Running a nonprofit is much more challenging than a traditional business. For starters, you have more stakeholders with wildly divergent interests and levels of involvement. Additionally, most nonprofits are understaffed and overworked.

Nonprofit organizations don’t have the time or resources to figure out how to do everything on their own. This is why savvy nonprofit leaders leverage a nonprofit consultant to help them scale their organizations without adding permanent costs to their teams. 

What is nonprofit consulting?

Nonprofit consulting is a professional service that helps nonprofit organizations increase their revenue and impact.

Cutting-edge nonprofit consultants provide nonprofit organizations with the tools they need to measure their impact, communicate their value, and grow their organization.

These consultants should help you resonate your organization’s value with your donors by creating strategic marketing plans, initiatives, and reports.

Why hire a nonprofit consulting firm?

The number one question most donors ask is, “How will my money be used?” What donors really want to know is how your organization is going to turn their money into lasting change.

Impact-focussed nonprofit consultants help you answer that question.

A nonprofit consultant should start by helping you measure your impact. Many donors want to know how their funds are being spent and how much of a difference their contributions are making in the world. A nonprofit consultant will work with you to measure your impact so you can share this invaluable information with your donors, employees, board members, and all other stakeholders. This will also help you plan for growth and determine where additional funding or resources may be needed in the future.

Everything comes down to impact

Funders of all sizes want to know one key component more than anything else. What impact are you creating?

In fact, a report by Social Solutions claimed that 97% of all donors (this includes granting organizations, Baby Boomers, and Millennials) value your impact more than anything else about your organization.

This means you need impact data!

Traditional nonprofit consulting will not give you the tools and resources you need to raise more money and scale your organization. 

Nonprofit organizations that embrace the reality that impact data is the path to growth far outshine other nonprofits. And they are financially rewarded for their efforts. 

Nonprofit consulting can include any of the following tasks:

-Help you quantify the value your organization creates (what is your real impact)

-Create systems that allow you to track and grow your impact (how will you continuously track your impact)

-Help you communicate your value to current and future donors (How will you explain your impact)

-Developing a strategic plan for your organization’s growth (who is going to fund your growth)

-Helping you develop effective marketing strategies to attract new funders (how will you attract more donors to your cause)

-Creating a measurement framework to track how well your organization is doing against its goals (how to ensure your programs are becoming more impactful)

You Shouldn’t Have To Do This Alone

When you’re growing a nonprofit, it’s easy to get caught up in the details and lose sight of what’s most important: your impact.

The truth is that nonprofits are complex systems with many moving parts, and it can be hard to get those pieces all working together in the way that’s best for the mission. That’s where consultants come in—they help you figure out what’s working and what isn’t so you can make changes that will have a positive impact on your organization’s ability to scale.

If you have any questions, feel free to reach out to the Social Impact Solutions Team!