by Marti Hess
It's been very inspirational meeting the participants in our classes who are passionate about their vision, whether it's to assist the homeless, bring music to school-aged kids, clean up the environment, or work with animals.  Each of them has found that thing that drives them.  That is why many have attended the MAPs training, hoping to learn the skills it takes to find funding to support their vision. And as we have stated in the workshops, there are a few things to be clarified before a person with a  passion and vision might want to jump into the non-profit world. Here are three vitally important questions to answer that will help determine whether to start a non-profit or a for profit endeavor:

Who benefits from what the business offers?
Non Profit: the community or a distinct target population
For Profit: the Business owner

Who controls the organization, including policies, salaries, benefits, strategic direction?
Non Profit: the board of directors
For Profit: the business owner(s)

How does the business use the funds that are donated or granted?
Non Profit:  Only in the way that the funder or donor has designated
For Profit: Business owner determines use of funds or profits

After considering these basic issues, if non-profit is the direction you want to take, then make sure you do your research and get as much support as you can through training (as mentioned above), websites (Iisted below), and books.  There are plenty of resources and experts  out there to guide you on the right path.  Here are just a few: 

Society for Nonprofit Organizations 

Legal Zoom 

Board Source 

by Aly Evans

Before you begin the hard work of crafting a grant application or proposal, you need to have a clear idea in your mind about the elements needed to achieve your goals.  This includes detailed knowledge of the budgets, timelines, scopes of work and expected outcomes. This is not something to do while developing the grant proposal--it is best done in advance. 

One thing to get straight is the difference between your organization’s operations, programs and specific projects.  Making sure you are using the correct term, and coordinating each will help you determining which applications to send to potential funders.

Operations of an organization are the continuing and repetitive activities that are done in order to achieve the mission and conduct business.  Operations don’t always have a definable end and are not a ‘one-time-only’ effort.  Operations or operational costs are not generally supported in grant funding so you will need to be creative illustrating operational costs in your proposal. (Example: an organization whose mission is to encourage life-long learning could have regular operational activities, such as board meeting, to oversee work toward their mission and to ensure that it is achieved over time.  )

A program is a group of related projects managed or coordinated in order to maximize outcomes or work effort. Funding agencies often award grants to support ongoing programs, but only when the application can clearly articulate the fiscal and programmatic importance of the work to achieving the organizational mission. (Example: an organization encouraging life-long learning could present a variety of outreach, membership or educational programs that are continually presented to maintain activity toward the mission.)

 A project is a ‘temporary’ work endeavor undertaken to create a unique and specific product or deliverable with a specific end date or time.  A project could be one element of a program and should reflect specific milestones to ensure success. The successful grant applications, supporting projects will include project management outcomes that identify how the organization will plan, execute, control and end a specified activity that is aligned to the organizational mission. (Example: an organization encouraging life-long learning could plan a symposium on the topic of learning as a part of their ongoing educational programming, with the intent that it will be a one-time event.)