Confessions of A Social Entrepreneur

For the past six months I have been consciously practicing the act of surrender. After writing my last blog entry, I realized I am not alone in this struggle; but that, many of you are working through this same challenge. My motivation is knowing that on the other side of this lesson is a blessing; the coming to pass of the vision in my heart.

A coping mechanism that gives me reprieve from the anxiety is journaling. Journaling is magical for me. As I write down my thoughts, they literally leave the space of my head and are transferred to the paper.  Having experienced the benefits now for several weeks, whenever I am feeling anxious or experiencing, divine dissatisfaction, as I like to call it (the nervousness and excitement I feel is not bad; it is just positive anticipation of the good I know is coming my way),  I just start writing. After a few moments, my mind is empty and I can relax into the moment.

Journaling is not only therapeutic for me; it is spiritual. As I clear the clutter of my mind, space opens up for those golden nuggets of truth to come through. Behind every challenge is a lesson; and behind every lesson is a blessing. Let us get the lessons so we can get the blessings!

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Over the past several weeks I have been feeling some kind of way...nervous, anxious, and excited all at the same time. My business is stable and doing well, but I am ready to do something new and different. Although I have envisioned the direction in which I would like for my business to go, I am still at the mercy of what I like to call "divine order". Divine order is the part of life that is beyond my control; that force that brings things to pass at their perfectly appointed time; no sooner or later than when they are SUPPOSED to happen. 

I have learned to not force situations, but to surrender and allow life to unfold at its own pace. The challenge with daily surrendering is silencing the brain chatter; the incessant screenplay of thoughts that will not stop. It requires constant vigilance and monitoring on my part to control my mind as opposed to my mind controlling me. Patience is the lesson. Enjoying the journey instead of anticipating the destination is the blessing.  

When I feel overwhelmed and out of sorts, I have learned that Nature is my calm. Taking a walk; sitting on the deck; focusing on my breathing; and admiring the sky, the trees, and the birds, all help me to come back to center; to quiet my mind until the divine time arrives and I am instructed to MOVE.

In the meantime, I am enjoying spending quality time with myself; giving myself permission to DO NOTHING; to just BE; to watch my favorite tv shows; to talk with daughter attentively; spending time with friends and family; and sharing my insights and self-discoveries with my husband. And, I find that when I live in this balance, the anxiety, frustration, and stress disappears and life begins to flow easily and effortlessly. Today, in this moment, I choose absolute presence.

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I like to use my social media outlets as a means of passing along educational tidbits that I hope will help nonprofit entrepreneurs along their journey. A recent tweet was “Starting a nonprofit with a $0 budget is an uphill battle. Launch your biz as a social enterprise to increase the likelihood of success.”

A woman responded, How do you do this? What is the difference? I get this question a lot when speaking about social enterprising. Traditional nonprofit business models rely on donations and grants. Social enterprises focus on profit generation to fund programs and services. I know I talk a lot about income generation. What can I say, it is my soapbox. But, far too often the people I encounter along my consulting journey think that donors and foundations are going to rush to their aid to support their work and most often this just does not happen. They underestimate the time and effort that will be required for fundraising. And, they overestimate the willingness and the number of people who will actually donate to their cause on a consistent basis.

The best way to avoid this common mistake is to take your destiny into your own hands and establish the nonprofit business on solid enterprise principles. My definition of social enterprise is a business that uses traditional business principles to accomplish a social mission. So, instead of giving ALL of the services away for free, the social enterprise offers some services for a fee. The income earned from these activities then subsidizes the free programs and services.

For many, this is a hard pill to swallow and mentally, they just do not automatically think profit in the context of nonprofit. Well, I am here to tell you, the old nonprofit way of doing business is over. To survive, nonprofits must be innovative and have a competitive advantage in the market place. Furthermore, the girls mentoring program that allowed their mentees to participate for free, must now require monthly dues. The temporary housing program that permitted homeless men and women to live for free while they got their lives on track, must now require residents to have a job and pay up to 30% of their income towards their housing expenses. The arts program that allowed visitors to attend exhibits for free, must now charge admission. Transitioning from the old model to the new is not an easy task, but a required one. If you intend for your nonprofit to sustain itself into the future, social enterprising is the way to go!

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I'm participating as an advisory board member for an organization called Go Eat
Give (www.GoEatGive.com). Although I don't think it was inspired by the movie Eat Pray Love, the concept is very similar. Go Eat Give seeks to bring people together; to bridge geographic and racial barriers. And what better way to do this than through food, travel and community service.

In just over a year, Go Eat Give has gained tremendous notoriety locally and abroad and was recently named by media outlets in Italy, "one of the most influential blogs on culture in the world." Notoriety is good, but as my friend Melody says, "bills are real". As a board, it's our responsibility to figure out what were selling. Five thousand hits per month to the blog is great, but if we have no Call-to-Action that converts visitors to financial supporters, we may as well call it quits.

Every sustainable business has a product and/or service to sell. Nonprofits are no different. Yes, Go Eat Give is organized for a charitable purpose. However, charity doesn't pay the bills. It only depletes what resources you do have. And, although we have yet to figure out what our lead product/service will be, we know we need
to have one and that's the perfect starting point.

To learn more about travel, food and culture, visit www.GoEatGive.com.

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According to Internal Revenue Service data (2010), in 2009 55% of nonprofits earned $0 income. Another 10% earned between $1-$2,999; that's 65% that ended the year earning less than $3,000! For many, I'd guess this was not their intention.

The common mistake I see people make when starting nonprofits is not having a business model. Most people I talk to don't realize that nonprofits can actually sell products and services and earn revenue. Yes, nonprofits can earn profits; and they should! Operating with a business model contrary to earning income and profits (or surplus as it's called in the nonprofit world) will ultimately lead to insolvency.

To overcome the usual mistakes, I've developed a list of 'rule of thumb' steps to help guide those of you who are interested in starting a nonprofit. Keep in mind, this is not a comprehensive step by step guide, but an overview to get you started.  

Step 1 - Know the steps!

Step 2- Define your mission and vision

Step 3 - Choose a business structure

Step 4 - Define your business model

Step 5 - Design your program model

Step 6 - Apply for tax exempt status

Step 7 - Define your implementation strategy

Step 8 - Launch your business

Step 9 - Collect and evaluate data

Step 10 - Plan for growth

To learn more about the 10 Steps, join us September 29th for an informative workshop, 10 Steps to Starting a Nonprofit. Click the following link to register, http://waa10steps.eventbrite.com/.

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Getting a grant that pays for personnel and overhead is the holy grail, or the greatest gift a nonprofit could ever receive right? Is this not an idea you've had in your mind, or a silent wish you've kept deep in your soul? Generally speaking, the reality is, grants for operations and/or grants that cover a significant portion of an organization's overhead or non-program costs are rare.

Compared to foundation grants, government grants (federal, state, county, and city) are more likely to allow for overhead costs. And even with these grants, overhead allowances will be minimal. The strategy I use to overcome this hurdle is to package my request as a project or program. Presenting personnel expenses as one component of a larger project, or program, as a strategy, has worked consistently and has generated nearly $2.5 million in grant awards over the last five years. 

For example, an after school program may offer tutoring, enrichment workshops, and field trips. Using my strategy, and applying for foundation funding, I may request $5,000 in project support specifically for the tutoring component. In addition to requesting funding for tutoring supplies, the majority of the request would be allocated to cover the costs of the tutors (whether employees or contractors). Do this five times with five different funders and although your entire tutor personnel costs may not be funded, as they say in the nonprofit world, every contribution counts.  

Want to learn more strategies for developing a WINNING grant proposal? Register today for our next Grant Writing training where we will share these and other proven strategies that have won over $2.4 Million in grant awards.

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Last Wednesday marked the ending of a free grant writing course I had been facilitating over the past several weeks. It was a small group of women who either were involved with a nonprofit as a volunteer or were director's of nonprofits they had formed. Over the duration of the course, we discussed their missions and drafted their grant templates. Although some of the women had grant templates prior to the course, there were a few consistent areas in need of improvement. One particular area was the Organization Background statement.

Every grant template should include a description of the organization's background and history. This section should be 2-3 brief paragraphs and should emphasize the organization's capacity and strengths. At a minimum, this section should include:

• the organization's year of inception;
• the capacity of the board of directors;
• staff/volunteer/board experience and expertise;
• the mission (stated verbatim or summarized);
• a description of the target audience (i.e. ages, incomes, ethnicities, education, etc. as applicable); and
• # of individuals served and the outcomes achieved.

This section is the reader's first impression of your nonprofit and as such it should be strong and compelling. Some strategies I recommend include:

• describing the motivation, or the scenario around the nonprofit's founding;
• boasting past accomplishments and communicating competitive advantage; and
• using percentages and numbers and closing with a striking impact statement when discussing the target audience and outcomes.

These tips and strategies represent only a few that were provided during the course. They have been tested and proven to transform a good grant proposal into a great grant proposal. If your grant proposal template could benefit from these and more tips and strategies, schedule a One-on-One Grant Critique. We can get your proposal in tip-top shape so you can start WINNING grants!

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Winning a grant means more than having a well written proposal. The proposal is actually one of the last steps to becoming grant ready. Having a well managed nonprofit organization that is self-sustaining, or SUSTAIN-ABLE is one of THE key factors that make your grant proposal stand out from the crowd.

Maybe you've heard the term sustainability before. It's being used more frequently these days in a variety of contexts. Essentially, it's figuring out how to efficiently use existing resources in order to sustain and produce for the future. Nonprofits, forprofits, governments, and individuals alike all face this challenge.

The nonprofit that consistently WINS grants, must have a sustainability strategy. You may be thinking to yourself, what is a sustainability strategy? It's thinking outside the box, using your resources, and taking your destiny into your own hands. What does your organization do well? What skill-sets do your board members and volunteers possess that can be turned into a fee-based product and/or service? 

I have a girlfriend who recently became unemployed. She's been searching for a new job. However, until the job comes, the bills are still real. I suggested to her that she use her gift of cooking to create income until she finds a new job. Well, once she pondered the idea, it began to present itself as the perfect solution. I'm her first customer and I'm proud to report that she will be my personal meal planner and chef going forward! Problem solved!

As a nonprofit organization, this is what you too must do. Organizations that WIN grants are those that use their assets, or skill-sets, to develop a product and/or service to sell to meet a demand in the marketplace.  This generates consistent revenues which help them to be the self-sufficient organizations that grant funders seek. In order for your organization to be among those selected as grant recipient, it must first demonstate its ability to be SUSTAIN-ABLE.

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One of the biggest challenges nonprofits face is generating consistent revenues. Solving this challenge is multi-faceted, but it's important to recognize that first there has to be a shift in strategy that relies less on charitable giving and focuses more on earned income. As earned income becomes stable, those funds can then subsidize the non income-generating programs, making it easier to fulfill your mission.

For example, we'll highlight two of our clients. The first is Johns Creek Arts Center (JCAC). JCAC relies mostly on revenue from its art programs. They offer a variety of art classes to the community, priced below market rate. Being a truly sustainable nonprofit, their budget is 90% earned income and they receive 10% in grant funding to support and subsidize projects and services offered to the underserved. 

Auditory Verbal Center, Inc. (AVC) is another sustainable social enterprise. AVC is a nonprofit focused on teaching mild to profoundly deaf children to listen and speak without the use of sign language or lip reading. In addition, they have a full audiology department serving all ages. The income from audiology sales, supports non-income
generating programs. AVC has acheived major success by thinking
outside-the-box! 

Business modeling requires assessing your organization's assets and capitalizing on them. Especially, with the the new year approaching and predictions of a worsening economy, take your nonprofit's destiny into your own hands. Develop a new product and/or service and start your profit machine! As the income starts rolling in, use it to advance your mission!

I once learned long ago, that I can't help anyone else until I first help myself. However good my intentions, if I deplete the source, there is nothing left to give. 

Well then...the time is now to begin the new year with a fresh start and a new way of thinking? Turn your charity into a Profit-ABLE social enterprise! The fact remains. It costs money to do business...even the business of nonprofit.

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Although I am a grant writer, I have shyed away from labeling myself as a fundraiser. Fundraising can be intimidating, as most of us dislike asking others for money. I've found that the key to fundraising is hosting events in your comfort zone. Whether its a winetasting, card party, or silent auction, by making the events fun you will find it easier to ask people to support your cause.

Begin to think outside the box for fundraising ideas. Explore partnering with micro-business owners, as they're always looking for affordable marketing opportunities, and nonprofits need new donors. A few weeks ago, I hosted a pamper party with 20 of my lady colleagues and friends. I invited various women business owners to participate as vendors. Vendors were selling items from cupcakes, candle scents, jewelry, to Mary Kay. I even had a masseuse and a make-up artist providing free eyebrow arching and eyelash application. It was so much fun!

The clothing exchange was a smash hit! The guests were invited to bring a clothing, accessory, or shoe item to contribute to the clothing closet. Each guest received their own shopping bag, and took freely the pieces they liked. Another feature of the event was a silent auction. The auction items were donated from 10 of my entrepreneur colleagues. We collected nearly $200! Not bad for my first fun-raiser! And, I plan to host a similar event every quarter.

While $200 may not be a huge amount, for someone who is uncomfortable with traditional fundraising, the FUN-Raising option was right up my alley. Imagine if 5-10 of your current volunteers discovered ways they could raise $200 by hosting a FUN event for their friends and family members. That's $1,000-$2,000 in new donations! And because it's so easy, they may offer to host multiple events during the year.

If I can overcome my fear of fundraising,  so can your volunteers. And I can show them how in my "$10K in 10 months: 20+ Fun-Raising Strategies to Increase Your Board and Volunteer ROI".

Now let's get your volunteers excited about FUN-raising! Schedule your training session today!

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