Business Plans Kit For Dummies®, 3rd Edition

Chapter 12. Planning for a Nonprofit Organization

In This Chapter

• Being a businessperson — even in the nonprofit world

• Using your plan to explain and pursue your purpose

You may have heard the joke about the company that lost money year after year until it finally decided to become a nonprofit organization. It offers a good punch line, but people in the world of philanthropy know it's a long way from the real reason that organizations become nonprofits.

To nonprofits (also known as not-for-profits and NPOs), the bottom line isn't and never was about making money. Sure, fundraising is essential to underwrite programs, but to nonprofits, the ultimate motivation isn't the dollar but the good deed. To industry associations and business groups, doing well means helping others succeed. To charitable organizations, it means making the world a better place by aiding disaster victims, protecting the environment, offering childhood vaccinations, enhancing the arts, preserving history, protecting individual rights . . . the list goes on and on.

Nonprofits don't seek to make a profit, but they still need a business plan — now, in fact, more than ever. Here's why: Business planning makes nonprofits more businesslike in how they operate and how they achieve success. A business plan provides a clear mission and vision. It helps you zero in on the people you plan to serve and what you aim to accomplish. And by doing all that, you put your organization in a position to raise more funds to devote to your ...