All organizations share the goal of flourishing and growing exponentially, including nonprofits. Nonprofits now embrace growth hacking strategies to stay afloat like never before. Many nonprofits operate on a budget based on donations, so they constantly devise ways to keep their revenue streams steady and expenditures minimal. They acknowledge that all their services can come to a standstill without the finances.
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This article will discuss five strategies that can help a nonprofit grow.
Look for the best hire
All organizations are as good as their employees, ranging from the senior leadership to the frontline staff. For nonprofits to grow, hiring the best talent in specific fields goes a long way in ensuring exponential growth.
To achieve this, they can seek the services of nonprofit executive search firms. These firms have professional recruiters with in-depth expertise for an overall recruitment process. Collaborating with a nonprofit executive search firm ensures that a nonprofit organization hires the most qualified employees since they are thorough, unbiased, and provide confidentiality of the entire process.
There is no need to worry for nonprofits without the muscle to consult other companies for their hiring needs. However, you may also find the best hire internally by following strict guidelines on your recruiting programs. First, evaluating the needs of the nonprofits and setting a timeline to vet the best employees is key to maintaining growth. Additionally, creating an employee referral system is critical.
Motivate your staff
Having dedicated employees is key to maintaining the growth of any business, nonprofits included. Delighted staff is one of the powerful growth hacks used globally by all sectors. However, for this to happen, all nonprofits must motivate their team.
One of the effective hacks to make this possible is a one-on-one engagement between senior managers and the junior staff on organizations’ goals. Showing gratitude and recognizing staff where it is due are other sure ways to keep employees happy. Offering coaching and learning opportunities for employees is another way of keeping them happy.
It is essential to point out that volunteers make up much of the staff in many nonprofits. Therefore, offering benefits and rewards now and then keeps them motivated. Most notably, offering staff growth opportunities is crucial, as nobody wishes to remain in the same station their whole lives. Employees nowadays prefer development more than salary.
Keep your social media up to date
For nonprofits to grow, using numerous social media channels is vital. Social media has become increasingly important to the populace today. For instance, 95% of Canadians use social media daily, with Facebook ranking top in 2022. As a result, nonprofits who wish to expand their service providers must engage their clientele on various social media channels to help generate helpful feedback.
Nonprofits can regularly update their web pages on new developments to maximize social media use. Posting on platforms pertinent to what you offer is critical in reaching out to the required target audience. Additionally, it is wise to use video content in sharing quality material about your vision on social media because the younger generations are very visual in their learning styles. Finally, using hashtags promptly and encouraging followers to share what you post is key to keeping a nonprofit growing.
Analyze expenses
Unlike the corporate organizations that exist solely to maximize their values, nonprofits focus on performing specific missions that do not generate revenues. As such, it is challenging to choose the best economic operating model. Since most nonprofits thrive on donations and often do not have other revenue streams, conventional cost analysis methods may not be viable. However, when analyzing expenses for your nonprofits, some financial ratios can be helpful. Let us look at some of them.
- Operating reserve ratio: It is one of the commonly used ratios by all entities. It indicates how a nonprofit can continue to offer services without any revenue income to fund its operations.
- Program expense ratio: the benchmark gives information on nonprofit expenses used on programs compared to expenditures in supporting services.
- The administrative expense ratio quantifies the percentage of resources allocated and used for administrative purposes in nonprofits.
Compare costs to the benefits
Cost-Benefit Analysis (CBA) is one of the primary tools that ensure growth in corporations and nonprofits. Having a complex comparison of all the costs and benefits associated with any nonprofit makes it easier to run and create policies that will ensure its endurance in the future. Therefore, it is paramount to ensure that costs needed to prepare for donation proceedings are less than the benefits of the services rendered by any nonprofit.
For exponential growth in any sector, growth hacking is essential. Practicing the hacking strategies mentioned above will help ensure your nonprofits stay afloat. Additionally, having a growth hacker is an excellent way to ensure nonprofits remain abreast of all the trending strategies in growth hacking.
Author Bio
Since 1997 David Hutchinson, the president of Cause Leadership, a nonprofit executive search firm, has successfully placed senior-level candidates with a broad spectrum of organizations in the charitable sector. He also has a great interest in helping charitable organizations diversify, become younger in their leadership, and better represent their own clients.