So You Want To Start A Non Profit

By Cheryl Hurt

A basic overview of what you can expect and what you should consider before embarking on your journey to forming a nonprofit organization. This book provides a thumbnail sketch of basic considerations and obstacles that will help you drill down your decision and provide a springboard to further research.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Cheryl Hurt
• Release date: Jul 29, 2018
• ISBN: 9781386370154

Cheryl Hurt

Cheryl Hurt is a non-profit professional with over 20 years experience in non-profit formation and management. She has helped both for-profit and non-profit businesses develop their organizational structure, file founding documents, develop their marketing and fundraising programs and maintain compliance with state and federal regulatory agencies. In addition to her consulting work, she is actively involved in executive management in a thriving local non-profit.

Book preview

Preface:

There are lots of resources out there for starting a non-profit organization. Some are quite comprehensive and will provide you with plenty of direction. Some will even hold your hand and provide you with all the forms and programming language you need in order to proceed. This is not one of those. This will provide you with a broad overview of what you should consider, a thumbnail sketch that you can use to help you drill down your decision and a springboard to further research.

There are many things to think about before embarking upon the journey towards starting and running your first non-profit organization. As a basic overview of what you can expect, this should help you make the decision whether or not to proceed.

As a non-profit executive, I have had the pleasure of managing a non-profit and working through many of these issues on a practical level. As a non-profit consultant, I have helped form many organizations in several states. I have also spent as much time helping clients figure out that starting an organization was not what they thought it would be and they moved on to work with existing organizations or stick with a for-profit model.

There is no wrong choice. Whether you choose to start your own organization, work with an existing organization, or even if you have found by critical evaluation, that this isn’t the right path for you, it’s the right choice. The choice you make after some very real soul searching is the right one...whatever it may be.

Table of Contents

Chapter 1

I want to start a non-profit!

Chapter 2

Do you really need to start another non-profit organization?

Do Your Research

Chapter 3

Understanding the Organizational Structure

Chapter 4

Developing Your Program

Chapter 5

Making Money

Grants

Fundraising Events and Donor Drives

Self-Supporting Options

Special Considerations

Accounting

Chapter 6

Staffing

Volunteers and Interns

Paid Staff and Contract Labor

Recognition

Chapter 7

Advertising and Marketing

Chapter 8

Starting Your Organization – The Basics