A Look At The Non-profit World From Our Lense

The nonprofit world is not a world that's easily understood unless you're part of it.  Developing and running programs is a trial and error process, managing volunteers can be a juggling act, and funding sources can make it difficult, as it's not always a steady stream of funding.  On top of this all, you rely heavily on donations and contributions to your organization to keep pushing forward.  With all of these variables on the field, you need to be ready to hit the curve ball at any given time.   At HOPE, we are constantly learning the curve and doing our best to hit it out of the park.  We do our very best to overcome each and every one of these obstacles to provide the best services we can to our community.  That's not to say sometimes we don't fall short.  That is where we are so very lucky to have such amazing community support, when we strike out, you all are right there supporting us at our next at bat.  Let's dive into some of these variables and shed some light on how things work in the nonprofit world.

Earlier we mentioned that developing and running programs is a trial and error process, and it truly is.  We have some programs that run so smoothly and function without a hitch; we have other programs that we are still working the kinks out of, and then there are the programs that no longer exist because they just couldn't work the way we envisioned them.  When you have an idea, a brilliant idea, you come together as a team to think about how you can make it work.  You spend hours going over the pros and cons, you put processes in place, and bam; you think you have a home run.  You swing the bat to knock the program out of the park and it ends up being a foul ball, and so it's back to the drawing board.  You keep doing this until either the program is a success or you strike out and it's on to formulating the next brilliant idea.

Through all of this work, you're also dealing with last minute issues and problems.  In our case, you may be working on a program, or report, and you have a domestic violence survivor coming in for help, or someone drops of a truckload of food donations and you have to drop everything to take care of it.  This is because our community, our clients, our donors are our most important supporters, allies, and the reason for our mission.  As a result, this sort of program development needs to take a backseat, because people are our priority.

In particular, the donors to our programs are so important to the success of our organization.  For example, in the fall and winter--as holidays approach we receive so much support in regard to donations.  In the same respect, that seems to be the time of year that the Vermont Food Bank is able to provide more when we purchase food from them.  Fast-forward to the summer months and our services typically increase as many families lose some of the support they rely on because school is out for summer.  At the same time, these are the months that we receive the least amount of contributions in regard to food--particularly protein.  So what do we do?  We scramble to be able to provide protein for our food shelf participants.  We try to push sales in the thrift store because the extra income will help us fill that gap, we scramble looking for more grant funding because that will help us fill the gap, we do what we need to do to continue to be able to provide for our clients.

Our community support doesn't just end with donors; it's our volunteers too--which throws another curveball at you!  In regard to volunteers we notice the reverse effect than the situation we are in with donors.  In the winter months when we have a ton of events and programs happening, and we have a ton of donations coming in; we see fewer volunteers.  It seems that everyone goes into hibernation for the winter and we are working diligently with minimal staff and volunteers.   As mentioned before, summer months is when we have the least happening in regard to events, donations coming in etc., however, this is the time when we see a flood of volunteers.  So you see, there is no formula to making a nonprofit run smoothly all the time, as mentioned before, it is a total unexpected curve ball most of the time.

So you swing at the programming curve ball and it’s a hit, you swing at the donor curveball and it’s a hit, you swing at the volunteer curveball and it’s a hit; and just when you think you’re done, the pitcher winds up and BAM another curveball—funding. If you’re a nonprofit, how do you handle funding?  In our situation, it’s even more complicated at HOPE because we are a private Non-profit and this is the biggest curve thrown yet.

In the nonprofit world you rely heavily on grant funding and funding from private foundations.  In our case, the income generated from the thrift store helps supplement that funding, but doesn’t cover it all.  In the world of grant funding there are so many “what ifs” that it can be terrifying at times.  There are grants that you apply for and you don’t receive, not because they don’t support your cause, but because they get flooded with so many applications all at once.   The other major hurdle with grants is most you cannot apply for annually.  Some are a one-time deal, some are every other year, and some are even every 5 years—which makes consistency of funding very difficult.   Many foundations that give monetary contributions are very particular about who they give to, and where they give to.  In the same respect, corporate foundations will only donate to geographic areas in which their company operates.  Vermont is known for promoting small business, and exiling corporate business. This makes it very difficult to go after those funding sources as well.   You can say a nonprofit going after funding are like chipmunks looking for nuts before winter comes; packing away as much funding as possible before its all gone.

So you see, when working in the nonprofit world, you need to always be ready for the curveball because you never know what you’re going to be up against.   You need to be ready for a funding source to not come through and figuring out how to make it work.  You need to be ready to have an influx of volunteers and to figure out how to make it work.  You need to be ready to reach out for community support when food donations are down. You need to not be afraid of a program failing, and be ready to stand up, dust yourself off, and swing at the next curve ball that comes your way.

The nonprofit world takes heart, it takes guts, it takes courage.  It takes dedicated people who are not afraid of what’s on the horizon, and not afraid to keep pushing forward.

Always be ready for the curveball, but more importantly always swing.  Even if you strike out the first time, you’ll knock it out of the park the next time.