Third, show accountability to yourself and your constituents. At Commissioners hearing, while everyone was moved by heartfelt human impact stories, I was struck by lack of hard facts about outcomes, especially for human services non-profits struggling to keep their funding. Non-profits not only need to operate at highest level of efficiency, but they also need to measure results they produce. How many people does your organization help place in jobs annually? How many people are kept out of criminal justice system and what is savings for society? How much money is saved by keeping a child out of foster care system? While non-profits hate to think of themselves in terms of dollars and cents, those appealing to cash-starved government entities, foundations, and businesses that care about bottom lines, need to be able to provide this type of information.

Finally, non-profits should never let down their guard. A collective sigh of relief is often uttered after annual budget review is done and funding has been secured. But that generally leads to a false sense of security for a year. Like businesses, non-profits need to be constantly surveying their environment. What national economic trends are likely to affect them next year? Who are major constituents today and who are they likely to be tomorrow? Are there any new competitors and what does that mean? What are current internal strengths and where can new opportunities be leveraged? Are there other agencies duplicating services with whom you might forge a partnership? Surveying landscape and anticipating change is key for ongoing success.

Organizations in crisis mode are generally not as effective in fulfilling their mission. Looking at all of these areas and taking steps to make improvements can give any non-profit a little more breathing room to face up to their next funding challenge, and most importantly, continue serving their target populations.

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