Redline NonProfit Donation Consent with airSlate SignNow

Redline nonprofit donation consent

Did you know that you can make a living working for a nonprofit organization? I didn't actually figure this out until I was in college, but the fact is that you can work for a non-profit and make a living - there are just a couple of catches. So if you are thinking about a career in nonprofits or thinking of starting a non-profit and wondering how you will make a living if you do so, I'm going to talk you through a few things that you should be considering in this video. Welcome back! If you are new to my channel, my name is Amber Melanie Smith, and I am a nonprofit founder, executive director, and speaker on leadership and service. I also make these videos here on YouTube every week so feel free to subscribe and join me regularly for information on making an impact, nonprofits, leadership, service, and so much more. My whole mission is to help you aspiring changemakers with tips and strategies to help you change the world while living a life of impact and purpose. So just a little bit of context - I mentioned I am a nonprofit founder, so I launched a nonprofit organization that I currently work full time for many years ago and so I have been through this experience of what it takes to start an organization get it to the point where revenues coming in and to the point where I can do this full-time, and I've also gone through some of the hiccups and setbacks and challenges that stood in the way of getting me to that point faster. I will be doing lots of other videos on various things that happen throughout this journey and how if you are on the same path of thinking of starting a non-profit you can perhaps avoid some of the mistakes that I have made and get there a little faster than I did, but for this video I want to talk about a couple things that you really should know about how nonprofits work, and how to be able to get to a point where you could work for a non-profit full-time if that is what you are thinking of doing. So I mentioned that there is a catch when it comes to being able to receive a salary and work full-time for a nonprofit organization. There's actually two catches I want to talk about in this video the first catch is that by law a nonprofit organization the United States has to have a board of directors and it is the Board of Directors who creates the nonprofit's budget and decides whether to hire you or not and what your salary is going to be so you can't or rather it's unethical and in some cases illegal to be able to decide what your own salary is going to be and give it to yourself this doesn't mean however that you can't request a certain salary from your board of directors or make recommendations to your board for a certain salary you should certainly as any nonprofit professional be doing compensation research to know what other salaries look like in organizations of a similar budget range as yours so that you know if you're being paid fairly or not more often than not the sad truth is that nonprofit professionals get paid far below what they are worth and definitely below what it takes to survive and/or thrive financially in this world today and there's this whole other conversation going on right now in the nonprofit industry about this very thing how to ensure that people working in the nonprofit sector are compensated fairly and competitively to keep these amazing public servants around because let's face it the world relies on nonprofits and needs nonprofits to be out there serving people and tackling major social issues with my board of directors I will make recommendations during our annual retreat for our budget and for salaries not just for myself but for all of our staff members but it is ultimately up to them to discuss and vote on what the budget is going to be after I make my case and my requests fair compensation is definitely possible if you work harmoniously with your board of directors but it's important to note that you do not get to vote on your own salary the second catch that I want to discuss in this conversation is that it can be difficult to generate enough revenue for your organization to hire you or anybody as a staff person without a solid fundraising plan a common misconception that I hear from folks in the general public a lot is that you can't be paid a salary if you work for nonprofits but along with the whole topic of this video we know that that's not true all nonprofit means is that you can generate income you can generate revenue but all of that revenue is going back into the mission of the organization that can include and often does include covering the costs of staff because staff is a critical component of meeting the organization's mission there are so many ways that having highly trained professional committed staff that you can retain for years is just a really smart idea for the sustainability of your organization and its ability to maximize the impact it can be making on the community and the world so if you are starting a non-profit it is super super important if you hope to have staff at all for your nonprofit at any point in the future to have a really solid fundraising plan going into when you very first start the organization so what this looks like is creating a business plan before you even pick a name for your organization worry about the name later start with a business plan now and the business plan really needs to include how you plan to raise money and generate income sustainably for your organization what sustainable means is that it's not a one-time infusion of money into your cause but a regular infusion of money that you can count on so revenue that is regularly coming in that allows you to budget into the future and plan in the future because you can count on it there are many ways that a non-profit can work to get sustainable revenue but earned income is an especially great way this is some kind of system where you have a fee for some of your services perhaps a very affordable cost for consulting or the services that you offer the clients that you work with I recently talked to one person who wanted to start a non-profit martial arts school but didn't realize that he could charge for some of the classes that he was going to offer through this school but the fact is that would be a case of earned income you can definitely charge for your classes or other services that you offer but the idea and the goal to serve your mission first is of course to make it affordable for whomever your target audiences if we're talking about a 501 C 3 public charity type of nonprofit which is usually the kind of nonprofit most people think of starting then you have to be thinking of your mission first and making sure that if you have an earned income system that you are not leaving out the very people that you're trying to serve earned income is just about keeping yourself sustainable so that you can continue to serve the community without worrying about going bankrupt another possible type of revenue that you might include in a business plan could be grants but I always caution people who are thinking about applying for grants by letting them know that grants are really not that reliable even professional grant writers have maybe just one in 10 grants that they can achieve for an organization that they're writing their grant for grants are more about getting some funding for something special or usually one-time funding but in general funders do not want you to rely on them year to year they want to see that they've made an investment in you that you can now grow and have a stronger capacity and that you can move on so that they can start funding somebody else afterward I talk a lot about some of the ways that successful nonprofits fundraise when they are just starting out or growing in another video so check that out in the link a plan to raise awareness about your cause and how to also attract individual donors is very very important because across all the types of donations that occur in the United States annually individual donors that donations made by single individuals out there not come not grant foundations but everyday people this is the largest pool of donations that comes in every year in support of area charities so to recap the two things that you need to do to pave the way for being able to work for a non-profit full-time is one have a harmonious relationship with your board of directors because like I said this is the group that will be deciding whether to hire you at all and deciding your salary and to have a strong fundraising plan that involves some way of bringing in money sustainably such as Earned Income individual donations or some other method I hope this video has helped you out working full time for a non-profit has been the most rewarding part of my life and I highly recommend if you are the type of person who really wants to see the impact they can make on the world the nonprofit careers are amazing and fulfilling and so great so you should definitely explore that as a possible option for you once again I'm amber Melanie Smith and I make weekly videos here on YouTube about nonprofits service leadership social impact and all things change making please subscribe share my channel share these videos with others that you think might enjoy them and don't forget to ring that bell so you can get alerts when I publish my next video and if you are in Facebook I have a great group you should check out called change the world or bust where myself and other change makers are having conversations about how we can make an impact and live a life of purpose thank you so much for watching and I hope to see you next time