A Nonprofit Business Plan
Most agree that the number one essential component to any business plan is a strategy and while there is no standard agreement on the other components, here is a list of the most common "must-have" components usually covered in chronological order:
• Mission/Need Organization is Attempting to Fill
• Primary Audience
• Management Team
• Competitors and Collaborators
• Fundraising and Marketing
• Operations
• Financial Plan
• Use of Plan
As mentioned before, business plans are primarily needed in turning points in an organizations life cycle and a business plan will change depending on what point in the life cycle an organization is at. Three of the most common times when nonprofits seek the help of a business plan are:
• Start-Up
• Restructuring
• New Program/Division Addition
Pulled from a table created by Thomas Mclaughlin, here are examples of how an organization will create a business plan in each of the three life cycles based on the components laid out earlier in the article:
• Start-Up: - Mission/Need: Heavy emphasis/Source of passion
- Primary Audience: Funders
- Management Team: Small aspect
- Competitors/Collaborators: Lightly acknowledge
- Fundraising/Marketing: Central importance
- Operations: Broadly describe
- Financial Plan: Broad, difficult to be precise
- Use of Plan: Inspiration and engagement
• Restructuring: - Mission/Need: Re-thinking/Re-statement or re-affirmation
- Primary Audience: Funders/Internal
- Management Team: Re-worked team an essential
- Competitors/Collaborators: Acknowledgement essential to credibility
- Fundraising/Marketing: Could be central
- Operations: Heart of the new plan
- Financial Plan: Must be data-based and compelling
- Use of Plan: Confidence rebuilding
• New Program: - Mission/Need: Reiterate/Affirm
- Primary Audience: Internal
- Management Team: Crucial source of credibility
- Competitors/Collaborators: Documented and realistic
- Fundraising/Marketing: Probably 'pre-sold'
- Operations: Detailed plan
- Financial Plan: Mix of projections, hard data
- Use of Plan: Operational
Remember, these are just broad suggestions; there are other scenarios in which business plans are good tools and every organization is unique.
More from this contributor:
http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/5907732/nonprofit_management_education.html?cat=3
http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/6045510/advancing_education_online_or_in_person.html?cat=3
http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/3010404/social_networking_rewards_and_risks.html?cat=3
Published by Laken Lovely
Laken Lovely is a freelance writer and focuses much of her time on her position as the director of the LiveLovely Foundation, to help raise funds and awareness for childhood cancers and the adolescent and yo... View profile
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