Your nonprofit may be on a sound financial footing now, but how well positioned is your organisation to be able to fund its service projects and achieve its objectives in the future? Is your fundraising at a level that supports sustainable growth, or, will you be struggling to survive should you lose a major award or contribution?

Inefficient marketing and fundraising efforts, disengaged boards, and lack of an overall financial strategy are a few common pitfalls nonprofits face that make it difficult to lay the groundwork to expand capacity and prepare for the future. By focusing on improving the following key areas, your board can create a vital, financially stable organisation capable of responding to the needs of your service community both now and over the long term.

Do You Have Goals and a Strategy?

Does everyone in your organisation have a sound understanding or your NFP’s core mission, and its strategy for achieving it? Does your organisation have an overall plan for how it will increase support with key stakeholders and raise funds to promote awareness about your objective and make progress? Does everyone in your organisation understand the role that they play in achieving the mission? If not, focus on improving clarity and understanding in these key areas to help increase alignment between your board and other members and your goals.

How Effective are Your Programs?

Controlling and reducing waste isn’t just about regulating costs. To make the best use of all of your resources, your NFP needs to have a thorough understanding of its impact on your service community. Have you set benchmarks to measure progress? Are your programs and projects moving your organisation closer to accomplishing its mission? Are there programs and services that you would be better off collaborating with others rather than providing yourself to be more effective?

If You Haven’t Already, Define Your Organisation’s Long Term Financial Strategy

Does your organisation have a clear understanding of how money flows into it, and how monies can be used to achieve your NFP’s mission? In addition to understanding how much money is needed, and when, to finance your overhead and operating costs, your plans should also include how and when to achieve various funding levels. These levels should not only cover costs, but also help to build capacity and increase your NFP’s ability to move closer to achieving its mission.

Is Your Board and Staff Fully Engaged?

Are all of your board members focused on increasing the impact made by your organisation so that the mission can be achieved? Do you have the right people in key positions to help your organisation move forward? If not, help members of your board and staff become more involved by clearly defining roles, and responsibilities, including providing additional guidance and training to increase competency and build skills that will be needed to increase performance.

How Strong are Your NFP’s Networks and Relationships?

Cooperation and collaboration serve as incredible multipliers, enabling your organisation to partner with others to accomplish more than each organisation could on its own. Take the time to invest in relationship building with outside third parties. Try to network with others to help each entity achieve goals that are mutually beneficial to make better use of your resources and extend the impact of your own organisation.