What All Businesses Could Learn From Nonprofits

Often in the nonprofit world, the saying goes, “you need to operate more like a for-profit business.” This statement can be good advice. It pushes nonprofits to break away from the status quo and figure out how to increase revenues, cut costs, and grow their operations. These are all quality improvements that can allow nonprofits to flourish and increase those they serve.

What about turning that statement around? Telling for-profit businesses they need to operate more like a nonprofit. Not as common of a statement, right? But let’s break that thought down.

Fundamentals of Fundraising

What is fundamental to fundraising professionals? Relationship building is utilized every day to build a donor base, increase donations and sustain client relationships for years. Any fundraising professional worth their salt knows that a donation is not a transaction, the donation is a byproduct of building a relationship with an individual or organization. When running a for-profit business, treating your customers in that same way helps to build a pipeline of repeat customers and nine times out of ten it is cheaper to keep customers than to develop new ones. Transferring this strategy of relationship building rather than simply selling is an essential way for-profit businesses can learn from non-profit fundraising strategies.

Staff is Family

Most strong leaders of nonprofits know their team is likely not the best paid. They also may be overworked, undertrained, or lack the resources to do their job. In this day and age, that is a recipe for staff to move on. Yet, strong nonprofit leaders often keep their best staff for years beyond their for-profit peers. How we treat our staff in a nonprofit is central to why they stick around when resources are lacking. Quality nonprofit leaders build a strong relationship, stop to listen to their problems, and have an open dialogue about what’s going on within the organization. These conversations as well as the transparency of the organization builds commitment, understanding, and can lead to new ideas and opportunities.

Other Duties as Assigned

In a nonprofit, it’s not uncommon to see the Executive Director speaking at a donor event and when it wraps up, the same executive is picking up the trash left behind and helping the team pack up. So long as executives do not need to be meeting guests and shaking hands, you will almost always see them doing the same work as their team at events, setting up, tearing down, or cleaning up. Other Duties as Assigned isn’t a request in an underfunded nonprofit, it’s the modus operandi. How do Other Duties as Assigned benefit a nonprofit? It doesn’t stop at trash pickup, it also focuses on cross-training your staff, providing development in their learning and allowing them to understand all parts of the organization and how it operates. These pieces need to be clearly conveyed in both the benefit to the organization, as well as the benefit to the employee. When they are, an employee can see their growth potential because you’ve put them in a position to understand the entire organization.

Passion for the Mission

Building passion for your mission gives the staff drive to succeed. Sometimes this is seen as easier in a nonprofit than a for-profit, but aligning interests to develop that passion is critical. One need look no further than our own organization, NMBL Strategies, than to think a consulting firm would struggle to become passionate about our mission, yet our team is passionate and excited to work with clients every day, to resolve problems that hold back organizations, and to develop the future for great groups around the world. Our team comes together to build structure, belief, and opportunity and these things are both exciting and develop the passion for our own organization. Finding the right team members and building a company culture focused on your mission is key for finding the drive and passion that support success. Find a way to align your own passion.

These are just four examples of what many for-profit businesses can learn from nonprofits, if you are a for-profit business that needs help in your own growth through strategy, leadership development or mission alignment reach out at the link below. If you’re a nonprofit looking to build upon these fundamentals, contacting us can be a great first step towards your future.