Is your nonprofit facing a challenge? The Nonprofit Highlight is a pro-bono service provided by members of the Nonprofit Action Network (NAN). Leaders of nonprofit organizations are invited to make a presentation to our members, focusing on the strengths of their organization and challenges they face. NAN members then organize a team of appropriate consultants who perform a more in-depth analysis of the needs of the organization and develop key recommendations, reflecting their individual areas of expertise. The results are shared on our website.
In this format, Nonprofit leaders benefit from the analyses and insights of skilled professionals whose expertise might ordinarily lie beyond their reach, for reasons of expense and time commitement. The objective perspective of a specialist is shared during a one-hour, no-strings attached consultation, brain-storming in a free exchange of ideas with no agency or personal agendas. These insights often lead organically to actionable recommendations that can be shared with staff and Board Members. Participants have found the NAN member's perspective to be refreshing, clear and illuminating.
Guidelines for Presentation
The nonprofit must:
1) Be in existence for at least three years
2) Have at least five full-time employees
3) Have an operating budget of at least $1M
Do you have questions about how the Nonprofit Highlight can benefit your organization? Call today:
Geoff Ledet
LETTER 7 Brand Communications Design
212.595.7445
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
NONPROFIT HIGHLIGHT CASE STUDY I: Artistic New Directions
Artistic New Directions (AND, www.artisticnewdirections.org) is a nonprofit theatre company dedicated to the development of new works, new artists, and new ideas in the theatrical community. Offering workshops, rehearsal space and connections to actors, directors and writers, AND supports members of the performing community and their projects from inspiration to production.
Principal
Scotty Watson, Past-president of the Board of Directors
Project Scope
AND struggles to improve its fundraising success and also generate more publicity to attract supporters in general and participants to its programs.
Nonprofit Action Network Consultants
Peter Heller and Janet Falk
Project Results
Scotty Watson shared his thoughts on the consultation he received: "With fundraising, we are finding ways to asks more from our constituency; only approximately 20% are currently donating. As a result of the input from Peter, for example, during a recent cash flow emergency, we went to our members and asked for help. It turned out to be one of the best fund-raisers of the year.
With public relations, Janet Falk suggested we ask ourselves the questions “So what, why now,” when considering messaging to the public. This led to a new program where our members tell the story of how they came to us using social media. These stories will be a base for future PR campaigns about our company. Her input also gave us some ideas on how to measure how effective our current public relations consultant is, as well as giving us other avenues to explore.
Testimonial
"I can’t thank your consultants enough for giving their time to meet with us. We were sure left with a lot of food for thought! These meetings will hopefully change our company’s philosophy when it comes to Fundraising and Public Relations. Changing how you think about a subject is the first step in real organizational change. Nonprofit Action Network helped us use the right foot for the first step in our journey."