The Life of a Nonprofit

[amenirdis]

I thought now might be a good time to share some observations about the life cycles of nonprofits from the perspective of someone who spent fifteen years working in nonprofits large and small, including three years' work for a "troubleshooter", a consultant hired to help small nonprofits with their crises

Comments

[bwinter]

You know, that sounds interesting from a business perspective. A business usually gets through the first crisis by either remaining a sole proprietorship with an assistant or three, or having outside guidance (also known as debts to repay...). The second, I think, is more connected to the rigid framework/professionalism than paid employment. We're dealing with that in my department currently - it used to work on an everyone-knows-everyone basis with 100-150 people, but with staff changes and 400+ this is not feasible anymore!

[amenirdis]

It's a lot like business -- something that many people involved with nonprofits look down on. After all, business school is the "soft option" for people who aren't smart enough for academic subjects! Learning anything about business or management puts you in an inferior position, just a paper pusher rather than someone with brilliant ideas! But it's a lot like the transitions from small family business to medium sized business, for many of the same reasons

[bwinter]

business school is the "soft option" for people who aren't smart enough for academic subjects

...and sometimes, I love living in a post-communist country where everyone had to learn business all of a sudden 21 years ago, and knows exactly how fun that is. Balcerowicz's our national hero, and that means economists and businesspeople are respected.

We took over several teams from competitors, and oh, it's a shock. I'm talking about things Everyone Knows, like that lady in admin who knows everything, or a support team we've had for years who format documents for us, and the new people are clueless. They had induction courses, but courses don't cover how the company actually works!

[amenirdis]

The Republican reverse, of course, is that everything should be run on a business model. Kids should get the education their parents can pay for. Roads should be built where private businesses want them. People who can't pay shouldn't see doctors.

But the left's counter is that business is really rather lower class! Thinking people are artists or academics and never soil their hands with filthy money! And of course never think about how to actually execute a plan, rather than simply think of it!

Also, of course, throwing out the rules. I'm all for throwing out rules that don't work, but we love to throw out all the rules and then reinvent the wheel by discovering that there was a reason those policies and rules existed. They do something valuable or they safeguard against something catastrophic.

[ladymouse2]

You described non-profits' life cycle--succinctly and transparently as usual--but you've also described the situation with our national government, of which you wrote a persuasive essay lately with startlingly parallel language.

[amenirdis]

Thank you. I've worked with more than fifty nonprofits -- and with more than thirty when I worked for a troubleshooting consultant. The same issues come up over and over.

[kynical]

I'm assuming this was prompted by the OTW debacle--and yes there is no other word for it. I'd like to say I can't imagine such a toxic enviroment that makes it okay for volunteers like Lim to fall on their swords. However, I've seen this plenty in congregations and non-profits I've been involved with.

Sorry to veer a bit off topic and be a bit ranty....but good grief some of the OTW folks really need to go back to remedial non-profit school.

[amenirdis]

Seriously toxic. Yes

[kynical]

Good grief. I know there are penalties involved and major issues but didn't quite know the scope. I generally leave that to our accountant\finance board. So it sounds like OTW is taking some major major risks.

[amenirdis]

It is a major risk!

The key issues for a small nonprofit, whether c3 or church, are twofold -- the value of the professional service, and the monetary value of the creation.

If, for example, you have volunteers make flyers about a music program at church and pass them out, no reporting is necessary. Making flyers is not a professional skill, and the flyers themselves have no monetary value. If you have someone donate their bookkeeping services to the church, you must report as that's a professional skill even if nothing of monetary value is produced. If you have volunteers restore a classic car which is then auctioned off, you have to report because the restored car has monetary value. And if you have someone design software worth thousands of dollars, you doubly have to report! 0_0

[st_crispins]

I'm not going to go into detail, but suffice to say I volunteered early on for one of the projects and was treated pretty poorly and unprofessionally. I heard about other folks who had similar experiences. So, I am not surprised that they're having trouble. I could have predicted that two years ago.

[amenirdis]

I'm not going into detail either, but the same thing happened to me. If you look at my reply to Kynical above, I brought all these issues up more than three years ago and was totally blown off. I have fifteen years of experience working in nonprofits, and actually I do know what I'm talking about in terms of how to keep out of trouble with the IRS! And now it seems like there never has been any system to track volunteer hours or the pro bono donation of professional services. Which is board negligence on a grand scale.

[kynical]

The concerns of volunteers\people bring up seem to be a major pattern of behavior in OTW. It makes me glad I've never donated. I have serious reservations now about continuing to use the archive or even sign up for Yuletide.

[amenirdis]

I've had serious concerns, which is why I don't donate. I had a bad experience as a volunteer, and so did penknife.

[kynical]

I'm still waiting to read some response from the board in relation to the buggy deploy and the resignation of Lim. Why do I have a feeling there isn't going to be much of one.

[amenirdis]

I don't imagine there will be....