Agency Management

The concept probably predates Rakesh Sondhi’s Total Strategy but a VMOST analysis is still a useful way of figuring out what your organization wants to accomplish and how it plans to go about it. Assumptions are sand traps when it comes to planning and submitting proposals. Instead of assuming “everybody knows” why we do what we do and how we do it, this is a useful framework for thinking through the hierarchy of intentions and actions for your organization.

More and more nonprofits are discovering the benefits of collaborating with other organizations (other nonprofits or for-profit businesses) to get things done. These collaborations might be formal partnerships, joint applications, mergers or other arrangements. Whatever their structure, they often deepen and expand the impact of a program or initiative.

In the worlds of nonprofit programs, management, fundraising and development, there are few topics more widely discussed and more generally misunderstood than the role of the board. In development, e.g., some nonprofits expect (demand?) that board members make a financial contribution to the organization. Others beg and plead with the board to do something, anything, to help raise money.

One of the inescapable truths about proposal writing and grants funding is the time it sometimes takes for a funder to make up its mind. Weeks, months – many months – can go by without a word. Funders work on a variety of timetables: some wait for a regular board meeting; some review proposals as they are submitted; some put requests through a series of screens and determinations, each one setting the stage for the next one.

Nonprofits are created and chartered to pursue a specific mission. It’s how an organization earns its tax-exempt status and it’s the salient purpose that brings people together to do important work. When a nonprofit decides to edge out from the core of its mission and attempt new projects, it’s sometimes thought of negatively, as “mission creep.”

Most, if not all, funders now expect your nonprofit to address diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) in your proposal. Funders want to know what you have to say about whether and how your organization is diversifying, delivering your work equitably and including all who are a part of your community and society.

When it’s time to write the winning proposal, it can turn into a scene from a bad movie: the writer, alone at a cubicle, staring down the guidelines, cramming thousands of words into tiny boxes, gulping black coffee and heart racing to the beat of a merciless clock on the wall.

The good news—a foundation wants to look closely at your nonprofit organization because there’s the possibility of a major grant. You’ve heard that a site visit is planned, a review of your board’s participation is in the works and a thorough financial examination is part of the process.

Your nonprofit has been around a long time—congratulations, statistics suggest that a third of nonprofits fail after 10 years, half of all new nonprofits shrivel up after only a few years. If your organization has weathered economic downturns (and Covid lockdowns), you’re doing just fine.

Routine medical exams almost always measure a number of vital signs: temperature; pulse rate; blood pressure; respiration. Often, too, there’s height and weight, questions about changes, an overall assessment. Nonprofits might borrow this approach.