We also sign people up for our newsletters, blogs and discussion forums to spread knowledge of the free resources and social messages we promote. Since we usually deliver information electronically to a broad audience, we are able to reach a wide population immediately for little money.
One way we try to gain leverage is by encouraging individual volunteers and businesses to help us with their time and donations of services. In this way, Grassroots.org requires less cash to develop and can therefore help more people faster. In other words, we can successfully meet our “business” goals by “employing” volunteers, and instead [...]
With our 501c3 charity, Grassroots.org, we are using a variety of strategies to grow and expand. In the same way as a business, we seek leverage, but instead of money, we count how many people or groups are positively affected by our actions. The more people we have helped, the better we’ve done.
No one should directly profit from charitable activities, yet there are abhorrent cases where there have been executive excess at the expense of charity stakeholders and society. One high profile example is the recent discovery that an executive at United Way was misappropriating funds. This is an anomaly and not in the spirit [...]
Other sorts of charities, such as churches, associations and political organizations, fall into different tax classes, whereas here, we are focused on fully tax-exempt 501c3 organizations, which are essentially charitable businesses whose monies flow internally after being raised or earned. There are no shareholders, dividends, or stock sales in a 501c3.
Charities do not distribute profits or have stock shares. All of what ordinarily would be profit from their business-like activities should be redirected back into their nonprofit projects. In a properly run 501c3 charity, there are generally staff members who receive modest salaries and other ordinary business expenses, but high salaries and expenses are frowned [...]
In business, one only has to count cash to know how well they are doing, which is fairly easy. To help people other than yourself in a meaningful way is much harder to address and quantify, but it should be approached with equal vigor.
We believe a charity should operate like a for-profit business. The main difference should be that the focus of the organization and the metrics (key data), which are being managed, should highlight the number of “needy” stakeholders being well served rather than the numbers of dollars of profits.
Being successful in business is not necessarily an easier life for you. In the long run, however, it could be more rewarding and fun. So get to it! Don’t procrastinate on the difficult projects ahead; hopefully, your competitors are doing just that. You will be better prepared for the future if you proactively take hold [...]
In running your business, doing the actual work involved may entail long hours and some stress. On the other hand, this could also empower you to retire in a third of the amount of time it would normally take—and that could facilitate a more relaxing second half of your life. Here’s how: if you are [...]
