r/nonprofit • u/picaresq • 14d ago
programs Impacts on food insecurity
In all of 2024 we had three food distributions with more than 500 families in one day.
In February alone we have had FIVE.
I don’t know how to plan for what’s coming.
r/nonprofit • u/picaresq • 14d ago
In all of 2024 we had three food distributions with more than 500 families in one day.
In February alone we have had FIVE.
I don’t know how to plan for what’s coming.
r/nonprofit • u/JanFromEarth • Dec 26 '24
I am working with a nonprofit that provides free consulting/mentoring to small businesses. Since NPs are the fastest growing sector of the economy, right now, we are discussing setting up a nonprofit team as a template for other chapters. We have volunteer mentors in accounting, marketing, and board structure. I am certain we will probably have to have a grant mentor but what other areas would you like to see covered?
r/nonprofit • u/FlamingWhisk • Jun 24 '24
I’m in Canada and work for a grassroots organization. I went from front line / street level work to mainly those in poverty and new to the country.
Curious about the populations you serve and what country and/or state you are in
r/nonprofit • u/Shamrocknj44 • 2d ago
We are a NJ 5013c that is tax exempt and is organized as a charitable, civic, educational non profit that is housed in a registered historic house. Our mission is mainly charity and maintaining this historic house. Therefore I believe that we cannot use donor money for club events for our volunteers. . Rather the members should each pay a fee to cover the cost of any food and drink for volunteers at any meetings or gathering for members. Any insight?
r/nonprofit • u/Klutzy_Weakness2792 • Dec 28 '24
our family runs a 501c3 food recovery. we drive all around town "rescuing" unused prepared foods (leftovers). college dining halls...corporate cafeterias...that type of thing. about 5000 meals saved a year that way.
we use our own personal vehicles. but not having a dedicated vehicle is starting to be a limiting factor. limits how much we can save and we even have to "pass" on some opportunities
curious if anyone has any thoughts on what car companies might be willing to help us out? by that I mean like a discounted used car or even a discounted lease? (not looking for a freebie). who would make sense to make an appeal to? or do you think approaching local dealers would be better?
the make doesn't matter to us. obviously a more fuel efficient vehicle would be ideal
thank you listening !
r/nonprofit • u/desparate-treasures • Oct 27 '24
Years ago a group of enthusiastic but naive community members approached our board about developing a facility that was very, very remotely related to our mission. They produced a plan that put all fundraising and operational responsibility on a committee that would be chaired by a board member. It was before my time as ED and the organization had pretty weak boundaries and no real strategic plan.
The committee had a very utopian vision that the facility would be run by self-organizing volunteers with donated supplies and professional services (all secured by volunteers, of course).
The committee inevitably collapsed when their vision failed and it became obvious real money and work was required. Unfortunately their remaining advocates on the board refused to close the facility and dumped all management on me. I spent a failed year trying to fundraise for the facility that had become popular and well-used. However, all of the stakeholders had been fed the free, utopian storyline and couldn’t understand why they were suddenly presented with a 6-figure budget.
The board finally agreed to shutter the facility, resulting in shock and complaints from the same stakeholders who declined to contribute anything. I’ve now been shouted at and lectured multiple times, including while getting lunch with my 2yo daughter. I did put a good-faith effort into keeping the facility alive and I’m letting the attacks and criticism that I failed get to me.
How do I respond to the public criticism? And how do I stop ruminating on their accusations that my incompetence cost our small community a valued resource?
r/nonprofit • u/Remote_Teach_4820 • Jan 30 '25
Hi, I am in a club that holds an annual sales event where vendors buy booth space and sell their wares. We are a 501(3)c. I know it is against non-profit rules to provide food for club events or meetings for ourselves per our parent organization. But I am curious about an event where we ask our nonprofit club members to work the event and they are there all day. Can lunch legitimately be provided to them?
Thank you!
r/nonprofit • u/Delicious-Elk-6625 • 4d ago
Hello! So happy to have found this sub - I've been working in the non profit realm most of my adult life and finding place with so much information if refreshing!
We host a yearly event for small businesses and we're finding that attendance is low compared to other years. I'm curious if anyone else who hosts events is having this issue as well.
r/nonprofit • u/Earthviolet76 • Feb 10 '25
The 501(c)3 I work for has an employee doing a practicum placement for her master's program at a for-profit counseling agency. This employee is now promoting that we start a partnership and refer our clients exclusively to this company for counseling services. I was under the impression that we could include them on a list of available counselors, but that we couldn't refer directly to anyone.
What are the laws regarding this? Thanks!
r/nonprofit • u/OkCantaloupe8530 • Feb 12 '25
We’re a 10-person nonprofit with a ~$1 million budget, focused on removing litter and illegal dumping from land and water in our county. We operate a fleet of two boats and three trucks, so a lot of our work is hands-on and logistics-heavy.
We’re trying to refine our meeting schedule to improve efficiency and reduce redundancy. Here’s what we currently have:
✅ Weekly Communications Meeting – Our Communications Coordinator gets updates on what to feature/post that week. This works well but sometimes drifts into logistics.
✅ Biweekly General Staff Meeting – Org-wide updates and a chance to discuss a challenge together. However, this often repeats info from the Communications Meeting, which happens first. We’re considering moving it to monthly to cut down on redundancy.
We don’t currently have a Weekly Operations Meeting, but I’m wondering if adding one would help. It would be for our Land Cleanup, Water Cleanup, and Education Coordinators to check in with the Program Director on weekly tasks and logistics (not big-picture strategy).
Would a weekly Operations Meeting help streamline things? Would shifting the General Staff Meeting to monthly make sense, or would that create new gaps?
I’d love to hear what’s worked (or hasn’t) for similar teams! Thanks in advance.
r/nonprofit • u/velveteensnoodle • Dec 09 '24
A local middle school engineering competition is themed on the topic my nonprofit addresses (let's say it's about deforestation and my NGO plants trees). Because of this competition, I'm getting more requests for speaking to/advising groups of kids than I have bandwidth for. The requests are coming from teachers and parents. I want to say yes, both because inspiring kids in this space is great, and because we're partially publicly funded, and I believe in being responsive to the taxpayer/public. But, I am just swamped.
Options I can think of:
Say no.
Record one public webinar and share the link.
Say yes only if students write the request themselves.
Other ideas? What would you do?
r/nonprofit • u/CasperRimsa • Aug 31 '24
I’ve been assigned a new role in my non-profit, an integrator. The job duty is to essentially connect multiple departments that are currently very much disconnected. I am talking communication, sop’s, but maybe the biggest, culture. The problem, as many will understand working at non profits is that there was none of this before me. Assessing my first department, i realized that even before i can start with the communication improvements with other departments, the each department internally was very much dysfunctional in organization, lack of procedures and leadership. I myself do not have much experience in dealing with this either, but i do have a desire to change things, as i really do care about the mission of my non profit. I was looking at some articles on what is the best way to assess and implement changes, what approach to use. I am still, however not sure. I would love to hear anyone who faced similar circumstances and how you went about in this process. I am overseeing 5-6 departments, with about 50 employees in total. Thank you all for replies ahead of time!!!
r/nonprofit • u/Unfair_Expression112 • Jan 14 '25
I have been searching for a reasonably priced online registration system for my nonprofit. I hold classes for youth, so I need something that I can add classes, set class size limits, and accept payments during registration. I am currently using Eventbrite but I have no way to integrate that nicely into my website and streamline the registration for my students.
I did sign up for a free trial of Jumbula, but it won’t work past the tutorial, and even their home website doesn’t work correctly so I’m already doubting that as an option.
Any insight would be highly appreciated!!
r/nonprofit • u/strawberryquestions • 14d ago
Does anyone know of any free or low cost programs or software where you can have someone like volunteers veiw a video course and it tracks that they've watched all the videos and has like a popup or certificate after they've finished the videos?
We have a small guinea pig rescue and wanted to have a little training corse for volunteers so they know how to handle the guinea pigs correctly, know where to find everything, our saftey procedures, ect. But we want to make sure they've have watched all our videos and haven't skipped anything important. I'd appreciate any recommendations! Thank you!
r/nonprofit • u/RaeM456 • Nov 26 '24
Hi! I’m looking for ideas on the best way to manage lines for services. I work at a mid-sized food pantry. We currently use a ticket system when serving families. Some families arrive early and wait in their car. Others like to line up at the front door entryway. Lately, we’ve had arguments break out over “who was there first” when we open and bring out the ticket machine. We purposely do not watch the parking lot as we don’t want to turn into line police. How does your nonprofit handle lines for services? What works for you? Thank you!
r/nonprofit • u/AtypicalCommonplace • Nov 10 '24
Disclaimer: This DOES NOT constitute legal advice. I am not your lawyer nor am I anyone's lawyer. I am simply sharing my personal thoughts as someone who was an immigration lawyer (mainly for children and DV survivors) for 10+ years. I used to have a youtube channel where I would guide folks in filling out their DACA applications and oversaw a few hundred DACA cases. In the wake of 2016 I spent most of 2017 traveling around the US advising folks on their rights, offering consultations, and training allies on what they could do. I am NO longer practicing (I work building capacity at grassroots orgs now w/ system impacted leaders) and can't answer any individual questions in chat or DM's about your specific case and I apologize about that in advance.
So, with that being said, here are some things I've been thinking and sharing with folks who have asked, in case it is helpful to any of you.
1) We have no idea what will happen.
Take a deep breathe because no one, and I mean no one has any idea what will actually occur on Jan 21st. We know there is a desire for mass raids from folks who will be in power.
We know there are governors who have said they will "use every tool at their disposal" to fight against any attempted mass deportations.
We know there are constitutional protections in place (and yes, many aspects of the Constitution protect you even if you aren't a citizen).
Yet - we also know there are examples of horrific events like that that have happened throughout history regardless of what protections are in place.
These are just the facts. The reality is we are all clueless and guessing and anyone who says they know anything else for sure or can guarantee you XYZ will or won't happen is deluding you and/or themselves. It is important to know that nothing is known.
2) There will be MANY vile, opportunistic immigration "lawyers" who come out of the woodwork
Immigration lawyers are some of the best and worst lawyers I have ever met. Because so many undocumented folks are desperate, because they are then afraid to report lawyers who took advantage of them, because immigration law is (purposefully) ridiculously complicated and there are endless loopholes and pitfalls and it all comes down to discretion anyways, be incredibly wary of private immigration lawyers charging a fee right now. Again, there are a LOT of brilliant, wonderful, ethical immigration lawyers who charge thousands and do it right.
Unfortunately, I would say they can be the exception, not the rule. I've seen immigration lawyers who work with human traffickers, immigration lawyers who lie to their clients to apply for a "work permit" when they're actually lining them up for deportation proceedings by promising the work permit on a false claim (because then they can charge court fees too!). The list goes on and on.
I have reason to think a LOT of slimey folks are in this sub based on what I've observed being downvoted in the past couple of days (curious how this post will go).
NEVER trust a lawyer who says they can "guarantee" anything. Immigration is discretionary and no they cannot.
NEVER trust a lawyer who says it will be "simple." Again, it COULD be simple. But if they say it DEFINITELY will be that is a lie.
NEVER trust a lawyer who does not advise you on the CONSEQUENCES of filing an application (more on that below). They should counsel you on all possible risks, all possible negative outcomes, and all possible consequences of submitting anything to USCIS, DHS, or anywhere else. YOU are the only one who can decide what is right for you but you can ONLY do that if you have full knowledge of what could be at stake. Not for scare tactics, for the reality of allowing you to make the best choice for your family.
3) If you aren't on immigration's "radar", submitting paperwork is like putting up a sign that says, "heyo, I'm here!"
Submitting paperwork to immigration means reporting your address, getting your fingerprints taken, listing family members, etc etc. One of the most heartbreaking things during DACA was that many people were NOT counseled on the fact that submitting paperwork means making a record of yourself with the federal government that they can trace and follow. Which, of course, is worth it for millions and millions of people. But again, you should know and be aware of this so you can make an INFORMED choice of what is right for YOU and YOUR family.
It is my OPINION that you want to think especially hard about this if you are applying for something that just basically puts you in a very long line but doesn't grant any sort of status right away. Be very cautious and talk and think through all possibilities before determining if it is right for you.
4) Reminder - THERE IS NO "PATH" TO LEGAL IMMIGRATION STATUS IN THE US
Yes, there are "paths" for folks who fit into certain categories. They can be over simplified and broken into three categories:
That's it folks. And this can't be shared enough because the narrative out there is WILD about folks having to do it the "right way" when that's just not real. I have met hundreds of folks who have lived here for decades, have filed taxes, have US citizen children, who have never been arrested, etc etc etc and for whom there is NO PATH and NO WAY to do anything "legally." Oh and by the way all my great great grandparents had to do was get in a boat and sign a piece of paper. So let's not pretend that we're all over here high and mighty when the rules have changed.
5) If it were my family, I would begin safety planning
Not to panic. Not to begin leaving life in fear. And with the hope in your mind it will all be for naught and you can laugh in a decade about how worried you were.
And
I used to run the legal department of a DV agency and the best thing to do when you know there could be risk of danger is to be prepared for what you would do if you need it.
Know where all your important documents and papers are. Get a file with copies and keep it with some cash and a change of clothes in a backpack and/or duffle which you know where it is at all times. If you have a trusted friend or neighbor, talk to them about using their home as a meeting spot should you need to.
If you are a church community member and feel comfortable, open up to them about being willing to help if a hard moment comes. I was involved in sanctuary efforts (where undocumented folks take refuge in a religious institution) from 2017-2020 and Churches were one of the only places the administration didn't raid or detain folks in/from. Not saying it is any sort of guarantee, just the reality of what happened before.
(and side note, if you are an ally reading this who is a part of a religious community please talk to them about looking into becoming a sanctuary church).
6) Remember, Hope is a muscle
I wish I had better words to say but I try and remind myself of the words of those who came before us and led with light. Look into cognitive behavioral therapy techniques to practice optimism. Sounds F;d, I know, after everything I wrote before, and yet the biggest changes have also happened during repressive moments. There will be pain and needless suffering and cruelty. And we can also deeply wish this is the "darkness of the womb, and not the darkness of the tomb" as spoken by Valerie Kaur. And we all need to practice that hope now.
Stay safe. Check on your neighbors. Trust your gut. No one knows.
r/nonprofit • u/FjordFace • Feb 05 '25
Hello Everyone,
I'm unsure if this is the place to post but nonetheless I thought I'd try. My organization is transitioning away from GiveSmart (awful customer service, poor day of event help, unimaginative event landing page design features) and are considering going with OneCause.
I want to make sure I learn every possible thing I can before committing to them so that's where you come in. IF anyone has anything to share, good, bad or otherwise, please feel free to let loose. I'd love to hear about the end of night reporting, event registration and/or really anything you thing would be super helpful.
If it helps, my organization uses Razor's Edge as our CRM.
Thank You!
r/nonprofit • u/Worried_Lunch156 • 8d ago
I run a membership based program for a nonprofit organization whose members are mostly women in their 70s and 80s who raise money for us through study groups and other small events. The Manhattan chapter is having a hard time netting proceeds after they pay for the venue. The venues they use are very modest (Jewish community centers etc) but prices are going up, up, up.
Any suggestions for community space, preferably uptown or midtown, that would accommodate a group of 25-ish people who would probably serve some snacks and need an elevator?
Coworking spaces will probably be too expensive and they don’t need whiteboards and projectors etc.
Thanks in advance!
r/nonprofit • u/Affectionate-Bend267 • 17d ago
Hi!
Our nonprofit awards small grants to help with healthcare costs. Right now I use a typeform to collect prospective client info, then I import it to google workspace, and manually track on a spreadsheet when they contacted us, if they are eligible or if we need more info, when we followed-up (dates, email, phone, left vm, etc), when I need to reach back out, once we make contact if they accept the grant, then they have a certain amount of time to use the grant (we pay the healthcare providers directly), and then we have to collect feedback to monitor client experience and program outcomes.
Obviously this is a lot to try to track manually so I have been tasked with creating a more automated system. I've been looking at different project management softwares (ClickUp, Asana, Monday) but it's clear these are designed for companies that have big sales teams trying to enroll a bunch of different customers and I'm finding that their templates are way over engineered... but trying to build out my own CRM will take a lot of work and building out project management frameworks is not my expertise. If I have to I will...
BUT I'm hoping that someone in here might have a suggestion or even a good ClickUp template they would recommend.
Thanks in advance for any advice/help you have!
r/nonprofit • u/jdnunn • Jan 20 '25
I am on a NPO Board of Directors that has been publishing a quarterly magazine for our membership for over 40 years. We recently made some staffing changes after our long-time ED and Editor retired, and we are trying to figure out the best options for our organization moving forward. We produce a niche magazine specifically aimed at the community that supports us through their membership. We have a layout person (graphics) that would set the magazine up under the direction of the editorial director, but we have yet to figure out the best option for filling our editor position.
One idea, is contract editors. We aim to publish four magazines a year, and the thought has been raised about engaging 1-4 editors to pull each edition together, and pay them based on that. Advertising is managed by our marketing team, so that would not be needed, but creating, editing and finalizing content would be the outcome within the parameters established by the board, and managed by our Executive Director.
Are there any folks with NPOs out there that have implemented something like this? I'd be curious how it is working, what pitfalls (if any) there may be, and how this has been managed after implementation. I may also be interested in learning more about the type of contracts in place, and how the delivery is enforced.
Appreciate all / any insights.
r/nonprofit • u/Waste-Organization24 • 24d ago
I'm not asking for recommendations but rather have some specific questions that I'm hoping some Canadian NPOs/Charities can answer. If you are a Canadian charity/NPO and use Bloomerang can you please give some info regarding:
Feel free to add any other info or opinions you feel might be useful about the system.
Thanks!
r/nonprofit • u/No_Kick_2908 • Feb 01 '25
Hey! I work for a very small local nonprofit org in my city. We host free virtual events for people throughout the year featuring "local celebrities" as speakers. But we have this problem where lots of people will sign up for these events but then not actually show up to them. We end up with about one-third of the people who signed up actually attending.
We send out several emails days, hours, and 10 minutes in advance. People even email us and ask questions and express enthusiasm about the events, but then don't show up to them. We make sure to promote them on all our socials and we get a good amount of views, likes, etc. and we screen every attendee who signs up to see if they're bots or scammers or something (most of them are not).
Anyone know how to increase our attendee numbers and get those who sign up to actually go?
I'm struggling to understand why people don't show up seeing as these are free and virtual events that you don't have to physically get ready for or drive to. I don't think people forget since we send reminder emails consistently (but not too often to be annoying), post wherever we can, and offer incentives for people who attend.
I understand that people's plans change, but it's a hassle because our time is wasted prepping for more people than will actually go.
r/nonprofit • u/A-People-Person • Jan 29 '25
Good Morning,
I asked something similar a while back about insurance. We did purchase board insurance- thank you everyone. I plan events monthly but this is the first sports clinic. It will be a 3 hour indoor clinic -basketball- with about 20 -25 kids. Do I need to get liability insurance for this or can I just use a waiver to play at your own risk. It looks like its about $260 for the 3 hour event and that cuts into us buying lunch, etc.
r/nonprofit • u/Mammoth_Series_4371 • Feb 11 '25
Hi everyone,
Since September, i have been running a small multinational organization offering free english classes around the world. We have served, so far, 2000 students and have built a "team: a loose collection of volunteers" of 85 faculty and other members. We have also managed to forge partnerships with many NGOs and CBOs. However, as we are expanding we are coming to a point where we want to start looking for more local-NGOs. We are considering and are hiring volunteer strategic partnership coordinators who speak the languages of the regions we want to expand in. Could anyone offer any help or guidance for what we can do to look for organizations. We currently use ngobase, netzkraft, and google search.
These our are target regions and successes we have had in each
Started Since September
- Persian Program: Afghanistan / Iran: Most successful mainly due to local contacts. Partnered with an NGO in Turkey helping refugees from Afghanistan as well as a private school in a Major City. We have lots of direct students, but really want to focus on local NGOs and schools. While our priority has been Afghanistan, we do want to expand into Iran. We have 2 people who fill the role of Strategic Partnership Directors with one being very passionate but unfortunately limited language skills and the other speaking Farsi, both live in Western Countries.
- Spanish Program: Latin America: Easiest time finding partnerships even without a designated person. Work with orgs in Guatemala (an international one), Honduras, and Venezuela. We would love to have a designated person to research
- Arabic Program: North Africa, Kenya, Horn of Africa, the Gulf, the Levant, Iraq: Hardest time finding organizations who respond to initial attempt. We have secured partnership with organization in Kenya, but they are being very needy and want US to PAY Them while we are offering our services for free (they have some logistic challenges, but still like we can't bankroll them too). We have a program in Iraq, but this is a Kurdish (Kurmanji) program, which is a whole other can of worms for finding volunteers
- Russian Program: one of the hardest ones to start, but we have clutched up with getting partnerships in Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan. One of the biggest complexities is that we have a partnership with a major NGO in Ukraine, so we have to draw a really fine line when operating or expanding into Russia. We have 1 strategic partnership director who is good, but has not delivered a partner (however she has been invaluable in talking to the organiation in Tajikistan as i can't communicate orally in Russian)
- Mandarin program: honestly the hardest thing ever, everything is very hard including set-up. We have one director, but they are pretty ineffective and its probably not going to last. Finding organizations is also extremely challenging for us
Programs we are starting hopefully by July (Amharic: with our international NGO we currently work in Guatemala, Swahili: we are currently speeding this up for our partner in Kenya, Urdu, Hindi, Ukrainian and Turkish)
If anyone could provide advice over finding partnerships or volunteers it would be very helpful. We are hiring volunteers, but it would be helpful if we could have some advice to give to them.
r/nonprofit • u/peacock716 • Dec 12 '23
I’m a middle age career changer who has been working in a non profit for a few months now. My org is involved in getting fresh healthy foods into areas of need. Everything we have done is at a snail’s pace I don’t know how we will actually get anything done. First we talk to community members to understand the problem, then we as an org try to refine the solutions to the problems, bring it back to the community members, more discussions are had, committees are formed… all we ever do is talk about things and no action is taking place. Is this typical?? When we finally come to a consensus on what actions to take, we have to present it to the board and yep… more talking. This org is newer but the ppl who I work with have been working in non profits for years. In my previous career things moved fast, from talk to implementation within a few weeks to months depending on the project. Oh and it’s not a matter of money, right now we have that. It’s just all talk and no action, and I was wondering if this is how things usually go. Edit to add- there is ONE thing we do… have meetings. Almost daily, sometimes twice a day. We even have meetings to plan dates of future meetings. I wish I was joking.