Do You Really Want To Start A Nonprofit? - Resilience in Life and Leadership Episode 058

Stephanie Olson discusses the challenges of starting and sustaining a nonprofit. Most people have great intentions when wanting to start a nonprofit, but do most people have what it takes to sustain a nonprofit. If you have ever been interested in starting a nonprofit, this is the podcast for you! 

Everyone has resilience, but what does that mean, and how do we use it in life and leadership? Join Stephanie Olson, an expert in resiliency and trauma, every week as she talks to other experts living lives of resilience. Stephanie also shares her own stories of addictions, disordered eating, domestic and sexual violence, abandonment, and trauma, and shares the everyday struggles and joys of everyday life. As a wife, mom, and CEO she gives commentaries and, sometimes, a few rants to shed light on what makes a person resilient. So, if you have experienced adversity in life in any way and want to learn how to better lead your family, your workplace, and, well, your life, this podcast is for you!

https://stephanieolson.com

Transcript

Stephanie Olson: 0:00

Welcome to resilience in life and leadership with your host, Stephanie Olson, CEO speaker, author and sexual violence and addiction expert, we're glad you're here. Hi, I'm Stephanie Olson, with resilience in life and leadership, so glad you're here. I want to talk about nonprofits. I want to talk about the desire to start a nonprofit, and whether you should or not. I hear a lot of people saying I want to start a nonprofit, and usually it's because they have an incredible passion for a topic. I get that oftentimes it's because they've experienced something that draws them to the need and desire to help other people. Really important. I personally have gone through things that have led to the creation of my nonprofit. I understand it. I run the set me free project, which is a prevention education organization on human trafficking, and did some right things, but also made some huge mistakes. Now, what I would tell you is that there are reasons that most nonprofits failed. There was a statistic that said 90% of nonprofits fail within a few years. And I've seen that happen that, you know, people have really good ideas, or I shouldn't say good ideas, really good intentions, and want to make a difference. That is a noble thing, but part of the problem that people have is that we don't run nonprofits like a business, and it is important to do so. I believe about 30% of all nonprofits don't make it to 10 years, and so after that first few years, the ones that actually do start doing well after about 10 years, they're done. There's very few nonprofits that are the big, you know, million dollar nonprofits, and then there are a lot of small nonprofits now in your community, you could probably Google very easily. How many nonprofits are there in your community? But I'm going to talk about my community really quickly. Live in Omaha, Nebraska, and in Omaha alone, there are 6357 non profit organizations in Omaha. That's a lot, and my guess is that the majority of those are not extremely successful. In Nebraska, there are about 15,000 nonprofits, and in the US, there are over 300,000 nonprofits, that seems actually really low to me, based on what we know, but approximately 30% of those fail to exist in 10 years now. Why does that happen? Well, I think it happens for a couple of reasons, and the first reason is doing your homework at the start of a nonprofit, it is so important that I had somebody call me the other day and say, Hey, we're doing this same work we're doing, and I started nonprofit, and somebody pointed them to us and saying, there is an organization doing that. You should really collaborate with them. So the first mistake is finding out, does the work that you're doing already exist? Is somebody already doing that, whether in your community or another community across the nation, is somebody doing this and doing this well? And if they are, one of the best things you can do is learn from that organization. So instead of starting a nonprofit of your own, go volunteer, go get a job at that organization, and find out how they're doing what they do and what it is that makes them successful. Do you need to start another nonprofit? Because they're already doing this and serving the community. Or maybe you don't, maybe you need to do something complimentary and partner with this organization. There is no reason to start an organization that is already doing it. We don't want to reinvent the wheel, and I think that's what so many people do. Instead of starting a nonprofit of your own, go volunteer, go get a job at that organization, and find out how they're doing, what they do and what it is that makes them successful. Do you need to start another nonprofit? Because. Because they're already doing this and serving the community, or maybe you don't, maybe you need to do something complimentary and partner with this organization. There is no reason to. I think the other mistake that nonprofit leaders make is not running nonprofits like a business. Yes, it is about passion. Yes, it is about serving individuals and making a difference in people's lives. But if it's not run like a business, it will fail. Do you have a business plan? Do you have a strategic plan? All of those things are really important, and one of the key things, and this is, this is a touchy one. I was fortunate because I came from a business background, as opposed to having a strong passion for what I was doing, I really saw a gap in services and the my co founder and I wanted to fill that gap, and so that is really where that came from, but we took our skill set and used it within the nonprofit, and then brought other people in as we grew who had those skill set. I think one of the biggest mistakes leaders make is because you founded an organization, you should be the executive director. You should be the CEO. And sometimes just because you have a vision, just because you have a passion, does not mean you have the ability to run an organization. So I think one of the best things a founder can do when they are maybe don't have that skill set, is hire an executive director. You can still have the vision. You can still be the visionary. You can still be the CEO, but hire somebody to run the day to day as our organization grows, what I want to do as a CEO is move out of the way so the people that are running the organization doing the day to day. Are doing it well? I have an amazing chief operating officer who does the operations and literally runs the day to day of the business. She doesn't need my help, good at what she does. I have a director of programming who runs all things programming, who is amazing at what she does, and it allows me the ability to do things like this, to go speak, to network, to build donors and fundraise and things like that. That's what it should be about. So making sure that there is strong leadership in the organization, and being okay with the fact that not all of us should be running the day to day, and really making sure that we have strong board leadership. I think one of the biggest things to remember in a nonprofit is it's not yours. Yes, we may have founded it. I'm a founder. I founded this organization. It's not my organization. I have a board that I have to answer to. I have staff that I serve, and I have people that I serve. And if we forget that we are in trouble. Mission drifting is another huge thing that I see, you start getting donations, you start getting donors, you start getting grants, and now the funder says, I want you to do this now. Well, that was never part of your core value. That was never part of your mission. And so do you start mission drifting, or do you start adding programs or going a different way, because somebody who has money told you to that is one of the things that I see, and I think that can be a real detriment to nonprofits, but I think one of the key things is not Having an income base that sounds counterintuitive for a lot of people when they're talking about nonprofits, but here's what I will tell you, if you don't have an income base with your nonprofit, you are not doing everything to bring in that funding. Whatever that income base is, it could be little, it could be big, but there needs to be something that brings in an income. Most nonprofits rely on grant funding. I think it's a small percentage that rely on individual donations. Now there are a lot of great organizations where their individual donor base is strong and that's what supports them, and that is great. The majority, statistically, of nonprofits across the nation, rely on grant funding, and so it's really understanding what it is that nonprofits need financially and how to run. That organization successfully. And then I think finally is consistent education, consistent learning. I don't care what industry you are in. Rarely is there an industry that is just segment that never changes. And so what are you doing to better yourself in the education of the industry you're working in. What are you doing to improve? What are you doing to collaborate with others and find out continually who else is in this this area, who else is doing good work, who can I partner with? I think those are the things that make a nonprofit extremely successful. And I have to mention learning how to manage a staff. Oh, the turnover rate and the amount of toxic behavior and stuff that is in the nonprofit world is overwhelming. Some of the things I see in nonprofit work would never fly in a corporation. Part of that is because there's there's passion and compassion, and we're in that work oftentimes because of traumas that we have experienced ourselves. So it does lend to a different environment, but we still have to run it with integrity and with honor, respecting our staff, respecting the people we serve, and respecting ourselves and even self care. So those are some of the things I wanted to talk about with nonprofit. When I when I people ask me, Should I start a nonprofit? My answer is NO DON'T, at least not until you have done all of your research, you have found out who is out there, who is doing the work, who you can collaborate with, and if someone is already doing it and doing it, well, maybe there's a need in your community for the same thing, but maybe there's not and maybe you could collaborate and partner with that organization to grow theirs, expand theirs. It's not always easy, but nonprofit work is hard. I always joke with other nonprofit leaders we want to quit every other day. It sounds really good when you start it, but nonprofit work is challenging. It's soul sucking sometimes, but in the most fulfilling way possible. But do your homework before you start a nonprofit. Find out what's happening around your community, around the nation, globally, whatever it is, and then work with other nonprofit. There is no reason that other nonprofits doing incredible work can't work together, because usually the work you're doing is pretty big the people you're serving. There are enough issues out there that the people we're serving can benefit from. And I would just add, as a nonprofit leader, if you are not looking at your work as please, put me out of a job. Please. I want you to put me out of a job. You may be looking at it in the wrong way. So should you start a nonprofit? Do your research, do your homework, run it like a business, and then maybe you have something that is huge and can change lives. Thank you so much for joining me. We'll see you next time. Thanks for tuning in. We hope you enjoyed it. Please share freely. You.