional strategic planning such as mission, values, and visions, are inherently encapsulated in the responsive strategic planning process but are not the final outcomes of the process. Instead, the aim of responsive strategic planning is action that responds to an organization’s environment, bolsters its resilience, and spurs greater impact.

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