​Identify Your Nonprofit’s Vision

​Every business needs a vision of the kind of business it ultimately wants to become. That vision can change as the business grows and evolves, but the importance of having a vision every staff member and volunteer can work towards is not to be underestimated. Any time you or someone on your team has a question about what to do, you can look at your vision and think about which action would get you closer to making it a reality.

​Identify What Your Nonprofit Needs

Once you’ve identified what you need to add, whether it’s staff or software, it’s time to think about how you can obtain what you need. For example, if you don’t have the budget to pay for another salary, could you get some volunteers to do the job? Where can you find volunteers? Or which volunteers do you already have on your team that you could recruit to help you with this project? ​The same goes for software/tools/materials/real estate. Almost anything you don’t currently have access to can either be bought, borrowed, bartered, or donated, and sometimes it really is as simple as just asking for what you need.

​Learn from Best Practices

​Prioritize Your Goals and Strategies for Your Nonprofit Organization

​Need Help with Your Strategic Planning for Nonprofits?

​Trying New Things Is Not a Strategy

​As business owners, we’re constantly told to do this and that for our business, and it doesn’t help that new technologies and new social media platforms are constantly being invented, and we’re told we have to be on all of them in order to grow our business. But that’s a recipe for burnout and you can’t be consistent in your business if you’re burned out. Instead, focus on the tasks that get results for your business and perform those tasks consistently. That does noy mean you can’t adjust your business strategy if something isn’t working, but it does

​Consistency Beats Perfection Every Time

Trying every strategy under the sun is one common mistake, but the other mistake I see small business owners making is not trying anything new, either because they’re paralyzed with indecision with all the different strategies they could try, or because they’re afraid to move forward until something is perfect. ​ Guess what? No one is perfect. Nothing you do will ever be perfect. And that’s OK.

​Make It Work with Your Schedule

​A lot of small business owners experience the cycle of feast and famine because, once they get some clients in the door, they stop doing the work that got those clients in the door so they can focus on serving those clients. I’m not saying you shouldn’t prioritize serving your clients, I’m just saying you need to find ways to continue putting in consistent effort towards growing your business while serving your clients, and no, that does not have to mean putting in more hours. It could mean scheduling your social media posts ahead of time so you can set them and forget them. It could mean hiring an assistant to handle some of the more administrative tasks of your business while you continue working in your genius zone. Get creative with the ways you can consistently grow your business without growing the number of hours you spend working.

​Identify Your Target Audience

​The first thing you need to do before you can implement any nonprofit lead generation strategies is identify what makes someone a high-quality lead for your nonprofit. If someone doesn’t value the services your nonprofit organization is providing, they’re not a high-quality lead and you’ll be wasting your time and energy trying to get them to volunteer and/or donate.

​Refine Your Messaging

​You also need to make sure your messaging is consistent throughout everything you do as a nonprofit organization. Everything from your social media posts to your website content to how your staff interact with donors and volunteers needs to be in alignment with your overall message.

​Consistently Create High-Quality Content

One of the main ways people find companies and nonprofit organizations is online, especially after a year and a half spent at home when the only way we could communicate with anyone or find anything was online. One of the best ways to get the attention of search engines, like Google, is to consistently create high-quality content that answers the questions your target audience is asking. For a nonprofit organization, that means creating content that answers questions around the services your organization provides and how it’s using those services to make the world a better place. People might be searching for answers on how

Create Interactive Content

Interactive content is any content that requires input from the viewer, such as clicking a button, checking a box, or answering questions. People are much more likely to stay on your website for longer periods of time when they can interact with the content, and as a bonus, when you make the interactive element a survey they can fill out or questions they can answer, that gives you information on the kinds of people visiting your website. You can then use that information to refine your messaging and your content to cater to those groups - or to a different group if it turns out the people currently visiting your website are not your ideal prospects.

Establish Your Vision

​If you’re just starting out as an entrepreneur, you may or may not have taken the time to define the vision you have for your company. Maybe you’ve given it some thought, but you haven’t really refined your vision, which can leave you floundering in your business, chasing after every lead and trying every new fad, even when it doesn’t make sense for your business.

​Increases Productivity

​When you approach your business with a solid plan, you can do so more efficiently, which means you’re more productive when you get back to work. The work you put in when you return from the retreat will more than make up for the time off you took from your business because you’ll be more focused and energized than ever before.

Make New Connections

​Special Offer: Register for our February Retreat by 11/1/21 and join us for a night of planning and fun! If you’re ready to invest in your business and create a plan to make your vision a reality, my Kickstart Your Year Retreat is just what you need. Take two days from working in your business to work on your business and have an opportunity to network with other, like-minded entrepreneurs. I guarantee your business will never be the same.