Strategic Fund Development: Building Profitable Relationships That Last, Third Edition

Are You Slowly Going Out of Business?

How strong and effective is your organization? How well do you cope with demographic and economic changes? How effectively do you respond to societal and technological changes, and government challenges?

Here’s the bottom-line question: How well does your organization adapt? What’s your adaptive capacity? Or are you slowly going out of business?

What Questions Do Effective Nonprofit/NGOs Ask Themselves?

Here are just a few questions, only the tip of the proverbial iceberg. There are so many more, interspersed throughout this book, in Keep Your Donors, and at www.simonejoyaux.com. And of course, there are more questions beyond these references. Some of the questions here have yes/no answers. That’s not so good. The best questions are more open-ended. You’ll find those in future chapters. But for now, consider asking these questions in conversation with your colleagues in your organization:

• Does our organization have a vision and is it shared by staff, board members, and volunteers?
• Are we unique enough to make a difference and attract dollars?
• If contributions are slowing down, what is it about our organization that is failing to find an audience?
• What could we do to attract more volunteers?
• How do our stakeholders view us? Is this different from how we see ourselves?
• Does our agency focus only on the bottom-line financial goal or do we see the bigger picture?
• Is collaboration frustrating and merger or acquisition threatening?
• Does our board ...