A resource for corporations and other businesses that want to make a commitment to social responsibility
by Jayne Cravens
  via coyotecommunications.com & coyoteboard.com (same web site)


What Corporations & Other Businesses
Need to Know About Nonprofits, NGOs, Schools
& Other Mission Based Organizations

A nonprofit I work with frequently hired someone from the corporate sector to be the nonprofit's communications and event manager. After just one week on the job, he quit. Among his parting statements was this: "You need four people to do this job!" The rest of the staff, including me, all had a good laugh. Welcome to the nonprofit world! The two people in the position previously, who had each lasted three years, had been masters at juggling priorities, closing deals, pulling off events, meeting deadlines and putting out fires, often with a smile - or a smirk. And always with far less resources than they should have had.


So many people from the corporate world don't understand the nonprofit world, and they make assumptions about mission-based organizations - nonprofits, charities, NGOs, schools, etc. - that can doom any goal they might have or any partnership or support they want to provide.


Here are some of the most common misunderstandings many in the for-profit world believe about the mission-based world:


Myth: Nonprofits don't have experts, just people with good hearts.
In fact, many nonprofits are staffed by experts regarding fields that relate to the mission of the nonprofit where they are working: child psychology, counseling for women experiencing domestic violence, live performance (acting, dancing, singing, event production), nursing, public health education, outdoor environmental resource management, farming, animal husbandry, biology, and on and on. The people working in marketing, public relations, donor relations, human resources and other administrative positions also often have many years of experience in their respective fields, and may also teach at local universities, have authored books about their area of expertise and be invited speakers and trainers at various conferences.

Myth: Nonprofit staff don't mind not making much money.
Nonprofit staff do not get discounts on mortgages or monthly rent payments, medical insurance costs, utilities, dental care, student loans, university fees for their children, food, clothes, fuel for vehicles or any other expenses. They must make those payments just like everyone else. Coupled with the level of responsibility they take on at a nonprofit, they deserve a competitive salary just like ANYONE in ANY business.

Myth: Nonprofits don't know how to manage money.
Nonprofits do extraordinary things with very little money. They're constant struggles for funds are often a reflection of corporate funders who refuse to pay overhead (for salaries, office rent and utilities, computers, accounting software, etc.) because those businesses want to fund only "direct service" activities, and the board of directors of the nonprofit - members drawn from the corporate world - who don't like their fundraising responsibilities and, so, don't make much effort in trying to raise funds.

Myth: Nonprofits are tech-phobic.
Nonprofits do extraordinary things with technology when they get access to such. Nonprofits were pioneers regarding using the Internet in the 1980s and 1990s, but their contributions to those early days is largely ignored. Corporations want nonprofits to use tech, and want them to use the LATEST tech, but then refuse to fund purchases of software, computers, smart phones and the fastest Internet access available (because... overhead!!!).

Myth: Nonprofits need to be more like businesses.
Nonprofits are mission-based. They engage in activities that meet their mission. If they focus more on generating income, they often fail to meet their mission. A for-profit company may measure their social media by number of followers, number of responses, etc., but a nonprofit may measure their social media by the TYPES of followers (reaching more young people than they do via traditional outreach) and the TYPES of responses (questions and comments that reflect people may be changing their minds about an issue of concern to the nonprofit). Here's more on the difference in nonprofits and for-profits.

Myth: Volunteers are free labor.
NO. Volunteers are not free. There are costs to create assignments for volunteers as well to screen, train, supervise and recognize volunteers. Their activities have to be recorded and evaluated. It's often much more inefficient and more expensive to have volunteers undertake tasks that could be done more quickly by one or two paid staff members or consultants. In addition, managers of volunteers need resources to help them do their work better - that can be a book, that can be a workshop, that can be a conference. These are costs that get put into "overhead" - which many corporations and foundations refuse to fund.

On a related note, here is a writer from Forbes in March 2021 writing his own list of 12 HUGE Myths About Nonprofits That Need To Be Dispelled.

More than 200 charities from across the United Kingdom took part in in-depth surveys and interviews about how they are working with businesses and what could make these relationships even better. The report revealed that 6 in 10 charities believe that businesses put their own needs first in relationships and 76% say that businesses do not have a good understanding of what it takes for charities to manage employee volunteers. The report, which was released in March 2020, also had these takeaways for businesses in the UK, and I believe they are things corporations in ANY country should know:
  • The importance of engaging with smaller, local charities (not just the big players) and doing so in a way that doesn’t stretch their limited resources further;
  • How to be driven by charities’ needs (not employee preferences) when designing volunteering programmes, whether these take place online or in person; and
  • The largely untapped potential for charities to provide insight into how companies can better serve those who are vulnerable in society.

There is so much corporations could learn from nonprofits and other mission-based organizations, particularly with regard to doing so much with so little in terms of staffing and money, but also how what challenges a community is facing that, if addressed, could help a business have happier, more productive employees and bigger profits. Also, the people who were doing the most exciting things in the early days of the Internet, in the 1990s, were nonprofits and community groups, not corporations - it's from the mission-based sector where I learned best practices of online customer service, successful community engagement and exploring possibilities around innovation.

Before you launch your corporate giving program, your employee volunteering program, your nonprofit sponsorships or whatever philanthropic endeavor you you are exploring, keep this in mind:  
Nonprofit AF is a web site, with a Twitter feed and Facebook account, that explores what it is like to work in nonprofits, including fundraising, working with donors, special events, community engagement, donor cultivation, program implementation, outcomes and metrics, etc. - but usually does this exploration in a very funny or provocative way. On Facebook Nonprofit AF featured this question in July 2020: What is the most ridiculous thing a donor or funder said to you? The answers are hilarious and... sad and should be read by all corporate giving and foundation program staff. And on Twitter, at the start of the pandemic in the USA, the #CrappyFundingPractices of several foundations got special attention, like those of the United Way, Region's Bank, or the Amelia Peabody Foundation.


 Shameless plug:
The Last Virtual Volunteering Guidebook, written by myself (Jayne Cravens) and volunteerism expert Susan Ellis and the result of MANY years of research and experience, can help your company / business in better understanding virtual volunteering and in fully-developing your company's employee virtual volunteering program. The book provides complete details on what virtual volunteering is, all of the many, many different forms in which it is practiced, various ways to support and grow virtual volunteering, and how to address various challenges that might arise.

The book can also help your company work with nonprofits and schools to help them develop virtual volunteering opportunities for your employees - something many organizations need assistance with. Many traditional volunteer centers are still struggling with the concept of virtual volunteering; corporate support could help greatly in getting volunteer centers to embrace virtual volunteering, a practice that's more than 30 years old and is undertaken by many thousands of people and organizations. Your support starts with your company fully understanding the realities of virtual volunteering, and this book can help greatly in that regard. 
  Discuss this web page, or comment on it, here.


  Quick Links 

   my home page
 
 my consulting services  &  my workshops & presentations
 
 my credentials & expertise

 Affirmation that this is web site is created & managed by a human.
 
 My book: The Last Virtual Volunteering Guidebook

 contact me   or   see my schedule
 
 Free Resources: Community Outreach, With & Without Tech

 Free Resources: On Community Engagement, Volunteering & Volunteerism

 Free Resources: Technology Tips for Non-Techies

 Free Resources: Nonprofit, NGO & other mission-based management resources

 Free Resources: Web Development, Maintenance, Marketing for non-Web designers

 Free Resources: Corporate philanthropy / social responsibility programs

 Free Resources: For people & groups that want to volunteer
 
 linking to or from my web site
 
 The Coyote Helps Foundation
 
 me on social media (follow me, like me, put me in a circle, subscribe to my newsletter)

support my workhow to support my work

To know when I have developed a new resource related to the above subjects, found a great resource by someone else, published a new blog or a new Tech4Impact email newsletter, uploaded a new video,
or to when & where I'm training or presenting, use any of the following social media apps to follow me on any of these social media platforms:

like me on Facebook      follow me on Twitter    Mastodon logo    follow me on Reddit    follow me on LinkedIn     view my YouTube videos


Disclaimer: No guarantee of accuracy or suitability is made by the poster/distributor of the materials on this web site.
This material is provided as is, with no expressed or implied warranty or liability.

See my web site's privacy policy.

Permission is granted to copy, present and/or distribute a limited amount of material from my web site without charge if the information is kept intact and without alteration, and is credited to:

Jayne Cravens & Coyote Communications,
          www.coyotebroad.com

Otherwise, please contact me for permission to reprint, present or distribute these materials (for instance, in a class or book or online event for which you intend to charge).

The art work and material on this site was created and is copyrighted 1996-2024
by Jayne Cravens, all rights reserved
(unless noted otherwise, or the art comes from a link to another web site).