Profit

I love a good joke; here's one of my favorites:

The struggling non-profit organization: really good at the non-profit; not so hot at the organization.

Hilarious, amiright?

In a for-profit business, everyone knows they're there to turn a profit. They won't be around long if they don't.

Unfortunately, too many mission-driven organizations don't have the benefit of that clarity. After all, they weren't founded to make a profit but to serve a mission.

But sooner or later (and hopefully sooner), every organization has to ask itself: How are we going to fund this mission?

Resources will always be finite. Even if money grew on trees, somebody would have to pick it.

Here's the thing:

Membership dues, event fees, contributions, grants: all critical income sources that have to be maximized, continually.

Staff salaries, operations, infrastructure, materials and event production, marketing: all expenses that need to be aggressively managed.

Just like in a “real” business, if you're investing your limited resources in a way that's not generating more income than expense, you're going to have a real hard time carrying out your mission.

You're applying that same rationale in managing your CRM, right?

All the best,
A.