Welcome to your Nonprofit.Courses Nonprofit Consulting QuickStart Course Workbook! In 20 sessions you will take the basic steps for starting your nonprofit consulting practice. (Or freelance or vendor work – all of which we will simply call “consulting” throughout this book.)
Nonprofit consulting is unlike any other consulting out there. While there’s B2C (Business to Consumer) and B2B (Business to Business), “B2N” (Business to Nonprofit) is different because nonprofits are different. Nonprofits serve two bottom lines. They need to be financially solvent – just like a person or a business. But there’s more. First and foremost, nonprofits are about mission. To achieve that mission, a nonprofit sometimes does what looks crazy from the outside – like take a loss on a project, or ask someone to overpay for a product, or simply ask for a large sum of cash for what seems like nothing in exchange! It’s all for the mission – whether that’s saving lives, of people or plants; or training students, human or animal; or preserving land, for farms or fields; just to name a few.
As a consultant to nonprofits you can impact one mission through many kinds of organizations, or one kind of organization and many missions. It’s up to you, your skills, and if people have the trust in you to apply those skills – all at a price you agree upon.
Whether you’re coming to nonprofit consulting from the nonprofit sector or as a career move from business or government, you’ll find dedicated people who serve their nonprofits – and not just in the direct, mission service roles. Administrative assistants, for example, will be just as dedicated to the mission of your client school, as, say, the teachers.
In this, and the accompanying checklist and video, you’ll find the basic information you need to begin your consulting business serving the nonprofit sector. This workbook takes you through the “behind-the- scenes” of what’s necessary to get your enterprise started.
We begin with believing that you are already good at what you do. So whether you have a background in fundraising, marketing, accounting, finance, nonprofit programming or any other aspect of charitable service, this workbook will aid you in offering your skills and knowledge to a broad base of potential clients.