Running a non-profit means that you don’t have to worry about meeting targets for share-holder payouts, but it does come with its own share of problems, especially at the start. There are many of the same things you need to think about if you were running a regular business, like IT and staffing, but there is also the additional challenge of finding donors.
Spreading your time between all of these won’t be easy, and you are likely to find that looking online for the right services to make it all happen can take some of the strain.
Finding the Right People
Non-profits like yours provide a public benefit, so when looking for people to work for the company, you would ideally need people that share that same vision, or at least see its worth. This isn’t always easy, as non-profit organizations might not share the glamourous status of bigger businesses, and some people might just work for you for a year just to tick a box on their resume.
With this kind of staff turnover, it is hard to build and concrete structure, and this, in turn, will affect how well your organization runs. To get people who buy into what you want to do, you might need to cast your net a little wider, and get people involved all over the country or those located in other parts of the world. You could find that doing this means you get the best person for the role, rather than somebody who is just conveniently local.
Outsource Your IT
One area you will need to be on point from day one is your IT setup. This will include cybersecurity as well as managing all the day-to-day problems that any company has (especially those with remote workers). You will quickly find that you can be swamped with issues that stop your non-profit from moving forward, with means you won’t get anywhere.
Outsourcing your IT from day one can help you keep on top of this, as you have all the experts you need at the end of a phone. This takes a lot of the weight from your shoulders, as you know you are as well covered as you can be.
Keeping the Donations Rolling In
All of this will take donations to keep everything afloat and keeping these rolling in will be a priority. There are many ways of doing this, and among the newer ideas is asking for involvement using SMS text messages. This can be effective as text messages can have much higher open rates than emails, and a shorted message in this form can also generate more conversions.
However, you cannot just message anybody, regardless of how worthy you think your cause happens to be. Before you start on this venture, you should go to a reliable source to discover all of the tcpa opt in requirements, so you know what you are doing is completely legal. This is firstly so you are only going to contact people who want to be involved, and secondly, so you avoid the fines that go with non-compliance.