Byline Non Profit Business Proposal Made Easy

Byline non profit business proposal

Today I'm going to show you eight powerful ways to visualize an innovative nonprofit business model. The nonprofit version of the canvas is a great way to come up with fundraising ideas or pinpoint troublesome areas in your nonprofit. You can also use this to inform your future strategic plan. Even though there are countless versions of the canvas online, the nonprofit version stays true to its roots by not breaking the flow. And so that brings us to tip number one: The flow. The flow shows how all nine blocks are connected. It's the visual logic of how you create, deliver, and capture that value. Imagine the left side as the operational level and the right side as the engagement level. We sometimes call this the back stage and the front stage. The back stage is howyou create the work, that is, key activities, key resources, your key partnerships, and your cost structure, and of course your social value proposition, which is your unique take on how you're solving the problem. If you're a Simon Sinek fan and his concept of the Golden Circle, you can also call this your organization's Why: Why do you do what you do? What's your unique take on the problem? What are your programs and services? The front stage is who will receive the benefits or who will co-create the value with you. Your co-creators can include beneficiaries, various audiences like stakeholders, and volunteers who are linked by the type of relationship that you wish to establish with them, the channels in which you'll reach them and, the type of outcomes you will produce from those relationships like financial outcomes and non-financial outcomes. Put it all together and you get the flow. Tip number two: visualizing costs and rewards. Remember that what you earn at the engagement level must go back into the operations side. That would complete the flow. Some mission-related canvases leave out revenue streams, and as a compromise, I labeled this "Outcome Streams" and further divided it into two categories: Financial and Non-Financial. Whether you want to exclude revenue altogether and just talk about mission metrics, that's entirely up to you. But to be honest you can't talk about the flow resources without talking about money one way or another. So I'll leave it up to you. Examples of financial outcomes include: donations, grants, sales, proceeds; one-time transactions and recurring transactions like memberships. Non-financial outcomes are really about how you measure change like mission metrics, and evaluation standards like behavior change, social impact, and mission-related milestones and outcomes. Remember that financial outcomes will fund your various costs like salaries, office rent, facilities, maintenance, and overhead. Use this to understand your margins and to discuss break-even issues in your business model. Tip number three: Outcome Streams. Here's a way to ensure that all your outcome streams make sense. First, label your Co-Creators. Second, your Value Proposition. And third, your outcomes. Let's use a local botanical garden as an example. Here we're gonna focus on two audience groups. You want to ask "What's in it for them?" Scientists and students at the local university may love the fact that the garden is a sanctuary for many species of plants, birds, and wildlife. Families may love the fact that you have seasonal events that are unique, better paths for walking, and even better shelters for picnics. Now you can ask "What programs and services can we create that would lead them to donate, pay for memberships, or get them to participate in paid classes and courses. Don't worry about the Relations block or Channels block just yet, just make sure that you have Co-Creators connected to your Value Propositions and an Outcome Stream first. Tip number four: Epicenter Thinking. I did a video on this while back, but it goes like this: Whatever you add, subtract, or modify in your business model will definitely ripple out to affect other parts. For example, if you were to modify anything in your Value Proposition, how might that affect everything else? If you modified Partnerships, how would that affect the operations side? If you modified Co-Creators how might that affect the engagement side? Let's use the Botanical Garden example again. If you subtracted anything about your events, how might that reduce donations, or even impact the value of a membership? On the flip side, if you added certain events and activities and courses to your Value Proposition, how might that increase donations or increase the value of membership? Tip number five: Go Full-Scale. or label the entire thing on a flip chart. Rather than sitting behind a computer all day, put it to work with other people. It's a "common visual for common ground." Save the word-smithing and the actual business planning for another day. Tip number six. KA plus KR equals CS. Or, Key Activities plus Key Resources equals Cost Structure. In other words, what does it really cost to run your nonprofit? What do you pay in time, money, and effort to sustain the operation side? Let's imagine a stream. Think about your Key Activities which can include: Marketing, campaigns, events, productio, development, training, networking, and research. Second, take a look at your Key Resources. This could include physical resources like equipments, facilities, IT infrastructure, intellectual resources, like your house file, customer databases. Human Resources like staff and contractors; and financial resources like your loans and lines of credit. Once you have those filled out it should give you a better idea of what the Cost Structure is really like. Once you look back upstream, it should all make sense. Tip number seve: SWOT charts. Also known as strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. So one of my least liked videos came from me dissing SWOT charts for non profit strategic planning. But I find that SWOT charts can be a decent method if you've already done your research, and that the facts are grounded in reality. Meaning that you've tested your assumptions as much as possible. There are two ways you can go about this: One, you can do a SWOT chart on a particular troublesome area. Or two: You could just do a SWOT chart on the entire canvas in general. Once you've diverged on opinions, create an action plan on how you might improve. Tip number eight: ERRC. Better known as the Four Action Framework Eliminate, Reduce, Raise, and Create. Here's a reality check: You're most likely not the only nonprofit doing this line of work. If you want to put Blue Ocean Strategy to work, just ask these questions: "What factors can you eliminate that your industry has long competed on?" "Which factors should be reduced below the industry standard?" "Which factors should be raised above the industry standard?" And "Which factors should be created that the industry has never offered before?" And when I say "industry" I mean nonprofits who are in the same field as you. These questions are tougher than your think, so take your time. Remember that you want to make changes that enhance your outcomes as much as possible. Additionally try to reverse engineer your competition's business models before using the four action framework. Tip number nine: Question-storming they say it's not about the right answer, but the right question. So once you've completed a canvas or two, try using these questions as a guide: "What are your major gripes and difficulties?" "What opportunities are missing on the operation side that could contribute to better performance?" "What small problems could potentially grow into bigger ones?" And "What barriers are preventing you from growing further?" Once you've answered those questions, prototype as many future states as you possibly can. So that wraps it up 8+1 powerful ways to visualize an innovative nonprofit business model. But once you've completed a canvas, you're not done yet. This is merely a blueprint. You might want to prototype future revenue models, you could even use this to create your nonprofit's strategic plan. Get the newly designed nonprofit business model canvas in the description below which includes 1. the master key 2. a blank worksheet and 3. a minimal canvas with only the questions. And don't forget to subscribe for more videos just like this. And so turning it over to you, which technique are you going to try first?