Preparation for Nonprofit Micro-eMBA(SM) Program

Women at a meeting brainstorming and preparing

Free Management Library’s
Online Nonprofit Organization Development Program Module #1:

Preparation for Nonprofit Micro-eMBA(SM)
Program

(includes recommendations to large amount of free, online
resources)

(This module is in the nonprofit organization development program.
However, this module can also be used by anyone to improve their
self-directed study habits and/or become aware of free, online
information for nonprofit organizations.)

Also consider
Related Library Topics

INTRODUCTION

This module helps you get ready for the program by providing
guidelines to get the most out of the program, along with suggesting
numerous free, online resources of which you might take advantage.

As with any learning module in this program, you’ll get the
most if you read all materials, consider each question for discussion
and reflection, discuss information and materials with others,
complete suggested activities and apply assessments as appropriate.
You should also regularly conduct action planning to record and
monitor important actions (for yourself or your business organization)
identified during the program, including what needs to be done,
who needs to do it, by when and current status on the completion
of the tasks.

Lastly, congratulations, on your own initiative and commitment
to your learning!

Also consider
Related
Library Topics

OUTCOMES

Learners who complete this module will achieve the following
outcomes:

Guidelines for You to Get the Most from this Program
Tips to Improve Your Reading and Studying Skills
Extensive Free, Online Resources for You
Designing Your Best Approach to the Program

MATERIALS FOR REVIEW

The following materials will help you address each of
the topics and learning activities in this module.
Read the following materials according to directions in
their titles, eg, “read paragraphs till you come to next title”)

Program
Design and Format of Learning Modules (read paragraphs till come
to next title)
Basics
for Learners to Get Most from Training and Development (read paragraphs
on page)
Tips
to Improve Reading Skills (read articles in “Various Perspectives”)
Tips
to Study More Effectively (read tips both for studying and concentrating)
General
Resources (be aware of the types of resources listed under that
category on the right sidebar)

SUGGESTED LEARNING ACTIVITIES

Learners are strongly encouraged to complete the following
activities, and share and discuss results with peers, board members,
management and employees, as appropriate.
As you proceed through the following activities, be sure
to note any incomplete actions in the Action Item Planning List. (At that Web
address, a box might open, asking you which software application
to open the document.)

1. Write down a schedule of when you plan to study information
and materials in the program. Share the schedule with several
people who can help you stay on track with your schedule, for
example, peers, fellow board members, management, employees, consultants,
friends, family, etc. Give them permission to pose supportive
challenges to you to help you stay on track.

2. Write and distribute a one-page memo to whomever you plan
to share feedback with (peers, board members, management and employees,
etc.) indicating your plans to complete the program and that you
plan to discuss information and materials with them (for example,
in upcoming board meetings, staff meetings, etc). Suggest the
program to them, as well.

3. Schedule regular meeting times (for example, in meetings
with peers, board members, management, employees, etc.) to discuss
information and materials from this program. Share the schedule
with others.

4. Recruit fellow learners to go through the program with you.
You could, for example:
a.) Contact local service providers to get suggestions for other
learners — or ask them if they would sponsor the program.
b.) Call several peers, for example, board members, chief executives,
managers, consultants, instructors, etc., and pose the program
to them.

5. If you have questions, consider posing them in the national,
free, online discussion group hr.com, which is attended
by many human resource and organization development experts.

6. Are there other activities that would be more suitable for
your needs and nature? Commit to undertaking these activities
— by undertaking, we mean other than thinking about or talking
about, but starting and completing the activities. Write down
your ideas and share them with whomever is going to support you
as you progress through the program.

7. Lastly, spend an hour over the coming week in which you
scan around inside the Free Management Library. There are a massive
amount of links in the Library, including about 675 topics. Get
a feel for how they are arranged.

8. OPTIONAL: The following three links are to a large amount
of free, online resources in regard to personal development, productivity
and wellness. If you have the time, you might glance around inside
the topics. If you find something that might benefit you, consider
identifying suitable actions to take. Write down these planned
actions and share them with others who can support you as you
take the actions.
Personal
Development
Personal
Productivity
Personal
Wellness

OPTIONAL SELF-ASSESSMENTS

OPTIONAL: The following self-assessments can help you
identify areas where you’d like further self-development.

Behavioral Styles — Take a look at the following
matrix of behavioral styles. See where you fit in. How might that
affect how you proceed through the eMBA?

Are You Ready for Change? — Are you
really ready for change? For implementing this eMBA?

Identify Your Strengths and Weaknesses —
Based on the SWOT analysis, what did you learn about yourself?
Use your strengths to take advantage of opportunities, to strengthen
weaknesses and ward off threats. Any strategies that you should
implement?

Stress Self-Evaluation —
To determine how effectively you are using your time, respond
to these questions honestly

(More self-assessments if you are interested.)

TRACKING OPEN ACTION ITEMS

1. One of the first indicators that an organization or a person
is struggling is that open action items are not tracked and reviewed.
(Open action items are required actions that have not yet been
completed.) Instead, people only see and react to the latest “fires”
in their workplaces or their lives. Whether open action items
are critical to address now or not, they should not entirely be
forgotten. Therefore, update and regularly review a list of open
action items (identified while proceeding through this program)
that includes listing each open action item, who is responsible
to complete it, when it should be completed and any associated
comments. When updating the list, consider action items as identified
during discussions, learning activities and assessments in this
module. Share and regularly review this action item list with
the appropriate peers, board, management and employees in your
organization. You can use the following Action Item Planning List. (At that Web address,
a box might open, asking you which software application to open
the document.)

2. If you have questions, consider posing them in the national,
free, online discussion group hr.com, which is attended
by many human resource and organization development experts.

(Learners in the nonprofit organization development program
can return to the nonprofit organization development program.)

For the Category of Personal Development:

To round out your knowledge of this Library topic, you may
want to review some related topics, available from the link below.
Each of the related topics includes free, online resources.

Also, scan the Recommended Books listed below. They have been
selected for their relevance and highly practical nature.

Related Library Topics

Recommended Books

January 18, 2022February 17, 2023

Designing and Marketing Your Programs

White work table with notes, smartphone and laptop

Free Nonprofit Micro-eMBA Module #7: Designing and Marketing Your Programs

Much of this program is based on materials adapted from the
Nonprofit Capacity Building Toolkit(SM).
Much of the content of this module was adapted from the guidebook,Field Guide to Nonprofit Program Design, Marketing
and Evaluation.

This module is in the nonprofit organization development program.
However, this module can also be used by anyone as a self-study
exercise to learn more about designing a marketing nonprofit programs.

Sections of This Module Include the Following

Introduction
Outcomes
Materials for Review
Suggested Topics for Reflection and Discussion
Activities to Build Systems and Practices
Assessments
Tracking Open Action Items

INTRODUCTION

The three major sections of personnel in nonprofits are usually
governance (the board of directors), central administration or
general operations (executive director, central offices, etc.),
and programs. Nonprofit organizations usually manage their products
and services (to clients) in the form of programs. Program services
to clients are the primary reason that the nonprofit exists. Therefore,
it’s critical to know how to plan and market programs.

There is often a great deal of misunderstanding about marketing.
People often consider marketing to be the same as advertising.
It’s not. Advertising is only one part of marketing. Marketing
is the wide range of activities involved in making sure that you’re
continuing to meet the needs of your clients and getting value
in return.

Market analysis includes finding out what groups of clients
(or markets) exist, what their needs are, what groups of clients
you prefer to serve (target markets), what products or services
you might develop to meet their needs, how the clients prefer
to use the products and services, what your competitors are doing,
what pricing you should use and how you should distribute products
and services to clients. Results of this marketing analysis indicates
the position, or market “niche”, for the nonprofit to
work from — and to be seen as having. Marketing also includes
ongoing promotions, which can include advertising, public relations,
sales and customer service. Various methods of market research
are used to find out information about markets, target markets
and their needs, competitors, market trends, customer satisfaction
with products and services, etc.

NOTE ABOUT THE LARGE SIZE OF THIS MODULE: This module is one
of the largest in the program. The activity of marketing an organization
and its programs is critical to the success of the organization
and its programs — the marketing process is broad and sometimes
quite detailed. Learners who have very limited time schedules
might proceed through this module primarily by reviewing the learning
materials and then thinking about how they would carry out (rather
than actually carrying out) the various activities to build structures
in their organization.

NOTE ABOUT USE OF TERM “SERVICES”: Marketing is in
regard to organizations, and their products and services. Nonprofit
organizations exist largely to provide services to the community.
Services can be provided by providing services — also by providing
products (or tangible services) to clients. In this document,
products and services are referred to by use of the term “services”.

NOTE ABOUT BOARD COMMITTEES: Consider establishing a Programs
Committee or Marketing Committee to review and help guide implementation
of the information in this learning module. Major activities and
goals from this learning module could be incorporated in that
Committee’s Committee Work Plan.

OUTCOMES

Understand Program Design
Construct a Program Logic Model
Clarify Program Outcomes, Goals and Strategies
Conduct Basic Market Analysis for Each Program
Draft Your Public and Media Relations Plan
Draft Your Sales Plan
Draft Your Advertising and Promotions Plan
Organize Your Marketing and Promotions Plan
Evaluate Your Program Planning Practices

MATERIALS FOR REVIEW

The following materials will help you address each of
the topics and learning activities in this module.

Program Design, Marketing and Promotions

NOTE: The following link is to a sizable document. The learner
might be better off time-wise to do a quick read of the guide,
and then deepen and enrich the learning in the following section
of this module, “Activities to Build Systems and Practices”.
That section guides the learner through the process of designing
a program (including its logic model) and then marketing and promoting
the program (including marketing the organization). The activities
in this section might reinforce the learning in the following
extensive guide if the learner regularly refers to the guide while
completing the activities to build systems and practices.

Basic
Guidelines for Nonprofit Program Design and Marketing

Marketing Basics, Analysis and Positioning

– – – What
Programs Are, What They Are Not

Marketing
— particularly the sections:
– – – Marketing
(the introduction “Marketing” — A Commonly Misunderstood
Term”)
– – – Basics
of Market Planning (read first 7 articles about doing a marketing
plan)
– – – Market
Research — particularly the sections:
– – – – – – Basic
Methods to Get Feedback from Customers (read all)
– – – – – – Some
Major Sources of Market Research Information (read all)
– – – Competitive
Analysis (read introduction at top of page)
– – – – – – Direct
and Indirect Competition – Definitions
– – – – – – What
is Competitive Intelligence?
– – – Pricing
(read introduction at top of page)
– – – Naming
and Branding (read introduction at top of page)
– – – Intellectual
Property (read introduction at top of page)
– – – Positioning
(read introduction at top of page)

Advertising and Promotions

Basics
and Planning (read introduction)
– – – Major
Methods of Advertising and Promotion (read all)

Public and Media Relations

Public
and Media Relations, particularly the sections:
Managing
Media Relations (at least 4 articles)

Sales

What
is Sales?
Understanding
the Sales Process

Optional — Customer Service

Customer
Service (read at least 4 articles in “Basics and Planning”)

Basics of Program Design

The Basic Guide to Nonprofit Program Design and Marketing
includes answers to the following questions.

1. What is a nonprofit program?

2. Describe program inputs? Processes? Outputs? Outcomes?

3. Why should program planning be closely aligned with strategic
planning?

4. Who should be involved in program planning?

Basics of Marketing

1. Define marketing. Advertising. Promotions. Public relations.
Publicity. Sales. In your definitions, include how these terms
are similar and different. (See What’s Advertising, Marketing, Promotion, Public
Relations and Publicity, and Sales?)

2. What is inbound marketing? Outbound marketing? (See Marketing
(the introduction “Marketing” — A Commonly Misunderstood
Term”.)

3. What is market analysis? (See Basics of Marketing — introduction.)

4. What is market research? (See Market Research — introduction.)

Basics of Marketing Analysis and Positioning

1. What is a target market? How does one define a target market?
(See Marketing (the introduction “Marketing”
— A Commonly Misunderstood Term”.)

2. What is a competitor analysis? (See Competitive Intelligence — introduction.)

3. What should be considered when setting the price for a product
or service? (See Marketing Pricing — introduction.)

4. What should be considered when naming a product or service?
(See Naming and Branding — introduction.)

5. What is intellectual property? (See Intellectual Property — introduction.)

6. What is a positioning statement? (See Positioning — introduction.)

Public and Media Relations

1. What is public relations? (See What’s Advertising, Marketing, Promotion, Public
Relations and Publicity, and Sales? and Managing Your Public Image.)

2. Name at least three practices in maintaining strong public
relations. (See Managing Your Image (Public Relations).)

3. What is media relations? (See What’s Advertising, Marketing, Promotion, Public
Relations and Publicity, and Sales? and Managing Media Relations.)

4. Name at least three practices in maintaining strong media
relations. (See Managing Media Relations.)

Sales

1. What is sales? (See What’s Advertising, Marketing, Promotion, Public
Relations and Publicity, and Sales? and What is Sales?.)

2. What are some basic steps in the sales process? (See Understanding
the Sales Process.)

Customer Service

1. What are some basic steps in the maintaining high-quality
customer service? (See Customer Service.)

ACTIVITIES TO BUILD SYSTEMS AND
PRACTICES

Learners are strongly encouraged to complete the following
activities, and share and discuss results with peers, board members,
management and staff, as appropriate.
Various activities below will direct you to complete your Program Design
Plan by filling in the Framework for Basic Nonprofit Program Structural Design.
Various activities below will direct you to complete your
Program Marketing and Promotions Plan by filling in the Framework for Basic Nonprofit Marketing and
Promotions Plan.
As you proceed through the following activities, be sure
to note any incomplete actions in the Action Item Planning List.

Designing the Strategic Structure of Each of Your Programs

The structural design is the “skeleton” on which
the nonprofit program is designed. Nonprofit management can reference
this structure when planning program resources and budgets, staffing
and operational procedures to provide services to clients.

The “skeleton” is comprised of the program goals,
strategies and objectives, which should follow directly from the
goals, strategies and objectives produced during strategic planning.
(Therefore, learners in the program can design their programs
by using many of the results from the previous strategic planning
module.) The program goals are selected in order to accomplish
certain benefits, or outcomes, for clients.

The goals, outcomes, strategies and objectives are a major
portion of the program plan. This plan usually also includes description
of resources needed to achieve the goals and objectives, and the
funding necessary to obtain and use the resources. Required resources
usually includes human resources, which are often described in
terms of necessary skills and capabilities. The necessary funding
is often depicted in the form of a program budget.

Program strategies are usually carefully described in the form
of descriptions of methods to deliver services to clients.

1. In the Framework for Basic Nonprofit Program Structural Design.,
list the goals for the program. Each program should be intended to achieve at
least one of the strategic goals, and may achieve more.

2. In the Framework for Basic Nonprofit Program Structural Design.,
under each goal, list the outcome that the goal is geared to achieve for clients.
Program goals are intended to accomplish certain benefits, or outcomes, for
clients. List the outcomes intended from the program. Note that outcomes are
not always directly associated with a specific goal, but may be accomplished
across several goals.

3. In the Framework for Basic Nonprofit Program Structural Design.,
under each goal, list the strategies needed to achieve the goal. Program strategies
are the major methods that are intended to be used to achieve the goals of the
program. Often there are a set of strategies for each goal. However, strategies
may combine to accomplish several goals. Program strategies often become major
methods for delivering services to clients.

4. In the Framework for Basic Nonprofit Program Structural Design.,
under each strategy, list the objectives along the way to achieving the goal
and implementing the strategy. Next to each objective, list who is responsible
to achieve the objective and by when.

Updating Logic Models of Your Organization and Each Program

1. In the learning module “Starting and Understanding
Your Nonprofit”, learners designed a very basic logic model
of their nonprofit organization. Logic models depict the overall
flow of the major parts of an organization or program to produce
desired results for clients. Now that the learner has completed
the strategic planning process, then he or she is likely to have
much more specificity about the organization and its programs,
including program goals, inputs, processes (strategies), outputs
and outcomes. Therefore, return to your logic models for your
organization and each program. Update the models to reflect what
you’ve learned during strategic planning. (For assistance, see
Guidelines and Framework for Designing Basic
Logic Model.)

Writing Your Marketing Plan for Each Program or Service

NOTE: This Plan should be focused on a particular program (product
or service), because each has its own different description, features
and benefits, customers, competitors and pricing.

Describe Your Service

1. In the Framework for Basic Nonprofit Marketing and Promotions
Plan, write a description of the service. The description
should be written as if your clients are the readers. In the description,
include the specific groups of clients served by the service,
nature of the method(s) in the service, outcomes for clients and
any other benefits to them, and where they should go next if they
are interested in using the service. Be careful to describe the
services in terms of benefits to clients, not to you. For example,
address pricing, convenience, location, quality, service, atmosphere,
etc.

List Your Target Market(s)

2. In the table in Framework for Basic Nonprofit Marketing and Promotions
Plan, write a brief description of the major groups of clients
who will benefit from your service and the major benefits to them.
Remember that the overall goals of the organization very much
determine whom you want to serve. For example, strategic goals
might be to expand the number of clients you have now, get new
clients, get more revenue from current clients, etc. You may want
to develop new services in a current or new market, or expand
current services in a current or new market.

Understanding your program’s target markets makes it much easier
for you to ensure that your program remains highly effective.
In addition to helping focus the results and evaluation of your
services, understanding your target markets helps you to focus
on where to promote your services, including advertising, conducting
public relations campaigns and selling your services. If you’ve
done a good job so far of strategic planning, then identifying
the primary targets market should be fairly straightforward. However,
it is very useful to determine several additional target markets.
These additional markets are often where you should focus promotions
and mean additional sources of assistance and revenue. (If you
struggle to identify your target markets, the following links
might help you, including How to Identify a Target Market
and Prepare a Customer Profile and Marketing Research.)

Write a Profile of Each Target Market

3. In the Framework for Basic Nonprofit Marketing and Promotions
Plan, write a description of each of your target markets.
The more you know about your clients, the better you might be
at serving them. Consider, for example, their major needs, how
they prefer to have their needs met, where they are and where
they prefer to have their needs met and demographics information
(their age ranges, family arrangement, education levels, income
levels, typical occupations, major interested, etc).

Analysis of Competitors

4. In the Framework for Basic Nonprofit Marketing and Promotions
Plan, write results from your analysis of your competitors.
Yes, nonprofits do have competitors — competitors to provide
services and competitors to obtain funding. Consider the following
questions: Who are your competitors? What client needs are you
competing to meet? What are the similarities and differences between
their service and yours? What are the strengths and weaknesses
of their service? How do their prices compare to yours? How are
they doing overall? How do you plan to compete, for example, offer
better quality services, lower prices, more support, easier access
to services etc? (For assistance, see Competitive Analysis.)

Analysis of Collaborators

5. In the Framework for Basic Nonprofit Marketing and Promotions
Plan, write results from your analysis of potential collaborators.
Who are potential collaborators with your nonprofit? What client
needs might you collaborate to meet? What resources might they
bring and what could you bring? What could you do next to cultivate
collaboration with other agencies? (For assistance, see Organizational Alliances.)

Pricing Analysis

6. In the Framework for Basic Nonprofit Marketing and Promotions
Plan, write results from your pricing analysis. Several major
factors influence the pricing for a service. Strategic goals greatly
influence pricing. For example, the values of the nonprofit might
be to serve as many people as possible, including by not charging
for fees or by charging very low prices. Or, for example, if the
nonprofit really wants to get into a new market, then it might
charge lower than usual prices in order to generate more clients
who buy the service. The nonprofit might consider changing pricing
if the demand for its services are very high or low. Competitor
pricing also has a great effect. If competitors are charging much
less, then the nonprofit might do well to lower prices. Similarly,
if the competitor is charging much more, then the nonprofit might
consider increasing its own prices. (For assistance, see Pricing.)

Write Your Sales Plan

7. In the Framework for Basic Nonprofit Marketing and Promotions
Plan, fill in the sales plan. Regarding your sales planning,
consider: What target markets will be approached? What should
be your sales method for each target market, for example, who
will make initial contacts to generate leads, do follow-ups to
initial contacts, make presentations and close sales? How much
do you expect to accomplish in sales (consider terms of outputs,
such as dollars made, clients recruited, or other units of service).
(For assistance, see Understanding the Sales Process..)

Write Your Advertising and Promotions Plan

8. In the Framework for Basic Nonprofit Marketing and Promotions
Plan, fill in the advertising and promotions plan. The plan
includes what target markets you want to reach, what features
and benefits you want to convey to each of them, what methods
and media you will use to convey it to them, who is responsible
to implement the methods and how much money is budgeted for this
effort. The plan includes plans for a promotional campaign, including
an advertising calendar and media plan. The goals of the plans
should depend very much on the overall goals and strategies of
the organization, and the results of the marketing analysis, including
the positioning statement.

When selecting methods, consider what communications methods
and media will be most effective in reaching target markets (groups
of clients) and when. What are their preferences for media and
when do they use them? (The link Basic Methods to Get Feedback from Customers
might be helpful now.) Consider, for example, radio, newsletters,
classifieds, displays/signs, posters, word of mouth, press releases,
direct mail, special events, brochures, neighborhood newsletters,
etc. What media is most practical for you to use in terms of access
and affordability? (The link Major Methods of Advertising and Promotion
might be helpful now.)

(For additional assistance, see Advertising and Promotion .)

Conduct Your Customer Service Planning

9. In the Framework for Basic Nonprofit Marketing and Promotions
Plan, fill in the customer service plan. When considering
how you will ensure strong services to clients, consider: Are
clients very satisfied with your services? How do you know? If
not, what can you do to improve customer service? How can you
do that? What policies and procedures are needed to ensure strong
customer service. Include training in your considerations, including
to develop skills in interpersonal relations, such as questioning,
listening, handling difficult people, handling interpersonal conflicts,
negotiating. (For assistance, see Customer Service, Basic Methods to Get Feedback from Customers,
Questioning, Listening, Handling Interpersonal Conflict, Handling Difficult People and Negotiating.)

Conduct Your Production Planning

10. In the Framework for Basic Nonprofit Marketing and Promotions
Plan, fill in section about production planning. Note that
the development and implementation of various production methods
do not have to be addressed in detail in a marketing plan — these
topics are usually included in the operations or management planning
for the program. However, production should be generally considered
during the marketing analysis to ensure the eventual detailed
production planning takes into consideration the needs of target
markets and having their needs met on time. Consider: What resources
do you need to build, reproduce and provide the service? How do
you know? Will you have sufficient resources into the near future?
How do you know?

Conduct Your Distribution Planning

11. In the Framework for Basic Nonprofit Marketing and Promotions
Plan, fill in section about distribution planning. Matters
of distribution of service can be critical for a nonprofit, especially
if they are providing critically needed services to specific groups
of clients. For example, low-income clients may not be able to
afford transportation to other areas to receive your services.

Carefully consider: What distribution channels should you consider,
for example, should clients come to your facility, you visit their
offices, can you provide services over the telephone, etc? What
resources are needed to bring together your services and your
target markets? What major steps need to occur to accomplish these
distribution channels? (The link Distribution may help you.)

Note that detailed planning about developing and maintaining
distribution channels is often included in the operations or management
plans, rather than in the marketing plan. However, the marketing
analysis should focus on selecting the methods of distribution
that best meet the needs of target markets and the nonprofit.

Designing Your Program Budgets

Update Program Budgets from Your Operating Budget

1. Design a budget for each of your programs. If you completed
Module 6: Developing Your Strategic Plan,
then you already have started basic budgets for each of your programs.
Update those budgets with results from completing this module
on program design and marketing. Consider expenses of advertising
and promotions, production, distribution and customer service.
Also consider any updates to expected revenues as a result of
any changes in your pricing policy and as a result of your sales
goals in your sales plan.

ASSESSMENTS

1. 7
Ways to Evaluate Your Marketing Programs

2. How
Do You Evaluate a Marketing Plan?

3. Evaluating
Advertising and Promotions Efforts

4. Evaluating
Sales Efforts

TRACKING OPEN ACTION ITEMS

Reminders About You

1. Are you exchanging feedback with others about what you’re
learning in this program? If not, you really should be thinking
a lot more seriously about this — adults learn by doing something
with new information and then exchanging feedback about it.

2. Are you sticking to your study schedule for this program?

3. Are you practicing your basic skills in management and leadership,
including in problem solving and decision making, planning and
meeting management?

4. Are you communicating throughout your organization by using
your skills in internal communications?

5. Are you managing yourself? How many hours a week are you
working? Are you noticing any signs of stress? If so, what are
you doing about it?

6. One of the ways you might be able to tell if you’re stressed
out and/or losing perspective might be whether you’re tracking
details or not. Are you using the action item list referenced
above?

7. Are you reflecting on learnings from past modules and how they build on the learning
in this module? For example, are you seeing your organization from a systems view,
as explained in the module “Starting and Understanding Your Nonprofit?”

Reminders About Your Nonprofit

1. Now that you’ve given more thought to the design and marketing
of your programs, go back to your strategic plan and update the
plans about programs, staffing and operating plans.

TRACKING OPEN ACTION ITEMS

2. If you have questions, consider posing them in the national,
free, online discussion group hr.com, which is attended
by many human resource and organization development experts.

(Learners in the nonprofit organization development
program can return to the nonprofit organization development program.)

For the Category of Marketing:

To round out your knowledge of this Library topic, you may
want to review some related topics, available from the link below.
Each of the related topics includes free, online resources.

Also, scan the Recommended Books listed below. They have been
selected for their relevance and highly practical nature.

Related Library Topics

Recommended Books

January 18, 2022March 24, 2023

Framework for Basic Nonprofit Marketing and Promotions Plan

Framework for Basic Nonprofit Marketing and Promotions Plan

(including plans for public and media relations, sales, advertising
and promoting, and customer service)

Description

The following framework will guide you through completion of a basic nonprofit
marketing and promotions plan. Associated plans include public and media relations
plan, sales plan, and advertising and promotions plan.

NOTE: The framework depicts a useful format, but should be duplicated into
an editable version, for example, into Microsoft Word.

Guidelines are provided to fill in the section and links to additional resources
are provided.

Readers are encouraged to work with a planning team in their
organization to fill in this framework. After completing this
framework, readers can move information from the framework to
a more suitable document to be the final version of the plan document,
if desired.

Also consider
Related Library Topics

[NAME OF YOUR NONPROFIT ORGANIZATION!]

MARKETING AND PROMOTIONS PLAN

[date!]

TABLE OF CONTENTS

MARKETING AND PROMOTION OF ORGANIZATION

Public Relations Plan

Media Plan

MARKETING AND PROMOTIONS OF EACH PROGRAMS/SERVICE

Description of Service

Target Markets and Client Profiles

Competitor Analysis

Collaborator/Partner Analysis

Pricing Analysis

Sales Plan

Advertising and Promotions Plan

Production Planning

Distribution Planning

Customer Service Plan

EVALUATION OF PLAN

GOALS, RESPONSIBILITIES, TIMELINES AND BUDGET

=======

MARKETING AND PROMOTIONS OF ORGANIZATION

=======

Public Relations Plan

(For additional assistance, see Managing
Your Public Image (Public Relations).)

Mission Statement

Portrays the basic purpose of our organization, the groups of clients that
it services and generally how it serves them. The mission statement should be
referenced when designing and implementing the marketing and promotions plan.
(For assistance, see Basics
in Developing a Mission Statement.)

Positioning Statement

Portrays the unique role of our nonprofit and how it fills that role. The
statement depicts how we want others to view our nonprofit. This statement is
the essence of how we want the media, and others, to recognize our organization.
The statement is the basis for wording used in ads and other methods of promotion.
(For assistance, see Positioning.)

Script for Representing Our Nonprofit to External Stakeholders

Portrays key points to make when representing the nonprofit to external
groups. The script is referenced by key personnel (board members, chief executive,
etc.) to represent the nonprofit to external stakeholders, for example, funders/investors,
reporters,

Stakeholders, Messages and Methods (Media Plan and Calendar)
Consider the major stakeholders for your nonprofit, for example, employees,
volunteers, board members, funders/investors, reporters, collaborators, associations,
etc. Consider what you’d like each stakeholder to think of your nonprofit. What
media do they read and listen to and when? What media is most practical for
you to use in terms of access and affordability? The following link might be
useful to you in this activity: Major
Methods of Advertising and Promotion.

Stakeholder
Group

Message
to
Convey
(consider what’s
important to them)

Method

When
to Use
Method

Additional thoughts/comments and any actions we should take:
What do we need to do to make the above happen? What major steps must occur?
What must be developed? Who should be contacted? What resources might you need?

Actions in this area should be worded as specific goals
and organized into the section “Goals, Responsibilities …”
later in this plan. That section includes goals, responsibilities,
dates for completion and the budgeted amount to achieve the goals.

Media Relations

(For assistance, see Managing
Media Relations.)

Procedure for Managing Media Contacts

The following procedure will be used for all calls from and to reporters, or
other contacts with the media, including, for example: newspapers, magazines,
television, radio, etc.

Preferred Media and Contacts

The following media and contacts are preferred when promoting
our organization. These media (newspapers, television, radio,
etc.) and contacts have been used in the past, understand our
organization and our marketplace, etc.

Actions in this area should be worded as specific goals and organized into
the section “Goals, Responsibilities …” later in this plan. That
section includes goals, responsibilities, dates for completion and the budgeted
amount to achieve the goals.

=======

MARKETING AND PROMOTIONS OF SERVICES

=======

You should consider addressing the following subsections
in this overall section for each of your programs and/or major
services.

Description of Service

The overall goals of the organization very much determine
whom you want to serve and the nature of the service to serve
them. For example, strategic goals might be to expand the number
of clients you have now, get new clients, get more revenue from
current clients, etc. You may want to develop new services in
a current or new market, or expand current services in a current
or new market.

Describe your service. The description should be written as if your clients
are the readers. In the description, include the specific groups of clients
served by the service, nature of the method(s) in the service, outcomes for
clients and any other benefits to them, and where they should go next if they
are interested in using the service. Be careful to describe the services in
terms of benefits to clients, not to you. For example, address pricing, convenience,
location, quality, service, atmosphere, etc.

Any additional thoughts/comments about the service description:

Target Markets and Client Profiles

(For assistance, see How to Identify a Target Market and Prepare a
Customer Profile.)

Target markets are the specific groups of people whom you
want to benefit with your service. The target markets are determined
by your program goals, outcomes and strategies. At this point,
it may help to reference your completed Framework
for Basic Nonprofit Program Structural Design. For example:

Example Program Goal 1: Support at least 600 drop-outs from Minneapolis
high schools to obtain diplomas or equivalent levels of certification
Example Outcome 1.1 — Drop-outs from Minneapolis high schools obtain
high school diplomas or equivalent levels of certification
Example Outcome 1.2 — Within three months after getting certification,
participants obtain at least half-time employment or enroll in an accredited
program to further their education
Example Program Strategy/Service 1.1 — Conduct high-school equivalency
training programs to drop-outs from Minneapolis high schools
Example Program Strategy/Service 1.2 — Provide free transportation to
enrollees in the program
Example Program Strategy/Service 1.3 — Provide subsidized child care
to enrollees in the program

Target Markets	Primary Benefits to Them
Target Market 1 (Optional: Goals ____, Strategies ____ ) \| \| \|

Profiles of Your Target Markets
(Client Profiles)
The more you know about your clients, the better you might
be at serving them. At this point, write down a customer profile,
or description of each of the groups of clients (or target markets).
Consider, for example, their major needs, how they prefer to have
their needs met, where they are and where they prefer to have
their needs met and demographics information (their age ranges,
family arrangement, education levels, income levels, typical occupations,
major interested, etc).

Target Market #1: ____
Make copies of this section as needed for your number of target markets
Actions in this area should be worded as specific goals and organized
into the section “Goals, Responsibilities …” later in this plan.
That section includes goals, responsibilities, dates for completion and the
budgeted amount to achieve the goals.

Competitor Analysis

(For assistance, see Competitive
Analysis.)

Name of competitor’s organization

Name of their service

Common markets that we serve

Benefits of their product/service

Comparison of their pricing and ours

Strengths of their product/service

Weaknesses product/service

How our product/service compares

Additional thoughts/comments and any resulting actions we should take:
How do you plan to compete, for example, offer better quality services, lower
prices, more support, easier access to services etc?

Actions in this area should be worded as specific goals and organized into
the section “Goals, Responsibilities …” later in this plan. That
section includes goals, responsibilities, dates for completion and the budgeted
amount to achieve the goals.

Collaborator/Partner Analysis

(For assistance, see Organizational
Alliances.)

Name of potential collaborator’s organization

Name of their product/service

Common markets that we serve

Similarities between our product/service

Potential areas of collaboration

Advantages of collaboration

Disadvantages of collaboration

Additional thoughts/comments and any resulting actions we should take:
What can you do next to initiate consideration of collaboration with other
nonprofits? What needs to happen next? Who needs to be involved? What resources
do you need?

Actions in this area should be worded as specific goals and organized into
the section “Goals, Responsibilities …” later in this plan. That
section includes goals, responsibilities, dates for completion and the budgeted
amount to achieve the goals.

Pricing Analysis

(For assistance, see Pricing.)

What’s the current fee for the product/service?

How much is it costing us to provide this product/service?

Are we recovering our costs to produce and provide the product/service?

Is the current price affordable to customers?

Is our pricing competitive?

What should be the pricing structure that we use for this product/service (for
example, deferred payments, installment payments, etc.)?

Additional thoughts/comments and any resulting actions we should take:
What do we need to do to make that happen? What major steps must occur? What
must be developed? Who should be contacted? What resources might you need?

Actions in this area should be worded as specific goals and organized into
the section “Goals, Responsibilities …” later in this plan. That
section includes goals, responsibilities, dates for completion and the budgeted
amount to achieve the goals.

Sales Plan

(For assistance, see Sales.)

Target Markets

Sales Methods

to Generate Leads,
Follow-Ups,
Presentations and
Closing Sales

Sales Goals

(number of contracts
and/or dollars in revenue
and/or other units?)

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Sales Plan (Cont.)

Additional thoughts/comments and any resulting actions we should
take:
Consider: What do we need to do to make the sales methods and
goals happen? What major steps must occur? What must be developed?
Who should be contacted? What resources might you need? Should
staff attend sales training?

Actions in this area should be worded as specific goals and organized into
the section “Goals, Responsibilities …” later in this plan. That
section includes goals, responsibilities, dates for completion and the budgeted
amount to achieve the goals.

Advertising and Promotions Plan

The plan includes what target markets you want to reach,
what features and benefits you want to convey to each of them,
what methods and media you will use to convey it to them, who
is responsible to implement the methods and how much money is
budgeted for this effort. The plan often includes plans for a
promotional campaign, including an advertising calendar and media
plan. The goals of the plans should depend very much on the overall
goals and strategies of the organization, and the results of the
marketing analysis, including the positioning statement.

When selecting methods, consider what communications methods
and media will be most effective in reaching target markets (groups
of clients) and when. What are their preferences for media and
when do they use them? (The link Basic
Methods to Get Customer Feedback might be helpful now.) Consider,
for example, radio, newsletters, classifieds, displays/signs,
posters, word of mouth, press releases, direct mail, special events,
brochures, neighborhood newsletters, etc. What media is most practical
for you to use in terms of access and affordability? (The link
Major
Methods of Advertising and Promotion might be helpful now.)

(For additional assistance, see Advertising
and Promotion and Planning
your Advertising.

Markets, Messages and Methods (Media Plan and Calendar)

What do you want your target markets to think about your service? What media
do they read and listen to and when? What media is most practical for you to
use in terms of access and affordability? The following link may be helpful
to you when completing the following table: Major
Methods of Advertising and Promotion.

Target
Market
(customer group)

Message
to Convey
(“What’s in it for customer?”)

Method
to Convey It

When
to Use
Method

Additional thoughts/comments and any resulting actions we should take:
What do you need to do to make the above happen? What resources are needed
to accomplish the methods? Who is responsible to implement the methods?

Actions in this area should be worded as specific goals and organized into
the section “Goals, Responsibilities …” later in this plan. That
section includes goals, responsibilities, dates for completion and the budgeted
amount to achieve the goals.

Production Planning

Production includes the resources and processes needed to
continue to develop the service to meet the demands of the clients.
Note that the development and implementation of various production
methods do not have to be addressed in detail in a marketing plan
— these topics are usually included in the operations or management
planning for the program. However, production should be generally
considered during the marketing analysis to ensure the eventual
detailed production planning takes into consideration the needs
of target markets and having their needs met on time.

Will services be produced in time to meet current needs of the target markets?

Will services be produced in time to meet future needs of the target markets
(for example, over the next three years)? What’s needed to ensure the future
needs are met?

What major resources and activities will be needed in the near future?

Additional thoughts/comments and any resulting actions we should take:
What do we need to do to make the above happen? What major steps must occur?
What must be developed? Who should be contacted? What resources might you need?

Actions in this area should be worded as specific goals and organized into
the section “Goals, Responsibilities …” later in this plan. That
section includes goals, responsibilities, dates for completion and the budgeted
amount to achieve the goals.

Distribution Planning

(For assistance, see Distribution
Channels.)
Distribution includes the resources and activities required to
bring your product/service together with the client in order to
benefit from it. Matters of distribution of service can be critical
for nonprofits, especially if they are providing critically needed
services to specific groups of clients. For example, low-income
clients may not be able to afford transportation to other areas
to receive your services. (The link Distribution
may help you.)

What is the best means to distribute the service to clients?
(Consider, for example, should clients come to your facility? You go to them?
Are there other means, for example, services over the phone?)

Customer Service Plan

(For assistance, see Customer
Service.)

When considering how you will ensure strong services to
clients, consider: Are clients very satisfied with your services?
How do you know? If not, what can you do to improve customer service?
How can you do that? What policies and procedures are needed to
ensure strong customer service. Include training in your considerations,
including to develop skills in interpersonal relations, such as
questioning, listening, handling difficult people, handling interpersonal
conflicts, negotiating. (For assistance, see Customer
Service, Basic
Methods to Get Customer Feedback, Questioning,
Listening,
Handling
Interpersonal Conflict, Handling
Difficult People and Negotiating.)

Are clients highly satisfied with the service and how do you know?
(This section might include references to other reports, eg, program evaluations,
etc.)

What should we be doing to ensure that clients are highly satisfied?
(Consider policies and procedures, staff training, scheduled evaluations,
basic forms of market research, etc.)

Actions in this area should be worded as specific goals and organized into
the section “Goals, Responsibilities …” later in this plan. That
section includes goals, responsibilities, dates for completion and the budgeted
amount to achieve the goals.

======= MONITORING AND EVALUATION OF PLAN ============
Responsibilities and Frequencies for Monitoring and Evaluation

Plan’s section, goals, etc.	Completion date	Respon- sibility	Written description of results to:
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Key Questions While Monitoring Implementation of the Plan

The following questions should be modified to suit the nature
and needs of the organization.

Monitoring and evaluation activities will consider the following
questions:

1. Are goals and objectives being achieved or not? If they
are, then acknowledge, reward and communicate the progress. If
not, then consider the following questions.

2. Will the goals be achieved according to the timelines specified
in the plan? If not, then why?

3. Should the deadlines for completion be changed (be careful
about making these changes — know why efforts are behind schedule
before times are changed)?

4. Do personnel have adequate resources (money, equipment,
facilities, training, etc.) to achieve the goals?

5. Are the goals and objectives still realistic?

6. Should priorities be changed to put more focus on achieving
the goals?

7. Should the goals be changed (be careful about making these
changes — know why efforts are not achieving the goals before
changing the goals)?

8. What can be learned from our monitoring and evaluation in
order to improve future planning activities and also to improve
future monitoring and evaluation efforts?

Additional questions:

Reporting Status of Implementation

Results of monitoring and evaluation will be in writing, and
will include:

1. Answers to the “Key Questions While Monitoring Implementation
of the Plan”

2. Trends regarding the progress (or lack thereof) toward goals,
including which goals and objectives

3. Recommendations about the status

4. Any actions needed by management

Procedure for Changing the Plan

Regarding any changes to the plan, write down answers to the
questions:

1. What is causing changes to be made?

2. Why the changes should be made (the “why” is often
different than “what is causing” the changes).

3. What specific changes should be made, including to goals,
objectives, responsibilities and timelines?

Reminders:
Manage the various versions of the plan (including by putting
a new date on each new version of the plan).

Always keep old copies of the plan.

======

GOALS, RESPONSIBILITIES, TIMELINES AND BUDGETS

======

As much as possible, goals should be specified to be “SMARTER”,
that is, specific, measurable, acceptable to those people working to achieve
the goal, realistic, timely, extending the capabilities of those working to
achieve the goals and rewarding to them, as well.

Goal	Respon- sibility	Comple tion Date	Budget for Goal
====== MARKETING AND PROMOTING ORGANIZATION =========== Public and Media Relations Plan:
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==== MARKETING AND PROMOTING PRODUCTS AND SERVICES === Description of Product or Service:
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*Target Market and Benefits:*
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*Competitive Analysis:*
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*Collaborator Analysis:*
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*Pricing Analysis and Policy:*
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*Advertising and* *Promotion Plan:*
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*Production Planning:*
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*Distribution Planning:*
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*Sales Plan:*
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*Customer Service Plan:*
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For the Category of Marketing:

To round out your knowledge of this Library topic, you may
want to review some related topics, available from the link below.
Each of the related topics includes free, online resources.

Also, scan the Recommended Books listed below. They have been
selected for their relevance and highly practical nature.

Related Library Topics

Recommended Books

January 18, 2022February 15, 2023

Basic Skills in Nonprofit Management and Leadership

Focused colleagues brainstorming in boardroom

Free Nonprofit Micro-eMBA Module #4: Basic Skills in Management and Leadership

© Copyright Carter McNamara, MBA, PhD, Authenticity Consulting, LLC.
Much of the content of this module came from the guidebook, Field Guide to Leadership and Supervision for Nonprofit Staff.
(This learning module is in the nonprofit organization development program. However, this module can also be used by anyone as a self-study exercise to learn more about nonprofit management and leadership skills.)

Sections of This Module Include the Following

Introduction
Outcomes
Materials for Review
Suggested Topics for Reflection and Discussion
Activities to Build Systems and Practices
Assessments
Tracking Open Action Items

INTRODUCTION

In new businesses, “management” is often considered “whatever needs to be done just to keep things afloat”. However, for your business to grow and remain healthy, you must master certain basic skills in management and leadership — skills that will help you avoid the crisis situations where you have to do “whatever it takes to stay afloat”. The basic skills include problem solving and decision making, planning,
meeting management, delegation, communications and managing yourself.

Those basics are also the foundation from which to develop more advanced practices in management and leadership. When organizational personnel struggle, it’s often because they’ve forgotten the basics
— not because they aren’t implementing state-of-the-art techniques in management and leadership.

NOTE ABOUT THE LARGE SIZE OF THIS MODULE: This module references numerous basic skills that leaders and managers must master in order to be effective in their organizations and their lives. These skills can be practiced throughout this program and in other areas of learners’ lives. Readers who are interested in gaining broader contexts of management and leadership can review optional readings suggested in the “Materials for Review” section below.

NOTE ABOUT ORDER OF MODULES: Therefore, it is common to start management training programs with an overview of the board of directors (if the program includes focus on corporations, which are governed by boards of directors) — the board of directors is legally charged to govern a corporation. However, in this program, this learning module about basic skills in management and leadership is presented before the learning module about boards of directors. The reason for this order of modules is as follows. Frequently businesses are started by someone with a strong vision for a new product. That person often goes on to become the first chief executive of the new business. Typically, that person also takes a very strong role (often the leading role) in the initial organization and development of the board of directors. Therefore, modules in this program are organized to help the founder (and often the first chief executive) to effectively apply basic skills in management and leadership when organizing the board of directors.

NOTE ABOUT LEARNING SUPERVISION — Supervision is a major aspect of managing and leading. There are certain roles and responsibilities — and experiences — that are highly unique to the role of supervision and highly critical to the success of the organization. Therefore, the topic of staffing and supervision will also be addressed in an upcoming module in this program.

Also consider
Related Library Topics

OUTCOMES

Gain Basic Skills in:

Problem Solving and Decision Making
Planning
Delegation
Internal Communications
Meeting Management
Managing Yourself

Optional:

Review Advanced Topics in Management and Leadership
Design Your Management and Leadership Development Plans

MATERIALS FOR REVIEW

The following materials will help you address each of the topics and learning activities in this module.
NOTE: Several of the following materials for review are sections of a larger document, Basic Guide to Leadership and Supervision. An upcoming learning module “Staffing and Supervision of Employees” also references various sections of that document. Therefore, the reader might best benefit from printing that document for ongoing reference during this module and the upcoming module about supervision.

Basic Skills in Management and Leadership

Read Basic Guide to Leadership and Supervision — specifically the sections:

Introduction to Management and Supervision

What is “Management”? What do Managers Do? (don’t have to follow links out)

Core Skills in Management and Supervision

You don’t have to follow links out of the following sections:

Optional Readings — Broad Context of Management

Management (an Introduction) — particularly the sections:

Optional Readings — Broad Context of Leadership

Leadership
— particularly the sections:
How to Lead Yourself

Problem Solving and Decision Making

For assistance in answering the following questions, see Problem Solving and Decision Making.

1. What are the seven steps to problem solving and decision making (as presented in your materials for review)? Describe what occurs in each step.

2. How do you typically solve problems? Do you have a standardized way of solving problems, that is, a method that you use? How do you know that your approach is effective?

3. Think of several major problems that you faced over the past three months. Where did you struggle when solving the problem?

4. As your business grows, the types of problems that you’ll face will become more demanding and complex. What can you do to be more careful about how you will solve problems and make decisions?

5. What problems might you foresee in applying the seven steps presented in your materials for review?

Basics of Planning

For assistance in answering the following questions, see Planning.

1. Describe each of the following terms: Goals. Objectives. Strategies. Resources. Budgets.

2. What are the eight steps in the typical, basic planning process (as presented in your materials for review)?

3. Who should be involved in planning a particular effort?

4. What does the acronym “SMARTER” stand for, that is, what does each letter represent?

5. How can you build in accountability to your planning processes?

6. What should be evaluated when evaluating a planning process?

7. Where is the “real treasure” during planning? HINT: Fill in the blank “the real treasure of planning is
the planning _ _ _ _ _ _ “.

8. What is the frequently missing step in the planning process?

Delegation

For assistance in answering the following questions, see Effective Delegation.

1. What is delegation?

2. What are some benefits of delegation?

3. Why is it sometimes difficult for managers to learn to delegate?

4. What are the nine steps to delegation (as listed in your materials for review)?

5. What might you foresee as your biggest challenge to learning how to delegate? Delegation is a critical skill in the effective management of organizations. What can you do to start overcoming these challenge(s)?

Basics of Internal Communications

For assistance in answering the following questions, see Basics of Internal Communications.

1. What should be included in status reports (according to the materials for review)? How often should status reports be shared and with whom? Your wishes may disagree with those asserted in the materials for review. That’s fine — just be able to specify your own terms for status reports, including what’s in them, how often they are shared with whom.

2. What might you include in regular monthly meetings with all of your employees in attendance? Do you agree that you should have regular meetings with all employees in attendance? If not, then how will you really ensure that employees are aware of activities in the organization? Do they know now? Are you really sure? Seriously consider holding regular meetings. These meetings can go a long way toward building a strong sense of community and ensuring effective communications throughout the organization.

3. How do you ensure that all key employees are aware of important information and activities in the organization? As noted in the materials for review, new managers and supervisors often assume that everyone else knows what they know. This is a mistake. Seriously consider holding regular meetings with key staff. Don’t just rely on good intentions to communicate or “working harder to communicate”. Actually make some changes in policies and procedures to ensure effective communications.

Meeting Management

For assistance in answering the following questions, see Meeting Management.

1. How can you ensure that the right people are included in your meetings?

2. What’s the best way to design an agenda (according to the materials for review)?

3. What kinds of activities should be included in the opening of a meeting?

4. What is the purpose of ground rules for a meeting. How can they be developed?

5. What are some ideas to ensure that meeting time is managed as effectively as possible?

6. How can you evaluate the meeting process? How can you evaluate results of the overall meeting process?

7. What activities are including when closing a meeting?

8. What challenges do you see in implementing the meeting-management recommendations in the materials for review? What do you dislike about meetings? What do you like? What are you hearing from others about the quality of the meetings in your organization? What can you do to make your meetings more effective?

Managing and Leading Yourself

For assistance in answering the following questions, see Managing Yourself.

1. Why is the role of first-time manager and/or supervisor so stressful sometimes?

2. How many hours a week are you working now? Is that a problem? What do those nearest to you think about the number of hours that you’re working? How many hours a week do you think you should work on average? What is the largest number of hours that you should work in a week? The number of hours that you work in a week can be a clear indicator of current or oncoming problems in your stress level and effectiveness as a manager. What measures can you take to ensure that you don’t get so consumed by your job that you lose perspective and ultimately lose your overall effectiveness as a manager? Strongly consider involving someone else in helping to determine the total number of hours that you will work in a week.

3. How do you know if you’re stressed? What are the signs? Does anyone else in your life and/or your work know to look for those signs?

4. How might you recruit a mentor or coach? Think about this question very seriously. Having a mentor or coach can be the single, most effective measure you can take to ensure that you manage yourself and your job in a highly effective manner.

5. What’s the difference between matters that are urgent and those that are important? What should be your approach to handling each of these two types of issues? What advice is given in the materials for review regarding these two types of issues?

Optional Readings — Broad Contexts of Management and Leadership

1. Give brief definitions for the following terms (compare the terms with each other, noting how they are similar and different): Board of Directors. Executives. Managers. Leaders. Supervisors. (See Basics — Definitions (and Misinterpretations) in Management.)

2. What does the term “management” mean (include in your answer, the four major functions of management)? (See Basics — Definitions (and Misinterpretations) in Management.)

3. Briefly describe each of the following four management functions: Planning. Organizing. Leading. Coordinating (or controlling) activities. Of course, these functions are not carried out apart from each other — they’re highly integrated. (See Basics — Definitions (and Misinterpretations) in Management.)

4. New managers and leaders often struggle to find the one, best way to manage and lead. Over time, they realize the “best way” depends very much on the situation, for example, the life cycle of the organization, the specific nature and needs of the organization — and their own nature and needs, as well. A very basic understanding of theories and styles of management and leadership can help greatly when finding the “best way”. Very briefly, what is the contingency theory of management? Systems theory? Chaos theory? What are some of the major styles of management? What is the importance of knowing the life cycle of an organization when leading and managing an organization? (See Contemporary Theories in Management, Conventional Styles of Leadership and Life Cycles of Organizations.)

5. Many management experts believe that we’re coming into a “new paradigm”. What is this new paradigm? (See New Paradigm in Management)

6. What is the argument that some people put forth to explain their view that managing and leading are different? What do you think? (See Views That Leading is Different Than Managing.)

7. By now, you might consider your own definition of “What is leading (in an organizational setting)?” Consider in your answer, setting direction for others and influencing others to follow that direction. (See Definitions of Leadership.)

ACTIVITIES TO BUILD SYSTEMS AND PRACTICES

Learners are strongly encouraged to complete the following activities, and share and discuss results with peers, board members, management and employees, as appropriate.
As you proceed through the following activities, be sure to note any incomplete actions in the Action Item Planning List.

Developing Your Basics Skills in Management and Leadership

1. Conduct the following activities with each of the following practices: problem solving and decision making, planning, delegating, internal communications and meeting management.
a) Develop a basic procedure that is customized to your chosen approach to carrying out the practice, While developing your procedure, seriously consider the advice and guidelines provided in the materials for review regarding that practice.
b) Test your procedure by applying it to a current major effort in your organization or your life. What problems did you encounter? Does the procedure need to be updated?
c) Share the procedure with a friend and ask for their feedback.

d) Update the procedure as a result of your testing and feedback.
e) Communicate the procedure throughout your organization, as appropriate.
(For assistance, see Problem Solving and Decision Making, Planning, Effective Delegation, Basics of Internal Communications and Meeting Management.)

Learning to Manage and Lead Yourself

1. Design a personalized stress management plan. In the plan, include description of:
a) The signs that indicate that you’re overly stressed. Include the number of hours that you want to average in work per week.

b) How you will ensure that you notice each of the signs.
c) How you will conclude whether you need to make changes in your work and life styles.
d) Where you will go for help.
e) At least one friend and ask them to check in with you every two weeks to see how you’re doing. You might suggest that they do the same plan and you can reciprocate by helping them, as well.

(For additional assistance, see Managing Yourself and Leading Yourself.)

2. Consider getting a mentor or a coach. (See Getting a Mentor or Hiring a Coach and Getting Coached.)

3. Name at least three sources for networking and/or support for you, for example, a network of friends, association, club, etc. Do you feel comfortable turning to these sources when you need help? If not, contact at least one source that you feel comfortable approaching when you’re, for example, in need of suggestions for resources, feeling burned out, etc.

Optional — Management Development Planning

1. You can learn a great deal about management by using a wide variety of informal methods. The following link is to many suggestions and materials you can use for informal training.
Ideas for Activities to Learn About Management.

2. Usually, the most effective way to learn a topic or skill is through use of a formal training plan. The following link is to a detailed procedure and materials you can use to develop your own highly customized management development plan. The procedure includes use of the assessments listed in the following section “Assessments”.
Customizing Your Own Management Development Plan.

Optional — Leadership Development Planning

1. You can learn a great deal about leadership by using a wide variety of informal methods. The following link is to many suggestions and materials you can use for informal training.
Ideas for Activities to Learn About Leadership.

ASSESSMENTS

Consider any or all of the following assessments as means to evaluate the extent of your management and leadership skills.

1. Various Needs Assessments to Help Identify Leadership Development Goals

2. Needs Assessments for Management Training and Development

TRACKING OPEN ACTION ITEMS

1. One of the first indicators that an organization or a person is struggling is that open action items are not tracked and reviewed. (Open action items are required actions that have not yet been completed.) Instead, people only see and react to the latest “fires” in their workplaces or their lives. Whether open action items are critical to address now or not, they should not entirely be forgotten. Therefore, update and regularly review a list of open action items (identified while proceeding through this program) that includes listing each open action item, who is responsible to complete it, when it should be completed and any associated comments. When updating the list, consider action items as identified during discussions, learning activities and assessments in this module. Share and regularly review this action item list with the appropriate peers, board, management and employees in your organization. You can use the following Action Item Planning List. (At that Web address, a box might open, asking you which software application to open the document.)

2. If you have questions, consider posing them in the national, free, online discussion group hr.com, which is attended by many human resource and organization development experts.

(Learners in the nonprofit organization development program can return to the nonprofit organization development program.)

For the Category of Management:

To round out your knowledge of this Library topic, you may want to review some related topics, available from the link below. Each of the related topics includes free, online resources.

Also, scan the Recommended Books listed below. They have been selected for their relevance and highly practical nature.

January 18, 2022September 20, 2022

How to Provide the Nonprofit Micro-eMBA Program for Nonprofits

Non profit written on a white background close to a note

Free Micro eMBA — How to Provide the Program for Nonprofits

You Can Provide Program with Little in Expertise
or Resources!

You have a wonderful opportunity to offer a very low-cost, “nuts
and bolts” development program to nonprofits in your area!
Offering the program will be much easier than you think. You’ll
read below about a very straightforward approach called “peer-training
groups” that you can use to design and carry out the program.
This approach requires little in expertise or resources from you.

First, we’ll review some basic considerations in offering any
management-related development program. Then we’ll review the
peer-training group approach that addresses many of the primary
considerations in offering a program.

Sections of This Document Include the Following

Primary Considerations in Setting Up
Any Development Program

How Peer-Training Groups Make It Easy
to Provide the Program

Regarding Verification and Certification
of Learning

Also consider
Related Library Topics

Primary
Considerations in Setting Up Any Development Program

There are some fairly standard considerations in setting
up and offering any management and organization development program.
You’ll need to think about the following primary considerations.
(Keep in mind that the peer-training process takes care of many
of these standard considerations for you!) They include:

What do you want to accomplish overall with your Free Nonprofit
Micro-eMBA program? Professional development? Organization development?
Networking? Complement another training program? Other(s)?
How will learners gain the necessary knowledge, skills and
abilities to achieve the outcomes that are preferred from the
program? Will learners listen to lectures? Do readings? Have
discussion? Other(s)?
What group(s) of learners will be in your program? New executive
directors? Experienced executive directors? Board members? Middle
managers? Volunteers? Other(s)?
How will learners be organized as they go through the program?
In groups/classes? On their own? As part of another program?
Other(s)?
In the case of an online program, will your learners have
consistent access to computers and the World Wide Web?
How will you evaluate the quality of the process in your
program? How will you identify what outcomes were achieved by
learners? How will you show evidence of that learning?
What expertise might you need to offer and support the program?
Subject-matter experts? Trainers? Evaluators? Advertisers?
How will you advertise your program and recruit learners?
Advertisements? Newsletters? Classifieds in newspapers? Direct
mail? Word of mouth? Other(s)?
What materials and facilities do you need? Training materials?
Classrooms? Parking spaces? Other(s)?
What costs are involved? Trainers? Subject-matter experts?
Facilities? Advertising?
What fee will you charge learners?
Where will you get help if needed?
What is involved in kicking off the program?

How Peer-Training Groups Make It Easy to Provide the Program

Peer-Training Incorporates State-of-the-Art Methods
of Adult Development

Adults learn best when they a) actually apply new
information and materials, and b) exchange ongoing feedback with
others around those experiences. Few traditional classroom conditions
support these ideal conditions for learning. In most cases, an
expert delivers the training and afterwards learners leave the
room, seldom to see each other again. Too often, training materials
sit on shelves collecting dust — learners never really apply
their new learning. This problem doesn’t happen in peer-training
groups!

The process in peer-training does provide ideal conditions
for learning. The peer-training process is based on the action
learning process, which is used across the world for personal,
professional and organizational development. The peer-training
process was developed by Carter McNamara of Authenticity
Consulting, LLC. Sponsors of the Free Nonprofit Micro-eMBA
can use the peer-training process to carry out the program in
a straightforward fashion that makes little use of high-priced
experts and facilities.

Before Peer-Training Begins, Sponsor Markets Program
and Recruits Learners

Before the peer-training process begins, the program sponsor
organizes learners to go through the program. This involves some
basic advertising and promoting about the program. How that marketing
is carried out depends very much on the nature and needs of the
sponsoring organizations and the locale in which the program is
being offered. The sponsor may find the program
flyer useful during the local advertising effort.

How the Peer-Training Process Works

Once the group of learners has been organized, here’s
generally how the peer-training process works. The following sequence
repeats itself for each topic in a program.

1. The sponsor provides training materials in regard to a certain
topic. (In this case, all of the materials are already completely
and available for free in the Free Nonprofit Micro-eMBA.)
2. Learners meet on a regular basis, for example, every two to
four weeks in three-hour meetings. Meetings are about three hours
long.
3. Between meetings, learners read the training materials in regard
to the topic.
4. Each meeting starts with some type of training activity, often
just a one-hour, open discussion about the particular topic that
the learners had just read about previous to coming to the meeting.
5. Immediately after the one-hour discussion period, learners
are organized into groups of 5-7 learners each to do a two-hour
peer-training circle (ideally, in separate rooms).
6. In their groups, learners share any materials that they brought
to share with other learners in their group, for example, policies,
plans, etc., that were developed from applying new information
and materials learned during the program
7. In each group meeting, each learner gets a specific amount
of time (a time slot of, eg, 20 minutes) to get help from other
members of the group. During their time slot, each learner addresses
five specific questions, including:
a) How did I apply the new information and materials gleaned from
the meeting of two to four weeks ago?
b) What did I learn from applying that information and materials?
(It’s highly suggested that the learner write down their
perceptions of their new learning.)
c) How do I plan to apply the new information and materials gleaned
from today’s meeting?
d) How can this group of peers help me apply the new information
and materials before the next meeting in two to fours weeks?
e) Are there any information and materials that I’d like my peers
to bring for me in the next meeting that we’ll have in two to
four weeks?
8. At the end of that meeting, each member evaluates the quality
of that meeting and specifies what could have been done to make
the meeting even better.
9. Between meetings, members apply the new information and materials
that were gleaned from the previous meeting.

Then steps 1-9 are repeated for each topic, or part of a topic
(see Suggested Number of Meetings Per
Learning Module), in the program.

Resources to Guide the Peer-Training Process

Sponsors can choose to implement the peer-training process
on their own, or they can obtain time-tested guidebooks which
give step-by-step instructions for organizing, facilitating and
evaluating peer-training groups. (The sponsor may want to pilot
a group or two of learners just to get the “feel” for
the peer-training process.)

Sponsors of the Free Nonprofit Micro-eMBA can obtain peer learning
guidebooks. Form peer learning circles for about $20 a person.
Go to Peer
Learning Guidebooks and see the Program Planning Kit to design
your complete peer learning program — then call us at 763-971-8890.

Suggested Number of Meetings Per Learning Module

The program’s learning modules vary in the amount of
materials to review and activities to conduct (in order to build
systems in the organization). Therefore, it may be prudent to
use more than one meeting to address certain modules (this is
in the case where the program sponsor has chosen to organize learners
together in meetings, eg, in peer-training groups). Note that
learners may choose to go through the program in an order other
than that specified in the catalog
of learning modules. That’s fine. Still, certain modules may
require more than one meeting of learners.

Note that the following are suggested — ultimately,
it’s up to the program sponsor and learners as to how many meetings
they want to have.

Learning Module	Suggested Number of Learner Meetings (see NOTES below)
Program Orientation	1
Starting and Understanding Your Nonprofit	1 about topics for reflection/discussion 1 about activities to build systems/practices
Understanding the Role of Chief Executive	1
Developing Your Basic Management and Leadership Skills	1 about topics for reflection/discussion 1 about activities to build systems/practices
Building and Supporting Your Board	1
Developing Your Strategic Planning	1 about topics for reflection/discussion 1 about activities to build systems/practices
Designing and Marketing Your Programs	1 about topics for reflection/discussion 1 about activities to build systems/practices
Managing Your Nonprofit’s Finances and Taxes	1
Developing Your Fundraising Plan	1
Supervising Your Employees and Volunteers	1 about topics for reflection/discussion 1 about activities to build systems/practices
Evaluating Your Programs and Services	1
Conducting Overall Final Fitness Test of Your Nonprofit	1

NOTES:

1. The above table suggests a total of 17 meetings in the program.
The number of meetings in the program ultimately depends on:
a) How many modules the learner (or the program) chooses to complete
b) The amount of time between meetings. The more time between
meetings, the more likely that learners could address a module
in one meeting.

2. The length of time to complete the program depends on:
a) The amount of time between meetings, for example, two to four
weeks.
b) How many modules that learner (or the program) chooses to complete.

Regarding Verification and Certification of Learning

Ultimately, It’s Up to the Program Sponsor/Provider to Determine

It’s up to the sponsoring organization to decide if the
program will include certification of learning, for example, a
diploma, “continuing education units” (CEU’s), certificate,
etc.

It’s ultimately up to the local sponsoring organization to
decide how any verification and certification of learning is to
occur. The sponsor is in the best position to collect and evaluate
the necessary information in order to verify extent of learning
and ultimately reward certification.

Learners in circles might consider from among the following
evaluation ideas to decide their approach to evaluating their
learning in the program. NOTE: Before and after every circle meeting,
learners will complete a Session Planner Form which has learners
answering the questions about their learning, as well.

Objective Criteria That Could Be Considered for Evaluation
of Learning

The following criteria apply to programs where learners
are organized into groups, for example, in the peer-training process.

Item/activity	Evaluator*	Passing Grade	Failing Grade
attendance	facilitator	· none or one absence	· absence from two or more meetings without visible effort to make up the missed meetings
documentation of learning	facilitator	· fully completed	· not completed
reflective document with summary of learning from the program	facilitator	· integration and synthesis of learning	· lack of integration and synthesis of learning
portfolio (collection of written results from the program)	facilitator	· complete	· not completed

*The evaluator may be an outside facilitator
or all learners, for example.

Subjective Criteria That Could Be Considered for Evaluation
of Learning

Item/activity	Evaluator**	Passing Grade	Failing Grade
quality of learner’s feedback in meetings	group feedback in final meeting	· sustained high quality and quantity of feedback · build on own and others’ strengths	· minimal feedback
quality of learner’s use of their time slots in meetings	group feedback in final meeting	· well-prepared explanation of current goal · helped the group to help them · overall: took charge of their learning	· obvious lack of preparation for meetings

**The evaluator may be an
outside facilitator or all learners, for example.

For the Category of Personal Development:

To round out your knowledge of this Library topic, you may want to review some related topics, available from the link below. Each of the related topics includes free, online resources.

Also, scan the Recommended Books listed below. They have been selected for their relevance and highly practical nature.

Related Library Topics

Recommended Books

January 18, 2022March 23, 2023

Basics in Developing Your Fundraising Plan

Fundraising plan text on a white background close to an opened book

Free Micro e-MBA Module #9: Basics in Developing Your Fundraising Plan

Some of this program is based on materials adapted from the Nonprofit Capacity Building Toolkit(SM).
This module is in the nonprofit organization development program. However, this module can also be used by anyone as a self-study exercise to learn more about nonprofit fundraising.

Sections of This Module Include the Following

Introduction
Outcomes
Materials for Review
Suggested Topics for Reflection and Discussion
Activities to Build Systems and Practices
Assessments
Tracking Open Action Items

INTRODUCTION

Raising funds to operate your organization and its programs is very likely one of the most important activities for your nonprofit. Many nonprofits obtain necessary monies from fees and sales (that is, from sources other than donations). However, if your nonprofit counts on donations, then this module will be very useful to you.

This module will guide you through basic considerations and activities that address the questions:

What is fundraising?
Are you ready for fundraising?
What are the standard sources and how are they approached?
What’s the board’s role in fundraising?
How is a proposal written?
How can fundraising software help me?
Should you use a fundraiser and/or grantwriter?
How can the Internet and Web help you with your fundraising?
How is the overall health of your nonprofit’s fundraising activities?

NOTE ABOUT PERSPECTIVES: As you’ll soon notice, there are many, major different aspects of nonprofit fundraising. There also are many specialists in most of the aspects. Thus, it’s not uncommon that there are very diverse, strong opinions about how fundraising should be done. This module aims to convey the basics and many of the “best practices” in fundraising. Many consultants might have different opinions about some of the perspectives in this module, but most would probably agree with most of the perspectives in this module.

NOTE ABOUT BOARD COMMITTEES: Consider establishing a Board Fundraising Committee to review and guide implementation of key information in this learning module. Major activities and goals from this learning module could be incorporated in that Committee’s
Committee Work Plan.

OUTCOMES

Learn Common Sources of Funding
Understand the Board’s Role in Fundraising
Assess if You’re Ready for Fundraising
Learn Who Should Ask for Money, How Much
Recognize Best Practices in Annual Appeals, Events, Major Gifts and Capital Campaigns
Learn Key Components of Grant Proposals
Draft Your Fundraising Plan
Evaluate Your Fundraising Practices

MATERIALS FOR REVIEW

The following materials will help you address each of the topics and learning activities in this module.

Fundraising Basics

1. What are at least 5 of the 9 aspects of an organization that should be known before doing fundraising, as asserted by the author in Know Your Organization?

2. What are at least 5 of the 9 truths that the author asserts in Nonprofit Fundraising Demystified?

3. What are at least 5 of the major 9 sources of funding described in Overview of Nonprofit Fundraising Sources and Approaches?

4. What are some of the advantages and disadvantages of getting funds from individuals? Foundations? Corporations? Government? (See Overview of Nonprofit Fundraising Sources and Approaches.)

5. If a fundraising campaign is to be successful with an individual, what are the 3 things we must do with the donor? (See Rating and Evaluating Prospects: Whom Do You Ask For How Much.)

Fundraising and the Law

1. The Form 990 asserts that nonprofits must register in each state they are to do fundraising, especially if their budgets are over how much?

Fundraising Leadership

1. What are 3 of the 4 strategies to get the Board involved in fundraising? (See Four Steps to Take Board Members from Fear of Fundraising to Enthusiasm.)

2. What are the 3 myths asserted by the author in Leadership: The Board’s “Mythunderstood” Role in Fundraising?

3. What is the role of the Board’s Fundraising Committee? (See Role of the Nonprofit Board Fundraising Committee.)

Development Staff

1. Who should ask for the money — the hired fundraiser or the Board and staff of the nonprofit? (See Asking For The Money Is The Job Of The Leadership And Friends…)

2. What are at least 2 of the reasons that the activities and responsibilities of fundraising and marketing should not be combined? (See Wearing Those Development and Marketing “Hats” at the Same Time.)

3. Should your nonprofit have a position of Director of Development? If so, should it be part-time or full-time? (See Does Your Organization Need a Director of Development?)

4. Should a Director of Development do fundraising to raise his/her salary? What? (See When The Development Officer Is Obliged To Raise Her Or His Own Salary.)

Grants: Foundation and Corporate

1. What are at least 4 of the 5 things that the author asserts you must describe in a grant proposal, in Grants: Free Money — Not Quite! (Part 1)?

2. What is the importance of reporting back to the funder? (See Grants: Free Money — Not Quite! (Part 2).)

3. What are at least 5 of the major components of a proposal? (See Proposal Writing Short Course.)

Special Events

1. What is a special event? What are at least 4 of the 6 criteria that the author asserts are needed in a special event, in What is a Special Event?

2. What was the major misunderstanding about special events as portrayed in Special Events — So Misunderstood?

3. When is a traditional gala, fancy auction event or cocktail party not the right choice, as asserted by the author in Events to Remember — Events to Forget?

Annual Funds (or Annual Campaign)

1. What is an annual fund or annual campaign? (See Annual Campaigns: Once A Year Every Year.)

2. What are at least 3 of the 4 goals of the campaign, as asserted by the author in Annual Campaigns: Once A Year Every Year?

3. What is the wrong message that the author asserts is too often made in annual funds, in The Annual Fund is Obsolete?

Major Gifts and Planned Giving

1. What are at least 3 of the 4 criteria that needs to be met to qualify as a “major gift,” as asserted by the author in What is a Major Gift?

2. When does the author say is the best time to ask for the money, in Asking For The Major Gift — Part 1 of 3?

3. What phrasing should never be used, as asserted by the author in Asking For The Major Gift — Part 2 of 3?

4. What is the right amount to ask for, as asserted by the author in Asking For The Major Gift — Part 3 of 3?

Capital Campaigns

1. What is a capital campaign? Capital Campaigns – Part #1: What They Are.)

2. What are the phases of a capital campaign? (See Phases of a Capital Campaign.)

3. What are at least 6 of the 12 issues that must be considered to assess if you’re ready for a capital campaign, as mentioned by the author in Capital Campaigns — Part #3: Are You Ready for a Capital Campaign?

Fundraising Online

1. What are 3 kinds of companies that help nonprofits do fundraising online?

2. What are at least 6 of the 10 things that nonprofits should think about if they’re going to do online fundraising? (See Online Fundraising: A Startup Guide.)

Donor Recognition

1. What is the best way to thank a donor?

2. What are at least 3 things that donors want to hear about how their money was spent?

Fundraising Planning (Tying It All Together)

1. What are 5 of the 6 steps to a Fundraising Plan?

Hiring Fundraisers and Paid Solicitors

1. What are 2 reasons why a grantwriter should not be hired based on a contingency fee, that is, based on how much money he or she will raise? (See Do’s and Don’t’s of Hiring a Grantwriter.)

2. What should you look for when hiring a fundraiser or grantwriter — what are at least 3 of the 5 reasons to hire a fundraising consultant? (See Hiring a Consultant: 12 Essential Tips.)

3. What are at least 5 benefits of hiring a fundraising consultant? (See Benefit of Hiring a Fundraising Consultant.)

ACTIVITIES TO BUILD SYSTEMS AND PRACTICES

Learners are strongly encouraged to complete the following activities, and share and discuss results with peers, board members, management and staff, as appropriate.
As you proceed through the following activities, be sure to note any incomplete actions in the Action Item Planning List.
Write down your answers to the following questions — those answers can be compiled into your Fundraising Plan.

1. Fundraising Preparation

1. Is your organization really ready for fundraising? How do you know?

2. How will the Board be involved? Remember that Board members should be very involved — it’s not just the CEO’s job to raise funds.

3. What will be the role of the Fundraising Committee?

4. Who else will be involved and how?

2. What Are Your Fundraising Goals? How Much Should You Ask For? By When?

1. How much money will your organization ask for? Is it for operating costs or a capital campaign? How did you determine this amount?

2. How much will go to programs, that is, to directly serving clients? How much will go to indirect costs, that is, to administrative overhead?

3. How much will the fundraising activities cost, for example, office supplies, if you hire a fundraising consultant, etc.?

4. By when will you need the money?

3. What Sources Will You Approach? How? When? Who Will Approach Them?

1. What specific funders will you approach and how? Among individuals? Foundations? Corporations? Government?

2. Who will approach each source? It should not just be the CEO who always takes the lead. Perhaps the Board members need to be trained about fundraising — who will do that training?

3. How will you approach each source? Remember that each might prefer to be approached differently — see their guidelines for solicitation. Also remember that startup nonprofits rarely receive grants — they usually get funding from individuals.

4. When will each source be approached?

4. Should You Hire a Fundraiser — and If So

1. Should you hire a fundraiser? If so, then why? If not, they why not?

2. If you decide to approach a fundraiser, what might he/she want to know about your organization?

3. If you hire a fundraiser, how should they be paid? How do you know?

5. How Will You Monitor That Donor Requirements Are Being Met?

1. Major funders, such as foundations and corporations and the government, will want reports about the status of meeting their requirements. How will you ensure those requirements are being met?

2. Who will provide regular reports to the donors?

3. Who will provide donor recognition letters or other forms of communication?

6. Fundraising Software

1. What software might you need to better manage your fundraising efforts? What must you consider when getting this software?

7. Draft Your Fundraising Plan

1. By now, you have already developed the basic components of a broad fundraising plan. You can compile your plan by collecting your answers to the above questions.

2. Obtain board approval of your fundraising plan. (If you have been working with a board committee to answer the questions and conduct the activities suggested in this module, then board approval should be fairly straightforward at this point.)

ASSESSMENTS

1. Answer the questions about “Fundraising Indicators” in the Checklist of Nonprofit Organizational Indicators. List an action plan to complete items suggested by the audit, but not done by your organization.

2. Also see Campaign Assessment and Review: What Was Accomplished and What Was Learned.

3. Also see Evaluating Your Fundraising Knowledge and Practices

REMINDERS FOR THOSE IN THE ON-LINE DEVELOPMENT PROGRAM

1. Are you exchanging feedback with others about what you’re learning in this program?

2. Are you sticking to your study schedule for this program?

3. Are you practicing your basic skills in management and leadership, including in problem solving and decision making, planning and meeting management?

4. Are you communicating throughout your organization by using your skills in internal communications?

5. Are you managing yourself? How many hours a week are you working? Are you noticing any signs of stress? If so, what are you doing about it?

6. One of the ways you might be able to tell if you’re stressed out and/or losing perspective might be whether you’re tracking details or not. Are you using the action item list referenced above?

7. Are you reflecting on learnings from past modules and how they build on the learning in this module? For example, are you seeing your organization from a systems view, as explained in the module “Starting and Understanding Your Nonprofit?”

TRACKING OPEN ACTION ITEMS

1. One of the first indicators that an organization or a person is struggling is that open action items are not tracked and reviewed. (Open action items are required actions that have not yet been completed.) Instead, people only see and react to the latest “fires” in their workplaces or their lives. Whether open action items are critical to address now or not, they should not entirely be forgotten. Therefore, update and regularly review a list of open action items (identified while proceeding through this program) that includes listing each open action item, who is responsible to complete it, when it should be completed and any associated comments. When updating the list, consider action items as identified during discussions, learning activities and assessments in this module. Share and regularly review this action item list with the appropriate peers, board, management and employees in your organization. You can use the following Action Item Planning List. (At that Web address, a box might open, asking you which software application to open the document.)

2. If you have questions, consider posing them in the national, free, online discussion group hr.com, which is attended by many human resource and organization development experts.

(Learners in the nonprofit organization development program can return to the nonprofit organization development program.)

For the Category of Fundraising (Nonprofit):

To round out your knowledge of this Library topic, you may want to review some related topics, available from the link below. Each of the related topics includes free, online resources.

Also, scan the Recommended Books listed below. They have been selected for their relevance and highly practical nature.

January 18, 2022March 27, 2023

Managing Your Nonprofit’s Finances and Taxes

Quote Box on Top of Stack of Paper Bills

Free Nonprofit Micro-eMBA Module #8: Managing Your Nonprofit’s Finances and Taxes

This module is in the nonprofit organization development program.
However, this module can also be used by anyone as a self-study
exercise to learn more about managing nonprofit finances and taxes.

Sections of This Module Include the Following

Introduction
Outcomes
Materials for Review
Suggested Topics for Reflection and Discussion
Activities to Build Systems and Practices
Assessments
Tracking Open Action Items

INTRODUCTION

Financial management is a major responsibility of the board
and nonprofit chief executive. It’s not uncommon for nonprofit
founders and chief executives at first to have very limited skills
in financial management. However, they should quickly develop
at least basic skills in financial management, including in the
critical areas of managing operating and program budgets, bookkeeping,
financial controls, cash management, financial statement generation
and analysis. This module will help you understand those critical
areas of financial management, and build the basic systems and
practices needed in a healthy nonprofit organization.

The board has final responsibility for the financial health
of the nonprofit organization. Therefore, it’s critical that new
nonprofits quickly build up the roles of the treasurer and finance
committee. The treasurer and finance committee can be wonderful
assets to the chief executive when managing the finances of the
organization — however, the board members and chief executive
should never completely ignore the finances by leaving them for
the treasurer and other board members to manage. The board’s role
in ongoing governance of the nonprofit finances can include ongoing
review of financial reports during board meetings, approving yearly
budgets and financial statements, approving a set of fiscal policies
(guidelines for managing the nonprofit’s finances), reviewing
results of a yearly audit conducted by an outside auditor, co-signing
checks that are over certain limits and approving contracts.

NOTE ABOUT LEARNING FINANCIAL MANAGEMENT: At first, when learning
financial management, many people might react that the learning
experience seems mostly like filling one’s head with strange concepts
and processes. Typically, the learning process starts with this
experience — it probably isn’t until the learner actually enters
an accounting transaction and analyzes a financial statement that
learning about financial management seems more “real”.
But the learning process almost always starts by reviewing concepts
and processes. Financial management almost always tells the truth
about the situation of a nonprofit — so the learning process
is well worth the effort.

NOTE ABOUT BOARD COMMITTEES: Consider establishing a Board
Finance Committee to review and help guide implementation the
information in this learning module. Major activities and goals
from this learning module could be incorporated in that Committee’s
Committee
Work Plan.

OUTCOMES

Financial Management

Learn Basics of Bookkeeping and Finances
Understand Budgeting and Deviation Analysis
Understand Basic Cash Management Practices
Recognize Major Nonprofit Financial Statements
Know Basics of Nonprofit Financial Analysis
Evaluate Your Financial Management Practices

Managing Taxes

Know Key Steps to Apply for Tax-Exempt Status
Access Form to File Form 990
Know When Unrelated Business Income Applies
Know Terms of Lobby and Advocacy
Evaluate Your Tax Management Practices

MATERIALS FOR REVIEW

The following materials will help you address each of
the topics and learning activities in this module.
Note that additional materials for review are associated
next to certain topics and activities listed in this module.

Background Reading

Quickly get a “big picture” view of the aspects of
financial management by scanning the types of topics and their
order at
All
About Financial Management in Nonprofits

Preparation for Financial Management

1. What is fiscal sponsorship? When is it appropriate to consider,
that is, when might it be helpful to someone who is founding a
nonprofit? (See Fiscal Sponsorship.)

2. What is the role of the board treasurer? (See Have a Treasurer to Help You?)

3. What is the role of the finance committee? (See Charter and Work Plan for Board Finance Committee.)

4. What needs to be considered when selecting an accountant?
(See Getting and Using Accounting Services.)

5. What needs to be considered when buying accounting software?
(See Software to Help Manage Your Finances.)

6. What needs to be considered when selecting a banker? What
services might a nonprofit need from a bank? (See Getting and Using Banking Services.)

7. What is the board’s role in financial management? (See Basic Overview of U.S. Nonprofit Financial Management.)

Basics of Accounting

1. What is the accounting cycle? (See Basic Overview of U.S. Nonprofit Financial Management.)

2. What are the elements of an accounting system? (See Elements of Accounting: Assets, Liabilities, and Capital)

3. What is a fiscal policies and procedures manual? (See Sample Financial Procedures Manual.)

Bookkeeping and Financial Controls

1. What general activities are included in bookkeeping? (See
and Basic Overview of U.S. Nonprofit Financial Management.)

2. What is cash-basis vs. accrual-basis accounting? (See Basic Overview of U.S. Nonprofit Financial Management.)

3. What bookkeeping journals might you start out with? (See
Basic Overview of U.S. Nonprofit Financial Management.)

4. What is a Chart of Accounts? (See Basic Overview of U.S. Nonprofit Financial Management.)

5. What is the purpose of financial internal controls? What
are some practices in internal controls (HINT: think about signing
checks, opening mail, how to verify that account totals are accurate,
etc.)? (See Basic Overview of U.S. Nonprofit Financial Management.)

Operating Budget, Cash Management, Credit and Collections,
and Budget Deviation Analysis

1. What is a yearly (or operating or annual) budget? How is
a yearly budget prepared? (See How Do We Prepare a Budget? (scroll
down to this topic).)

2. What is a cash flow and how should cash be managed? (See
What is Cash Flow and How Should
We Manage It?)

3. What is a cash flow statement? (See Nonprofit Cash Flow Statements.)

4. What is a budget deviation analysis? What information is
considered during this analysis? (See Budget Deviation Analysis.)

Managing Program Finances

1. What is a functional or program budget? (See
What is a functional budget?)

2. What are program direct costs?
(See Allocate Direct Costs)

3. What are program indirect costs?
(See What Are Indirect Costs?)

Financial Statements and Analysis

1. What are three major forms of financial statements used
by nonprofit organizations? (See Financial Statements.)

2. What general information is included a Statement of Financial
Position? Statement of Activities? Statement of Cash Flows? (See
Financial Statements.)

3. What can be detected from analysis of a Statement of Financial
Position? Statement of Activities? Statement of Cash Flows? (See
Financial Statements.)

Financial Reporting

1. What reports do the board and management need to see? (See
Financial Reporting.)

2. What information should be included in an annual report?
(See Annual Reports.)

Nonprofit Taxation

1. What does tax-exempt mean? (See Do I Need Help to Get Started?)

2. How does a nonprofit obtain tax-exempt status? (See
How to Become a Tax-Exempt 501(c)(3) Non-Profit Organization.)

3. What is a Form 990? What nonprofits must file this Form
and how often? (See Preparing and Filing Form 990s (including about
public disclosure).)

4. What kind of substantiation does the IRS require for contributions?
(See IRS Requires Substantiating Charitable
Contributions.)

5. What is unrelated business income? How much can you earn
without reporting it? How is it calculated? (See Unrelated Business Income Defined.)

6. How much lobbying can a 501(c)(3) do? Electioneering? (See
Lobbying.)

7. Name at least five of the major considerations the IRS makes
when determining if someone is a contractor or an employee of
an organization. (See Understanding Employee vs. Contractor Designation)

ACTIVITIES TO BUILD SYSTEMS AND
PRACTICES

Learners are strongly encouraged to complete the following
activities, and share and discuss results with peers, board members,
management and staff, as appropriate.
As you proceed through the following activities, be sure
to note any incomplete actions in the Action Item Planning List.

Building Role of Treasurer and Board Finance Committee

1. One of the greatest assets to a chief executive can be the
board treasurer and finance committee. Do you have a board treasurer
and a finance committee? If not, make it a high priority to recruit
a treasurer and organize a board finance committee. (See Your Board Treasurer — A Critical Resource to
Help You Get Started and Charter and Work Plan for Board Finance Committee.)

Bookkeeping and Financial Controls

1. Select the journals with which you will be working. If you
are a small nonprofit that is just starting out, then you’ll likely
only need a cash journal. (See and Basic Overview of U.S. Nonprofit Financial Management.)

2. Will you be using a cash-basis or accrual-basis accounting?
If you’re a small nonprofit, then you’re likely to use the cash-basis
to record transactions and an accrual-basis for generating your
financial statement. (See and Basic Overview of U.S. Nonprofit Financial Management.)

3. Devise a Chart of Accounts. (See How to Design a Scalable Chart of Accounts.)

4. Adopt a preliminary set of financial internal controls.
Consider practices about signing checks, opening mail, verifying
that account totals are accurate, etc.) (See Sample Financial Procedures Manual (find the link to click “here”.)

Designing an Operating (Annual or Yearly) Budget

1. Your operating budget depicts the revenue the nonprofit
expects to earn or be granted, and the expenses it expects to
incur. It also depicts how that revenue will be spent. Budget
development starts from strategic planning. If you completed Module 6: Developing Your Strategic Plan.
then you already have designed a basic yearly operating budget.
If you completed Module 7: Designing and Marketing Your Programs,
then you’ve updated your operating budget to include functional
budgets for each of your programs. If you have not completed these
two modules, you should review information and materials in those
modules to draft a basic operating budget and associated functional
budgets for each of your programs.

2. Obtain authorization of the operating budget (including
functional budgets for each program) by the board. Board members
should receive copies of the operating budget for their review
and authorization in a board meeting. The minutes of the board
meeting should reflect members’ approval of the budget. Approval
indicates that the board expects the nonprofit to operate over
the coming year according to the expected expenses and revenues
depicted in the approved operating budget. Note that if board
members have been involved in previous strategic and program planning,
then their approval of the budgets should be very straightforward
at this point.

Managing Program Finances

1. If you finished the learning modules about strategic planning
and about program design and marketing, then you probably already
have a good sense for the revenue and expenses of each of your
programs. If you have not done so, write a basic functional or
program budget. The board should review and authorize this budget.
(See How Do We Prepare a Budget?)

Financial Statements, Analysis and Reporting

1. At this point, you’re ready to generate a basic Statement
of Financial Position, Statement of Activities and Statement of
Cash Flows. The board should review and authorize these statements.

2. Attempt a basic analysis of these statements and write the
conclusions and recommendations from this analysis. The board
should review the conclusions and recommendations. (See Financial Analysis.)

Nonprofit Taxation

1. Have you obtained “tax-exempt” status from the
IRS? If so, be sure to keep the master copy of the letter safely
stored away. What taxes are you exempt from? (See Frequently Asked Questions About
Applying for Tax Exemption.)

2. Attempt to fill in a Form 990? What information do you need
to complete and file the form? When do you have to file the form?
(See Preparing and Filing Form 990s (including about
public disclosure).)

3. Will you have any unrelated business income? What is the
source of this income? How will you report it? (See Unrelated Business Income Defined.)

4. Does (or will) your nonprofit engage in lobbying can a 501(c)(3)?
How much? Will that be a problem? (See Non-Profit Organizations CAN
Lobby.)

Develop Your Fiscal Policies Manual

1. Now that you’ve considered all of the aspects of financial
and tax management for your nonprofit, you’re ready to compile
a set of policies to ensure that finances and taxes continue to
be managed effectively. Work with the Finance Committee to write
an outline of the content of a fiscal policies manual. The Committee
should adopt an action plan to develop and authorize the necessary
policies for the manual. The manual should be reviewed and authorized
on a yearly basis. (See Basic Overview of U.S. Nonprofit Financial Management.
and Sample Financial Procedures Manual (find the “click here”).)

ASSESSMENTS

1. Conduct a detailed audit of your financial management practices
and internal controls by answering the questions about “Financial
Indicators” in the Checklist of Nonprofit Indicators. List an
action plan to complete items suggested by the audit, but not
done by your organization.

REMINDERS FOR THOSE IN THE ON-LINE DEVELOPMENT PROGRAM

Reminders About You

1. Are you using your skills learned in previous modules? For
example, as you using methodical approaches to problem solving
and decision making? Are you using strong practices of meeting
management? Are you communicating key information to others throughout
your organization?

2. Are you discussing topics and materials with peers, board
members and others, as appropriate? Discussion and ongoing feedback
are some of the best methods to really learn new information and
materials.

3. Are you helping others to hold you accountable to your times
that you committed to reading and study in this program?

4. Are you reflecting on learnings from past modules and how they build on the learning
in this module? For example, are you seeing your organization from a systems view,
as explained in the module “Starting and Understanding Your Nonprofit?”

TRACKING OPEN ACTION ITEMS

2. If you have questions, consider posing them in the national,
free, online discussion group hr.com, which is attended
by many human resource and organization development experts.

(Learners in the nonprofit organization development program
can return to the nonprofit organization development program.)

For the Category of Financial Management (Nonprofit):

To round out your knowledge of this Library topic, you may
want to review some related topics, available from the link below.
Each of the related topics includes free, online resources.

Also, scan the Recommended Books listed below. They have been
selected for their relevance and highly practical nature.

Related Library Topics

Recommended Books

January 18, 2022September 21, 2022

Conducting Complete Fitness Test of Your Nonprofit

Free Nonprofit Micro-eMBA Module #12: Conducting Complete Fitness Test of Your Nonprofit

Much of this program is based on materials adapted from the
Nonprofit Capacity Building Toolkit(SM).
This module is in the nonprofit organization development program.
However, this module can also be used by anyone as a self-study
exercise to assess the health of major aspects of a nonprofit
organization.

Sections of This Module Include the Following

Introduction
Outcomes
Materials for Review
Suggested Topics for Reflection and Discussion
Activities to Build Systems and Practices
Assessments
Tracking Open Action Items

INTRODUCTION

This module provides a set of extensive checklists that can
be used to assess the health of a nonprofit’s practices in the
areas of legal, governance (board), human resource management,
planning for the organization and programs, financial and tax
management, and fundraising.

If you have completed the various learning modules in the nonprofit
organization development program, then the various checklists
in this module will likely indicate that the practices in your
nonprofit are very healthy.

OUTCOMES

Evaluate Quality of:

Compliance to Laws and Regulations
Board Operations
Supervisory Practices
Strategic, Program and Personnel Planning
Financial Management
Fundraising Practices

MATERIALS FOR REVIEW

The following materials will help you address each of
the topics and learning activities in this module.

Organizational
“Fitness” Test – – – including the sections:
– – – How
to Use the Tool
– – – Disclaimer
– – – Legal
Indicators
– – – Governance
(Board) Indicators
– – – Human
Resources Indicators (includes for volunteers)
– – – Planning
Indicators (includes strategic planning, program planning and
program evaluation)
– – – Financial
Indicators
– – – Fundraising
Indicators

The above links are to individual assessments, each about a
particular function. If you would like to do one overall organizational
evaluation that includes all of the functions, see
Nonprofit
Organizational Assessment

ACTIVITIES TO BUILD SYSTEMS AND
PRACTICES

Learners are strongly encouraged to complete the following
activities, and share and discuss results with peers, board members,
management and staff, as appropriate.
As you proceed through the following activities, be sure
to note any incomplete actions in the Action Item Planning List.

1. After identifying which of the 2 or 3 functions need the
most attention (see #1 above) for now, list the activities that
were marked as “Needs Work” in each of those functions,
eg., list the activities that “Needs Work” in Boards.

2. For each of those lists, refer to that list as a “Work
Plan” and assign that Plan to a Board Committee to oversee
that the list is addressed, eg., assign the list of “Needs
Work” in the Board function to a Board Development Committee
or assign the list of “Needs Work” in the finances function
to a Finance Committee to ensure the list is addressed.

ASSESSMENTS

There are no assessments in this section of the module, as
there are in the other modules in the program, because this module
is all about assessments, as provided above.

TRACKING OPEN ACTION ITEMS

1. One of the first indicators that an organization is struggling
is that open action items are not tracked and reviewed. (Open
action items are required actions that have not yet been completed.)
Instead, organization members only see and react to the latest
“fires in the workplace”. Whether open action items
are critical to address now or not, they should not entirely be
forgotten. Therefore, update and regularly review a list of open
action items that includes listing each open action item, who
is responsible to complete it, when it should be completed and
any associated comments. When updating the list, consider action
items as identified during discussions, learning activities and
assessments in this module. Share and regularly review this action
item list with the appropriate board, management and staff members
in your nonprofit. You can use the following Action Item Planning List.

2. If you have questions, consider posing them in the national,
free, online discussion group hr.com, which is attended
by many human resource and organization development experts.

REMINDERS FOR THOSE IN THE ON-LINE DEVELOPMENT PROGRAM

1. Are you exchanging feedback with others about what you’re
learning in this program?

2. Are you sticking to your study schedule for this program?

3. Are you practicing your basic skills in management and leadership,
including in problem solving and decision making, planning and
meeting management?

4. Are you communicating throughout your organization by using
your skills in internal communications?

5. Are you managing yourself? How many hours a week are you
working? Are you noticing any signs of stress? If so, what are
you doing about it?

6. One of the ways you might be able to tell if you’re stressed
out and/or losing perspective might be whether you’re tracking
details or not. Are you using the action item list referenced
above?

7. Are you reflecting on learnings from past modules and how
they build on the learning in this module? For example, are you
seeing your organization from a systems view, as explained in
the module “Starting and Understanding Your Nonprofit?”

TRACKING OPEN ACTION ITEMS

2. If you have questions, consider posing them in the national,
free, online discussion group hr.com, which is attended
by many human resource and organization development experts.

(Learners in the nonprofit organization development program
can return to the nonprofit organization development program.)

For the Category of Evaluations (Many Kinds):

To round out your knowledge of this Library topic, you may
want to review some related topics, available from the link below.
Each of the related topics includes free, online resources.

Also, scan the Recommended Books listed below. They have been
selected for their relevance and highly practical nature.

Related Library Topics

Recommended Books

January 18, 2022February 24, 2023

Managing Ethics in the Nonprofit Workplace: A Practical Guide for Managers

Free Nonprofit Micro-eMBA Module #13: Managing Ethics in the Workplace

This module is in the nonprofit organization development program. However, this module can also be used by anyone as a self-study exercise to learn practical approaches to managing ethics in the workplace.

Sections of This Module Include the Following

Introduction
Outcomes
Materials for Review
Suggested Topics for Reflection and Discussion
Activities to Build Systems and Practices
Assessments
Tracking Open Action Items

INTRODUCTION

The management of ethics in the workplace holds tremendous benefits for everyone, benefits both moral — and even practical. This is particularly true today when it is critical to understand and manage highly diverse values in the workplace, and at a time when too many people still feel that business ethics is a topic for philosophy or is about shaming and blaming people. This module aims to make the topic of business ethics very understandable and accessible.

The field of business ethics has traditionally been the domain of philosophers, academics and social critics. Consequently, much of today’s literature about business ethics is not geared toward the practical needs of leaders and managers — the people primarily responsible for managing ethics in the workplace. The most frequent forms of business ethics literature today typically include:

a) philosophical, which requires extensive orientation and analysis;
b) anthologies, which require much time, review and integration;
c) case studies, which require numerous cases, and much time and analyses to synthesize; and
d) extended stories about businesses “gone bad”.

This lack of practical information is not the fault of philosophers, academics or social critics. The problem is the outcome of insufficient involvement of leaders and managers in discussions and literature about business ethics. More leaders and managers must become more involved. This module aims to help address this issue.

Also consider: Related Library Topics

OUTCOMES

Set Up Systems to Manage Ethics, Including:

What is Business Ethics?
Myths About Business Ethics
10 Benefits of Managing Ethics
Ethics Management System
8 Guidelines for Managing Ethics
6 Key Roles and Responsibilities
Codes of Ethics
Codes of Conduct
Ethics Policies and Procedures
Resolving Ethical Dilemmas
Conduct Ethics Training

MATERIALS FOR REVIEW

The following materials will help you address each of the topics and learning activities in this module.
Business Ethics and Social Responsibility — particularly the sections:

ACTIVITIES TO BUILD SYSTEMS AND PRACTICES

Learners are strongly encouraged to complete the following activities, and share and discuss results with peers, board members, management and employees, as appropriate.

1. Draft a code of ethics for your organization. Remember to include examples of preferred behaviors with each of the values in your code of ethics. Present the code to your board, explain its purpose and how you’d like to use it, e.g., to discuss it with staff members, post it throughout your organization and renew
it annually. (See Ethics Tools: Codes of Ethics and Ethics Tools: Codes of Conduct).

2. Pose an ethical dilemma (from the reviewed materials) to the staff and walk them through application of one of the three methods to resolve ethical dilemmas (these methods are included in the materials, as well). (See Ethics Tools: Resolving Ethical Dilemmas.)

3. Refer to your mental list of the mostly likely ethical dilemmas to occur in your organization. Would these potential dilemmas be addressed by current policies and procedures? Note what policies and procedures need to be added (included yearly review of your code of ethics) and propose them to a local personnel expert. Update your policies handbook and explain the additions to all organization members. (See Ethics Tools: Policies and Procedures.)

ASSESSMENTS

Culture is comprised of the values, norms, folkways and behaviors of an organization. Ethics is about moral values, or values regarding right and wrong. Therefore, cultural assessments can be extremely valuable when assessing the moral values in an organization.

Assessing and Cultivating Ethical Culture

TRACKING OPEN ACTION ITEMS

1. One of the first indicators that an organization or a person is struggling is that open action items are not tracked and reviewed. (Open action items are required actions that have not yet been completed.) Instead, people only see and react to the latest “fires” in their workplaces or their lives. Whether open action items are critical to address now or not, they should not entirely be forgotten. Therefore, update and regularly review a list of open action items (identified while proceeding through this program) that includes listing each open action item, who is responsible to complete it, when it should be completed and any associated comments. When updating the list, consider action items as identified during discussions, learning activities and assessments in this module. Share and regularly review this action item list with the appropriate peers, board, management and employees in your organization. You can use the following Action Item Planning List. (At that Web address, a box might open, asking you which software application to open the document.)

2. If you have questions, consider posing them in the national, free, online discussion group hr.com, which is attended by many human resource and organization development experts.

(Learners in the organization development program can return to the home page of the organization development program.)

For the Category of Ethics:

To round out your knowledge of this Library topic, you may want to review some related topics, available from the link below. Each of the related topics includes free, online resources.

Also, scan the Recommended Books listed below. They have been selected for their relevance and highly practical nature.

January 18, 2022September 23, 2022

Guidelines and Framework for Developing a Basic Logic Model

People Having Conversation Looking at a Laptop Screen

Guidelines and Framework for Designing Basic Logic Model

Also consider
Related Library Topics

Description

The following framework can be filled in by readers to design a logic model (or diagram) for their organization and for each of its programs. Guidelines and examples are provided to help the reader.

Purpose of a Logic Model

A logic model is a top-level depiction the flow of materials and processes to produce the results desired by the organization or program. The model can be very useful to organize planning and analysis when designing the organization and its programs or when designing outcomes-based evaluations of programs. It can also be useful for describing organizations and programs (for example, in grant proposals).

What to Include and What Not to Include

Logic models can be in regard to whatever application in which the designer chooses to use them. However, when using logic models to analyze or describe organizations and programs, it’s often best to use logic models to depict major, recurring items in the organization or programs — rather than one-time items. For example, you might not choose to do a logic model for the one-time, initial activities to build an organization or program (constructing the building, registering with state and federal authorities, etc.). However, you might benefit more from using logic models to analyze and describe the major, recurring activities that occur in the organization or program (once they’re built) to continue to produce the results desired for clients and the community.

Size and Level of Detail

The logic model should be of a size that readers can easily study the model without extensive reference and cross-comparisons between pages. Ideally, the logic model is one or at most two pages long. The level of detail should be sufficient for the reader to grasp the major items that go into an organization or program, what occurs to those inputs, the various outputs that results and the overall benefits/impacts (or outcomes) that occur and to which groups of people.

Note the content of program logic models is often more specific than models for organizations. This level of specificity is often quite useful for program planners.

Definitions of Basic Terms

Logic models typically depict the inputs, processes, outputs and outcomes associated with an organization and its programs. Don’t be concerned about your grasping the “correct” definition of each of the following terms. It’s more important to have some sense of what they mean — and even more important to be consistent in your use of the terms.

Inputs

These are materials that the organization or program takes in and then processes to produce the results desired by the organization. Types of inputs are people, money, equipment, facilities, supplies, people’s ideas, people’s time, etc. Inputs can also be major forces that influence the organization or programs. For example, the inputs to a nonprofit program that provides training to clients might include learners, training materials, teachers, classrooms, funding, paper and pencils, etc. Various laws and regulations effect how the program is conducted, for example, safety regulations, Equal Opportunity Employment guidelines, etc. Inputs are often associated with a cost to obtain and use the item — budgets are listings of inputs and the costs to obtain and/or use them.

Processes (or Activities or Strategies or Methods)

Processes are used by the organization or program to manipulate and arrange items to produce the results desired by the organization or program. Processes can range from putting a piece of paper on a desk to manufacturing a space shuttle. However, logic models are usually only concerned with the major recurring processes associated with producing the results desired by the organization or program. For example, the major processes used by a nonprofit program that provides training to clients might include recruitment of learners, pretesting of learners, training, post-testing and certification.

Outputs

Outputs are usually the tangible results of the major processes in the organization. They are usually accounted for by their number, for example, the number of students who failed or passed a test, courses taught, tests taken, teachers used, etc. Outputs are frequently misunderstood to indicate success of an organization or program. However, if the outputs aren’t directly associated with achieving the benefits desired for clients, then the outputs are poor indicators of the success of the organization and its programs. You can use many teachers, but that won’t mean that many clients were successfully trained.

Outcomes

Outcomes are the (hopefully positive) impacts on those people whom the organization wanted to benefit with its programs. Outcomes are usually specified in terms of:
a) learning, including enhancements to knowledge, understanding/perceptions/attitudes, and behaviors
b) skills (behaviors to accomplish results, or capabilities)
c) conditions (increased security, stability, pride, etc.)

It’s often to specify outcomes in terms of short-term, intermediate and long-term.

Basic Example of a Logic Model

The following example is intended to further portray the nature of inputs, processes, outputs and outcomes.

The logic model is for an organization called the Self-Directed Learning Center (SDLC).

Logic models for programs are often more detailed.

Inputs

Free articles and other publications on the Web
Collaborators
Free Management Library
Funders
Self-directed learners·
Volunteers
Computers
Web
Supplies

Processes

Provide peer-assistance models in which learners support each other
Provide free, online training program: Basics of Self-Directed Learning
Provide free, online training program: Basic Life Skills
Provide free, online training program: Passing your GED Exam

Outputs

30 groups that used peer models
100 completed training programs
900 learners who finished Basics of Self-Directed Learning
900 learners who finished Basic Life Skills
900 learners who passed their GED to gain high-school diploma

Short-Term Outcomes

high school diploma for graduates
improved attitude toward self and society for graduates
improved family life for family of graduates

Intermediate Outcomes

full-time employment for learners (in job that required high-school education)
increased reliability and improved judgment of learners
enhanced publicity and public relations for SDLC

Long-Term Outcomes

independent living for learner (by using salary to rent apartment)
strong basic life skills for learner
improved love life for learner who’s now in a relationship
increased likelihood and interest for learner to attend college

Logic Model For

Organization (Name)
Or Product (Name)

Inputs

Processes

Outputs

Short-Term Outcomes

Intermediate Outcomes

Long-Term Outcomes

For the Category of Capacity Building (Nonprofit):

To round out your knowledge of this Library topic, you may want to review some related topics, available from the link below. Each of the related topics includes free, online resources.

Also, scan the Recommended Books listed below. They have been selected for their relevance and highly practical nature.

Free Management Library’s Online Nonprofit Organization Development Program Module #1:

Preparation for Nonprofit Micro-eMBA(SM) Program

(includes recommendations to large amount of free, online resources)

INTRODUCTION

OUTCOMES

MATERIALS FOR REVIEW

SUGGESTED TOPICS FOR REFLECTION AND DISCUSSION

SUGGESTED LEARNING ACTIVITIES

OPTIONAL SELF-ASSESSMENTS

TRACKING OPEN ACTION ITEMS

For the Category of Personal Development:

Free Nonprofit Micro-eMBA Module #7: Designing and Marketing Your Programs

Sections of This Module Include the Following

INTRODUCTION

OUTCOMES

MATERIALS FOR REVIEW

Program Design, Marketing and Promotions

Marketing Basics, Analysis and Positioning

Advertising and Promotions

Public and Media Relations

Sales

Optional — Customer Service

SUGGESTED TOPICS FOR REFLECTION AND DISCUSSION

Basics of Program Design

Basics of Marketing

Basics of Marketing Analysis and Positioning

Public and Media Relations

Sales

Customer Service

ACTIVITIES TO BUILD SYSTEMS AND PRACTICES

Designing the Strategic Structure of Each of Your Programs

Updating Logic Models of Your Organization and Each Program

Writing Your Marketing Plan for Each Program or Service

Describe Your Service

List Your Target Market(s)

Write a Profile of Each Target Market

Analysis of Competitors

Analysis of Collaborators

Pricing Analysis

Write Your Sales Plan

Write Your Advertising and Promotions Plan

Conduct Your Customer Service Planning

Conduct Your Production Planning

Conduct Your Distribution Planning

Designing Your Program Budgets

Update Program Budgets from Your Operating Budget

ASSESSMENTS

TRACKING OPEN ACTION ITEMS

Reminders About You

Reminders About Your Nonprofit

TRACKING OPEN ACTION ITEMS

For the Category of Marketing:

Framework for Basic Nonprofit Marketing and Promotions Plan

(including plans for public and media relations, sales, advertising and promoting, and customer service)

Description

Public Relations Plan

Mission Statement

Positioning Statement

Script for Representing Our Nonprofit to External Stakeholders

Media Relations

Procedure for Managing Media Contacts

Preferred Media and Contacts

Description of Service

Target Markets and Client Profiles

Competitor Analysis

Collaborator/Partner Analysis

Pricing Analysis

Sales Plan

Advertising and Promotions Plan

Markets, Messages and Methods (Media Plan and Calendar)

Production Planning

Distribution Planning

Customer Service Plan

Key Questions While Monitoring Implementation of the Plan

Reporting Status of Implementation

Procedure for Changing the Plan

GOALS, RESPONSIBILITIES, TIMELINES AND BUDGETS

For the Category of Marketing:

Free Nonprofit Micro-eMBA Module #4: Basic Skills in Management and Leadership

Sections of This Module Include the Following

Free Management Library’s
Online Nonprofit Organization Development Program Module #1:

Preparation for Nonprofit Micro-eMBA(SM)
Program

(includes recommendations to large amount of free, online
resources)

SUGGESTED TOPICS FOR REFLECTION
AND DISCUSSION

ACTIVITIES TO BUILD SYSTEMS AND
PRACTICES

(including plans for public and media relations, sales, advertising
and promoting, and customer service)

You Can Provide Program with Little in Expertise
or Resources!

Primary
Considerations in Setting Up Any Development Program

Peer-Training Incorporates State-of-the-Art Methods
of Adult Development

Before Peer-Training Begins, Sponsor Markets Program
and Recruits Learners

Objective Criteria That Could Be Considered for Evaluation
of Learning

Subjective Criteria That Could Be Considered for Evaluation
of Learning