Why Time Is Money Even for Nonprofits
After a solid decade of nonprofit work, I’ve met some stellar people who are passionately leading heartfelt causes. The mission to help others and make a difference comes first. Time, effort, and cost are concerns only as a function of doing good.
Even so, money is still a major concern. Without funds to support the programming, the mission will fail and the people that mission serves will suffer.
Money is just as important to the nonprofit as it is to a profit-based company. In the nonprofit realm, especially for development and donor comm teams, time really is money.
Which is why I wasn’t surprised to see it mentioned in the 40 Nonprofit Trends for 2022 report from NonProfit Pro. This report is full of insights from leaders, including an entry from Tammy Zonker about Time Management. Zonker suggests that “being strategic with our time could be the greatest fundraising tactic we could leverage.”
And I agree. It’s good business for nonprofits to review donor activities in light of how effectively they engage and cultivate donor relationships. For nonprofits especially, it’s crucial to invest in high ROI activities. It’s good business to maximize your team’s efforts, because that directly affects your programmatic services.
Do you know how many hours your nonprofit team invests in various responsibilities and tasks?
Unless you use time tracking, you’ll never know if the effort your team invests is worth the cost. Now, some activities are inherently time intensive and still quite necessary. But some activities are time intensive and not necessary—or have the potential to be transformed into more effective activities.
For example, donor events are known to be high effort—and few nonprofits have a true understanding of the hours required to execute it. And if you don’t know the true time allotment, you have no idea if you are raising dollars above the time and effort investment.
It’s possible you’ll keep doing low ROI events—but you may want to reshape them to require less team effort or use the event for a different purpose. It’s also possible that you could find other activities that are much more effective in growing donor connections that require much less of your team’s time.
Here’s the thing: Even in a nonprofit org, time and money are connected. The time you invest each day has a cost, and you want as much of that investment as possible to benefit the people you serve and move your mission forward. By focusing on high ROI activities, you position your nonprofit to better serve your constituents, have a greater missional impact, and make the most of your team’s day-to-day efforts.
Is your nonprofit team investing most of its time on high ROI activities? Make sure your team is having the greatest impact—schedule a 15-minute Change Chat to discuss how.
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