An Org assessment is like your vehicle 3,000 mile check up where you look under the hood to proactively catch issues early, before they become costly. Lift your head up, get out the weeds. Make sure your programs are relevant. Make sure your staff is happy. An assessment helps you stay in the know, prioritize, and develop a strategy to get you back on track, or ahead of issues.

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🔦 NONPROFIT SPOTLIGHT 🙌🏿

Magdalena’s Daughters Pt. 1

👉🏿https://www.magdalenasdaughters.org/

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🚀 RESOURCES TO HELP YOU RUN A SUCCESSFUL NONPROFIT 🚀

How to Demonstrate Measurable Impact

https://fusion.amberwynn.net/product/how-to-demonstrate-measurable-impact/

90 Days to a Profitable Nonprofit

https://www.amberwynn.net/profitable-nonprofit

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Podcast Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):

Welcome to On Air with Amber Wynn, where nonprofit leaders learn to fuse passion and commitment with proven business strategies to create long-term funding impact and sustainability. And now here's your host and resident, Philanthrepreneur Amber Wynn.

Speaker 2 (00:21):

Hey, fam, it's your girl, Amber Wynn, Philanthrepreneur and I am so excited about being in your space. I'm always excited about being in your space. You know why? Because you are my community. You are my tribe. You are my people. You are my fam. And today we're going to talk about keeping your finger on the pulse. What does that mean? That means just pausing and taking an assessment of your organization. A lot of times, especially as the founder, you get so entrenched in the day-to-day in the delivery, delivery, hustling, writing grants, just doing all the things that sometimes you lose that pause. And what happens sometimes is you start to get a low recruitment, a low enrollment, a low partnership rate, and it happens slowly and over time. And then when you turn around, you're like, wait, what's going on? I've had that, especially since the pandemic. I've had people say, I just can't recruit the way that I used to. My participants, they just aren't coming in like they used to. And my suggestion is always to stop, pause, and administer an organization assessment. We're going to pause, of course, like we always do, but when we come back, we're going to talk about how you can keep your finger on the pulse by administering an organization assessment. When we come back,

Speaker 3 (01:55):

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Speaker 2 (02:37):

Welcome back to On Air with Amber Wynn. Today we're talking about keeping your finger on the pulse by administering an organization assessment. Listen, there are so many things you have to do as a nonprofit leader. I get it. You're in the weeds. You are administering programs, you're networking, and so sometimes happens is you lose the pulse of your community. Things happen, things change. I remember when we were doing outreach for our community, it changed when the internet was introduced. No longer is it about hard copy paper flyers. Now it's about social media blasts. So you may be slightly behind and not really realizing it because the work that you do is so important. But understanding your community needs, understanding your staff needs, understanding what's going on is important for long-term sustainability. So I want you to look at this organization assessment, sort of like a 3000 mile checkup.

(03:40):

You know that you get on your car annually when you hit 3000 miles. Then you go to the dealer, they look up under your hood, make sure that you don't have any leaking hoses, making sure that your spark plugs or sparking making sure that there are no cracks in your engine. That's what a nonprofit organizational assessment should be looked at, right? We just want to catch things before they get out of control because if you have leaking oil in your engine and it freezes up, that's a whole other engine and ain't nobody got time for that can be extremely expensive. It's the same thing for your organization. If you are going and going and going and you don't understand what's going inside your organization, meaning that your staff is unhappy, right? Because if your staff is unhappy and they stage a coup, and next thing you know they walk out, you have no one to deliver your programs.

(04:35):

If your community isn't really responsive to what it is that you're doing, then you have nothing that you can say to a funder to demonstrate your impact. So we want to pause every once in a while and administer an organization assessment. And it doesn't have to be some nonprofit consultant comes in and charges you $25,000 for a 50 page. No, you just need to ask the questions. Hey, are we meeting your needs? If we could do anything better, what would that be? If you're having issues with individuals coming into the organization, ask them what types of services would best serve your needs? If you've been seeing a lot of absenteeism in your staff, administer an anonymous survey and say to your staff, what's going on? Are you happy? If you're not happy, what's the problem? Nine times out of 10, you know what the problem is, but give your staff the opportunity to voice it.

(05:44):

Because if they say, well, I'm not getting paid enough, and you know that you don't have any grants coming in, I've had founders say to me, well, I know what the problem is. I can't pay them their worth. I want to, I just don't have it. But that doesn't mean you get to ignore it because when they're not seen, when they're not heard, then they're going to leave. So let's just say that is the issue. If they say, well, I'm not getting paid, you can ask them, well, what other things would make you feel okay about working with the organization until I can secure the money? It could be something as simple as, well, if I could work from 10 to six as opposed to eight to five, because then that would allow me to drop my kid off later at school so I don't have to pay for early morning childcare. That alleviates that financial burden. So you can get around things like that. Maybe your staff is like, well, you just push me and push me and you don't acknowledge me. So then you're like, okay, we're going to do an employee of the month that you can do or you don't listen to anything that I have to say. Create a suggestion box and then every month during the staff meeting, read it out and say, okay, how can we implement that when your staff is unsatisfied? And it has to do with finances.

(07:04):

It's not always the solution, just money. Sometimes there's other ways you can meet those needs. So what I'm saying is as the founder or as the executive director, it is your responsibility to stop and take an assessment so that you know what's going on internally and externally. If you are doing the same thing for 20 years and you haven't noticed that there's been a shift in your community, maybe it's shifted from one culture to the next. We have gentrification, so maybe the needs of the community isn't the same. Maybe there's an influx of an immigrant community, so the needs aren't the same, but you've got to be on top of that because that's going to impact your enrollment. So when we talk about administering that 3000 mile checkup, that's what you're doing for your organization. You're pausing and you're making sure that what you're doing is meeting the needs of your community.

(08:06):

Because what you want to do is make sure that you're always ahead of it. You always want to keep your pulse on your community. Here's the other thing I'll say, because some people, they get nervous and I understand that. But when you understand what's going on in your community, let's just say there's a shift in the demographics, now you have the opportunity to justify a request for grants. You can say to your funder, historically, for 20 years, my community has been African-American. Seeing more of a shift of that. We've got more migration of other cultures. We've got more Latinos. We've got more Asians. And so as a result, we need to provide cultural sensitivity training for our staff. My staff needs to be able to understand the cultural differences of this community that we're serving, right? So now you have a justification for professional development.

(09:04):

And guess what? York staff has been saying, well, I haven't gotten any training. I don't want to just be here and not grow. Now you'll be able to provide them with training. So administering an organization assessment is good for everybody. The other thing that may come out of your organization assessment is maybe some of your staff want to move up. They want to be leaders. They, you're like, well, I can't pay you. But you can say to them, but I want you to be able to grow. So how about you do these three stretch goals where you take on these leadership responsibilities so that when you get to the next role or when I have the money, you'll be ready for that position, but you won't know that until you stop and talk to your staff. I've had that happen a lot. Well, I'm writing this grant.

(09:57):

If it comes through, there's a manager position ready, but you're not ready. You've never supervised anyone. So how about if we get a couple of interns, right? We do this specific initiative like outreach. You're going to work with these interns to do outreach into the community, maybe even have them do the assessment. I need you to go and talk to these different youth about what it is that they want, what type of programs that they want, have the interns do it, you supervise them, that's going to give you supervisorial skills, and now you've learned something. You've got those skill sets. So when I do bring in this money, I can promote you. So when you stop and think about how to best serve both your staff and your community, you make your organization stronger, but you got to stop all of that grinding, moving forward, constant motion.

(10:51):

It may hinder you from keeping the pulse on your community. All right? So that's one of the things that we wanted to talk to you about today is really just keeping your finger on the pulse. These are the things that you need to learn because running a nonprofit is a business, right? And it's not just about delivering services. It's about understanding that there are different facets to running a nonprofit. If you're not sure what those facets are, I got you. I've got a resource. It's called the 90 Days to a Profitable nonprofit that covers all of the things that I'm talking about. How to look at your staff and give them the types of professional development that you need. Some of it's low cost, some of it's no cost. How to do an assessment in your community. So let's pause. Let's take a look at 90 days to a Profitable nonprofit.

(11:45):

Are you struggling to fund your programs? Can't get a grant to save your life? Most consultants will share the what of to start a nonprofit or how to fundraise. They may even share the why, but they don't share the how because that's where they make their money. Now, I'm not hating. I'm a businesswoman too, but I've been where you are trying to make the world a better place, struggling to keep the doors open up to the wee hours of the night writing grants and doing whatever needed to be done. And because I've walked in your shoes, I'm not here to make you spin your wheel, waste your time or your hard earned money. We ain't got time for that. The world needs you. I'm here to show you how to transform that pit. You keep dumping your hard earned money into a profitable nonprofit. I take my 30 years of nonprofit experience as a founder, executive director, program developer, grant writer in funder, giving out over $7 million annually in grants, and I save you literally thousands of dollars and hundreds of hours.

(12:51):

I walk you through setting up your nonprofit organization so that you can be generating enough revenue to cover your monthly expenses in just 90 days. How would that feel? Not paying bills from your personal bank account. I share my insider secret tips, tricks of the trade, and provide you with a step-by-step roadmap on how to turn your bootstrap organization into a profitable nonprofit. Within six months, you could be generating enough revenue to pay your salary or fully fund your program. The choice is yours, but you have to get the blueprint, and it took me three years to develop it, but it's here and it's going to change your life. Join my other successful clients who are just like you, full of passion and determination, but they had no idea all that it takes to run and fund a successful nonprofit. Now they're winning grants and drawing a salary, and they know what it is that they're supposed to be doing to run a successful nonprofit.

(13:52):

They're no longer making it up as they go. They have the roadmap and they're clear about next steps. And I want that for you too. So what do you get in this course? You'll walk away with knowledge, products, processes, and systems, not just a bunch of promises, but exactly what you need to turn your organization into a profitable nonprofit. I promise you don't need grants. What you need is a solid infrastructure, and this course is going to give you all of that and more. And what's more, it comes with the money back guarantee. So go ahead, click the link below to register for this course. Welcome back. You're on air with Amber Wynn, Philanthrepreneur, and today we're talking about keeping your finger on the pulse by administering an organization assessment. Now, we're shifting to the part of the episode where you get to ask Amber, I'm constantly giving out information that I think is valuable, but just like me talking about this assessment, I need to hear from you. And so at this point, you get to ask me your questions and I get to give you my answers. So let's pause and hear our question from Ask Amber.

Speaker 4 (15:10):

Hi, Amber. This is Nikki from Westminster. I've been struggling to have my grants funded. I have no idea what I'm doing wrong. Any hints how to write better or what should I do to improve?

Speaker 2 (15:26):

Hey, Nikki, first of all, thank you for your authenticity and your vulnerability. Trust me when I say that you're not the only person in that position when you start a nonprofit. You think all of this grant money is going to be out here just waiting for you. And then when you start the process of writing grants, you're like, whoa, what am I doing? And you do your very best. Here's the thing, of course, you could take a grant writing course, right? You can go to your local university because typically they will offer them through the extended education program, how to write grants, get a grant writing certificate. There are online courses you can try, nonprofit Ready? It's free. So you can try there. But before you spend money on formal training, ask yourself if what you are writing passes the so what factor. What do I mean by that?

(16:18):

Is what you're writing surface? Is it general, right? Is it basic run of the mill, right? Is there any innovation in what you're writing? What makes your program innovative? Is it who's delivering it, where it's being delivered, how it's being delivered? Or are you just saying, we provide tutoring programs that improve? Look at what you're actually writing. Most times grants are rejected because they don't have clear program descriptions, they don't have measurable goals and objectives. The budget doesn't make sense. It's inaccurate, or it doesn't reflect what you've written in your narrative, and you can't improve. You can't prove that you've made a demonstrative impact. So it may not necessarily be how you're writing your grants, Nikki, but what you're saying or not saying. So I think at this point, I would ask you to decide if this is even a best use of your time.

(17:19):

I have a lot of founders who are like, well, I got to write this grant. I don't know what I'm doing. If you are not innately a writer, it's like five times harder to write grants. If you are a storyteller, it's going to be easy. That's not to say that it's easy, but the purpose of a grant is to persuade, right? Excuse me. So that means you need to understand the buzzwords. You need to understand the real question behind the question. For example, if a funder says to you, well, what's your sustainability plan? What they're asking you is What type of funding is going to be in place to replace my funding? If it's no longer there, if you don't know that, you may say, well, I'm going to come back and ask you for more money, and then you won't get funded. So sometimes it's not so much about what you write, but really understanding what it is that you're saying and what it is that the funder is saying.

(18:14):

So it might just save you a lot of money, a lot of time, a lot of headache if you just hired a seasoned grant writer. Now with that, people say, well, where do I find one? Yes, yes, yes. When I tell you it's a challenge, it's a challenge. I'm going to say to you, this is where your community comes into space. You ask people, Hey, anybody out there had any success with credible grant writers and get referrals? Do not just go by what a person says. There are a lot of scammers out there, but it may just save you a lot of headache, a lot of time, a lot of money. If you get a seasoned grant writer, you're still going to have to have all those other things. You're going to have to have innovation in your programs. You're going to have to have a funder ready budget, all of those things.

(19:04):

But if you aren't comfortable with writing, I'm going to say to look into a professional who is. All right. So if any of you have a question you'd like to ask me, you can hit me up on all of my socials because I'm out there, right on my website, Instagram, Facebook. You can even go to my website or you can hit me up at amber@amberwynn.net. I'm here to answer all of your questions and make sure that you get your questions answered. Alright, so now we get to move on to, as you know, my favorite part of the episode. That's when I get to put the spotlight on you, my nonprofit leaders. In this new series, I'm also going to include consultants, subject matter experts, people out in the nonprofit industry who can help you as a nonprofit. So we're going to put the spotlight, yes, on our nonprofits, but also on other resources out there. But today we are going to start our series with Magdalena's daughters. Magdalena's Daughters was founded by Ashley Hill and her goal, her mission is to combat sex trafficking. Let's hear from Ashley Hill of Magdalena's Daughters.

Speaker 5 (20:32):

So I'm a licensed marriage and family therapist, and I used to work with foster youth and I used to travel to a lot of group homes in Southern California. And what I realized in that process, in that role was like, oh my goodness. Human trafficking is such a huge problem. There were pimps coming to the homes. They were scaring the staff and girls. The staff were kind of just letting them leave. And then not only were they forcing the girls to come outside the homes, but they were forcing the girls to recruit other girls within the home. So they weren't leaving by themselves. They were just leaving in groups. They took the whole home with them. So it's really a huge problem. And so then I also had clients who were victims and they had no idea. I had one client who was just a part of a big stingray out here, and they busted the trafficker for soliciting minors, and she just thought she was living well, and she was under the control of a CEO pimp, what we call a CEO pimp.

(21:27):

And he was wealthy, and she lived nice in a lavish setting and place, and so she just didn't realize what it was. There's a lot of our clients who don't realize what it is, and youth don't understand what human trafficking is. And in our area, in the Inland Empire, there is actually no homes that specialize in services that specifically meet the needs for our commercially sexually exploited foster youth. And so I was like, this is crazy. This is happening so often. I probably had like 50% of my client caseload who I felt were suspected victims of human trafficking. And so I was like, okay, so there's an issue here. So I saw the need and I took the lead. And so ever since 2018, I've been pioneering this movement to really develop the housing program for this population out here in the Inland Empire.

Speaker 2 (22:38):

You can watch the full episode of my interview with Ashley Hill of Magdalena's Daughters on my YouTube channel. But I think what she said is extremely important, and it ties back into what I was talking about, keeping your finger on the pulse of your community. One of the things that Ashley said is that in some of her visits to some of these group homes, she paid attention. She noticed these things that were happening and that the resources were not in the Inland Empire to combat this travesty happening to young girls and boys with sex trafficking. So it's important to understand that communities change, right? Things happen in society, things happen in the world, and it causes a shift in our community. So things aren't going to be the same, but you've got to be vigilant and just being able to pause. I know when I was executive director, we would at the end of each of our grant periods, bring together everyone to talk about our successes, talk about our challenges, and to talk about what's going on in the community.

(23:53):

What are you noticing? What are you seeing? To make sure that when we start the next grant year, that we are shifting so that we're meeting the needs of our community so that we are in step with our collaborators so that we can demonstrate to our funders that our programs are making an impact. So you want to be able to do that as well. Keep your finger on the pulse and do that by administering an assessment. Like I said, it doesn't have to be a full on financial investment. Just pause, ask questions, get some responses. All right. So that's it for today's episode. Thank you so much for joining. If you like what you heard today, be sure to share it within your network. We want everyone who's doing the work out there to get the resources that they need. That's why I'm here to support the most amazing people on the planet. That would be you, my nonprofit leaders. So subscribe, make sure you share. But most importantly, make sure you come back and see me next week because I'll be here with my bills on providing you with my insight, insider secrets, tips, tricks of the trade. So yeah, that's all I got for you. So take care of yourself, like you take care of your community. I'll see you next week.

Speaker 1 (25:10):

Thanks for listening. If you enjoyed this episode, subscribe and leave a review on iTunes. Head over to www.amberwynn.net/podcast for the links and resources mentioned in this podcast. See you next time.