4 Essential Building Blocks for Successful Nonprofit Organizations

While you probably started your nonprofit organization (NPO) to fulfill a specific passion or purpose, a businesslike approach will serve you well when it comes to the dispassionate activities like balancing books and scheduling volunteers. And, operating as a businessperson will lay the foundation for a vibrant and thriving NPO that allows others to catch your passion.

Successful nonprofits don’t just happen; they are built block by block upon your talents, time, thoughts, and efforts. Let’s look at some simple things you can do to beef up the business aspect of your endeavors.

1. Develop a Nonprofit Success Plan

While this doesn’t need to be the formal type of plan that you would present to other people, it should be written down and contain specific details concerning your vision and mission. Identify your objectives and commit them to paper. What are your goals and what do you hope to accomplish? Do you want to try pursue a grant? Approach five people for funding? Set your goals and then work your plan.

2. Define Your Peak Performance Times.
Are you an early bird or a night owl? Knowing your peak performance times will help you maximize your effectiveness. It is estimated that 60 percent of Americans do their best work in the morning hours. Forty percent burn the midnight oil. Which describes you?

Identify the times of the day when you are at your best and on purpose. Reserve those times for creative endeavors and critical decision making. The remaining hours of the day can be used for paperwork or more mundane tasks.

Using peak performance times correctly can double or triple the amount you achieve in a given day. Remember, it’s “how” you spend your hours, not “how many” hours you spend.

3. Appreciate the 80-20 Rule.
Did you think the 80-20 Rule only applied to Fortune 500 companies? Not hardly. The concept of 80-20 actually can be applied to nearly every aspect of life, both personal and professional. Realize that 20 percent of your daily tasks will produce about 80 percent of the results you want. And, 20 percent of your customers will produce 80 percent of your sales.

To be your most effective, identify that critical 20 percent and focus on that. The activities that fall in the remaining 80 percent can be done as you have time. As the old saying goes, “Efficiency is doing things right; effectiveness is doing the right things.” Produce maximum results in minimal time with minimal emotional and physical drain with the 80-20 rule.

4. Control Your Time.
One of the biggest threats to any time management system is interruptions. Don’t live your life from interruption to interruption as most people do. Get interruptions under control to boost your effectiveness and help you develop laser-beam focus toward your work and the activities most important to you and your business.

Use email for correspondence whenever possible. Ignore the doorbell and allow voicemail to take calls. Set two specific times per day (not your peak performance times!) to return calls and handle busy work. You can even announce your callback times on your voicemail message so callers can know when to expect a response. Say, “I check voicemail at 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Calls requiring a response are returned at 4 p.m.”

Passionate nonprofits and business acumen needn’t be a cross purposes. Build your business with these “blocks” and tackle a greater level of success.