10 tips for running an efficient nonprofit

We’d all like to do more with less, especially now. How can you make your nonprofit more efficient?

Ask yourself and those around you these questions.

1. What does your nonprofit spend the most money on?

2. What does your nonprofit waste the most money on?

3. How many people have been hired and fired in the last three years?

4. Does your executive director possess emotional intelligence?

5. When you have meetings, does everyone get a chance to speak? Does your executive director listen, and ask good questions? Is the tone of the questions genuinely curious, or hostile?

6. Does your nonprofit do all that it says it does? Is the mission clear to everyone who works at your nonprofit? Is everyone on the same page? Does the community see that you are doing the work you say you are doing?

7. Do you have a graph or pie chart showing expenses and income for the past three years? For the past three months? What do these graphs tell you? Where have expenses or income gone up?

8. Do you have a marketing manager, a volunteer coordinator, an outreach coordinator, or is your fundraiser expected to be these as well as fundraise?

9. Is your fundraiser given the support necessary to help them succeed?

10. How big is your major donor portfolio? Does your executive director make major donor visits at least three times a month? Is the director actively involved in cultivating major donors? Is the board making major donor visits at least once a month?

Bonus. Have you talked with everyone, from the highest board member to the lowest staff members, the secretary, the janitor, the people receiving services, community members, to ask them what could be improved, and where they see wasted effort or money?

When you have the answers to these questions, you’ll know how to measure where your nonprofit can be more efficient.

Any amount of running around and trying to fundraise will not do any good if the community sees that your nonprofit is not really doing what they say they are doing. Good programs who are achieving measurable results will be funded. And if your nonprofit is doing good work, but your fundraiser is not being supported by executive director, board, volunteers or staff, then not going to succeed.

One principle of lean fundraising is that you need to be willing to ask dumb questions, of anyone and everyone.