Do You Really Want To Start A Nonprofit? - Resilience in Life and Leadership Episode 058

Send us a text

Stephanie Olson discusses the challenges of starting and sustaining a nonprofit. Most people have great intentions when wanting to start a nonprofit, but do most people have what it takes to sustain a nonprofit. If you have ever been interested in starting a nonprofit, this is the podcast for you! 

Everyone has resilience, but what does that mean, and how do we use it in life and leadership? Join Stephanie Olson, an expert in resiliency and trauma, every week as she talks to other experts living lives of resilience. Stephanie also shares her own stories of addictions, disordered eating, domestic and sexual violence, abandonment, and trauma, and shares the everyday struggles and joys of everyday life. As a wife, mom, and CEO she gives commentaries and, sometimes, a few rants to shed light on what makes a person resilient. So, if you have experienced adversity in life in any way and want to learn how to better lead your family, your workplace, and, well, your life, this podcast is for you!

https://stephanieolson.com

Episode Transcript

Stephanie Olson (00:00):
Welcome to resilience in life and
leadership with your host,Stephanie Olson, CEO speaker,
author and sexual violence andaddiction expert, we're glad
you're here. Hi, I'm StephanieOlson, with resilience in life
and leadership, so glad you'rehere. I want to talk about

(00:21):
nonprofits. I want to talk aboutthe desire to start a nonprofit,
and whether you should or not. Ihear a lot of people saying I
want to start a nonprofit, andusually it's because they have
an incredible passion for atopic. I get that oftentimes

(00:42):
it's because they've experiencedsomething that draws them to the
need and desire to help otherpeople. Really important. I
personally have gone throughthings that have led to the
creation of my nonprofit. Iunderstand it. I run the set me
free project, which is aprevention education

(01:03):
organization on humantrafficking, and did some right
things, but also made some hugemistakes. Now, what I would tell
you is that there are reasonsthat most nonprofits failed.
There was a statistic that said90% of nonprofits fail within a

(01:24):
few years. And I've seen thathappen that, you know, people
have really good ideas, or Ishouldn't say good ideas, really
good intentions, and want tomake a difference. That is a
noble thing, but part of theproblem that people have is that
we don't run nonprofits like abusiness, and it is important to

(01:48):
do so. I believe about 30% ofall nonprofits don't make it to
10 years, and so after thatfirst few years, the ones that
actually do start doing wellafter about 10 years, they're
done. There's very fewnonprofits that are the big, you

(02:11):
know, million dollar nonprofits,and then there are a lot of
small nonprofits now in yourcommunity, you could probably
Google very easily. How manynonprofits are there in your
community? But I'm going to talkabout my community really
quickly. Live in Omaha,Nebraska, and in Omaha alone,

(02:32):
there are 6357 non profitorganizations in Omaha. That's a
lot, and my guess is that themajority of those are not
extremely successful. InNebraska, there are about 15,000
nonprofits, and in the US, thereare over 300,000

(02:59):
nonprofits, that seems actuallyreally low to me, based on what
we know, but approximately 30%of those fail to exist in 10
years now. Why does that happen?
Well, I think it happens for acouple of reasons, and the first
reason is doing your homework atthe start of a nonprofit, it is

(03:20):
so important that I had somebodycall me the other day and say,
Hey, we're doing this same workwe're doing, and I started
nonprofit, and somebody pointedthem to us and saying, there is
an organization doing that. Youshould really collaborate with
them. So the first mistake isfinding out, does the work that

(03:42):
you're doing already exist? Issomebody already doing that,
whether in your community oranother community across the
nation, is somebody doing thisand doing this well? And if they
are, one of the best things youcan do is learn from that
organization. So instead ofstarting a nonprofit of your

(04:04):
own, go volunteer, go get a jobat that organization, and find
out how they're doing what theydo and what it is that makes
them successful. Do you need tostart another nonprofit? Because
they're already doing this andserving the community. Or maybe
you don't, maybe you need to dosomething complimentary and

(04:27):
partner with this organization.
There is no reason to start anorganization that is already
doing it. We don't want toreinvent the wheel, and I think
that's what so many people do.
Instead of starting a nonprofitof your own, go volunteer, go
get a job at that organization,and find out how they're doing,

(04:50):
what they do and what it is thatmakes them successful. Do you
need to start another nonprofit?
Because. Because they're alreadydoing this and serving the
community, or maybe you don't,maybe you need to do something
complimentary and partner withthis organization. There is no

(05:11):
reason to. I think the othermistake that nonprofit leaders
make is not running nonprofitslike a business. Yes, it is
about passion. Yes, it is aboutserving individuals and making a
difference in people's lives.
But if it's not run like abusiness, it will fail. Do you
have a business plan? Do youhave a strategic plan? All of

(05:35):
those things are reallyimportant, and one of the key
things, and this is, this is atouchy one. I was fortunate
because I came from a businessbackground, as opposed to having
a strong passion for what I wasdoing, I really saw a gap in
services and the my co founderand I wanted to fill that gap,

(06:01):
and so that is really where thatcame from, but we took our skill
set and used it within thenonprofit, and then brought
other people in as we grew whohad those skill set. I think one
of the biggest mistakes leadersmake is because you founded an
organization, you should be theexecutive director. You should

(06:23):
be the CEO. And sometimes justbecause you have a vision, just
because you have a passion, doesnot mean you have the ability to
run an organization. So I thinkone of the best things a founder
can do when they are maybe don'thave that skill set, is hire an
executive director. You canstill have the vision. You can

(06:45):
still be the visionary. You canstill be the CEO, but hire
somebody to run the day to dayas our organization grows, what
I want to do as a CEO is moveout of the way so the people
that are running theorganization doing the day to
day. Are doing it well? I havean amazing chief operating

(07:07):
officer who does the operationsand literally runs the day to
day of the business. She doesn'tneed my help, good at what she
does. I have a director ofprogramming who runs all things
programming, who is amazing atwhat she does, and it allows me
the ability to do things likethis, to go speak, to network,

(07:29):
to build donors and fundraiseand things like that. That's
what it should be about. Somaking sure that there is strong
leadership in the organization,and being okay with the fact
that not all of us should berunning the day to day, and
really making sure that we havestrong board leadership. I think

(07:54):
one of the biggest things toremember in a nonprofit is it's
not yours. Yes, we may havefounded it. I'm a founder. I
founded this organization. It'snot my organization. I have a
board that I have to answer to.
I have staff that I serve, and Ihave people that I serve. And if

(08:15):
we forget that we are introuble. Mission drifting is
another huge thing that I see,you start getting donations, you
start getting donors, you startgetting grants, and now the
funder says, I want you to dothis now. Well, that was never
part of your core value. Thatwas never part of your mission.

(08:35):
And so do you start missiondrifting, or do you start adding
programs or going a differentway, because somebody who has
money told you to that is one ofthe things that I see, and I
think that can be a realdetriment to nonprofits, but I
think one of the key things isnot Having an income base that

(09:01):
sounds counterintuitive for alot of people when they're
talking about nonprofits, buthere's what I will tell you, if
you don't have an income basewith your nonprofit, you are not
doing everything to bring inthat funding. Whatever that
income base is, it could belittle, it could be big, but
there needs to be something thatbrings in an income. Most

(09:26):
nonprofits rely on grantfunding. I think it's a small
percentage that rely onindividual donations. Now there
are a lot of great organizationswhere their individual donor
base is strong and that's whatsupports them, and that is
great. The majority,statistically, of nonprofits

(09:46):
across the nation, rely on grantfunding, and so it's really
understanding what it is thatnonprofits need financially and
how to run. That organizationsuccessfully. And then I think
finally is consistent education,consistent learning. I don't

(10:10):
care what industry you are in.
Rarely is there an industry thatis just segment that never
changes. And so what are youdoing to better yourself in the
education of the industry you'reworking in. What are you doing
to improve? What are you doingto collaborate with others and

(10:31):
find out continually who else isin this this area, who else is
doing good work, who can Ipartner with? I think those are
the things that make a nonprofitextremely successful. And I have
to mention learning how tomanage a staff. Oh, the turnover
rate and the amount of toxicbehavior and stuff that is in
the nonprofit world isoverwhelming. Some of the things

(10:55):
I see in nonprofit work wouldnever fly in a corporation. Part
of that is because there'sthere's passion and compassion,
and we're in that workoftentimes because of traumas
that we have experiencedourselves. So it does lend to a
different environment, but westill have to run it with

(11:18):
integrity and with honor,respecting our staff, respecting
the people we serve, andrespecting ourselves and even
self care. So those are some ofthe things I wanted to talk
about with nonprofit. When Iwhen I people ask me, Should I
start a nonprofit? My answer isNO DON'T, at least not until you

(11:40):
have done all of your research,you have found out who is out
there, who is doing the work,who you can collaborate with,
and if someone is already doingit and doing it, well, maybe
there's a need in your communityfor the same thing, but maybe
there's not and maybe you couldcollaborate and partner with

(12:03):
that organization to growtheirs, expand theirs. It's not
always easy, but nonprofit workis hard. I always joke with
other nonprofit leaders we wantto quit every other day. It
sounds really good when youstart it, but nonprofit work is
challenging. It's soul suckingsometimes, but in the most

(12:24):
fulfilling way possible. But doyour homework before you start a
nonprofit. Find out what'shappening around your community,
around the nation, globally,whatever it is, and then work
with other nonprofit. There isno reason that other nonprofits
doing incredible work can't worktogether, because usually the

(12:47):
work you're doing is pretty bigthe people you're serving. There
are enough issues out there thatthe people we're serving can
benefit from. And I would justadd, as a nonprofit leader, if
you are not looking at your workas please, put me out of a job.
Please.

(13:09):
I want you to put me out of ajob. You may be looking at it in
the wrong way. So should youstart a nonprofit? Do your
research, do your homework, runit like a business, and then
maybe you have something that ishuge and can change lives. Thank
you so much for joining me.
We'll see you next time. Thanksfor tuning in. We hope you
enjoyed it. Please share freely.

(13:30):
You.