Episode 98: Big Problems Require Big Solutions
Ever wonder why we haven't moved the needle on most causes plaguing society? With over 1.45 million nonprofits in the US you'd think we'd solved some of our problems. There are plenty of reasons, and some simple solutions. Check out this episode for some insights on the plan for how to solve the big problems (hint: it requires some Big Solutions!)
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🔦 NONPROFIT SPOTLIGHT 🙌🏿
Project Joy Part 2
👉🏿https://www.projectjoyusa.com/
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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 (00:22):
Welcome to On Air with Amber. I'm so excited to be with you today. Today we're going to talk about why big problems require big solutions. Have you ever just stopped and paused and thought with all of the nonprofits we have? Last research I checked, we have about 1.48 million nonprofits across the country with all of the nonprofits we have. Why is it that we haven't really moved the needle on some of the country's most pressing issues? Because I think about that. I think about that all the time. Why haven't we made a dent in homelessness? Why is it such a huge problem? Now, I'm not saying that it is the nonprofit sector's problem. It definitely is caused by other things, but we have so many nonprofits trying to fix the problem, and not just homelessness, but drug addiction and re-entry, and there's so many things. Why is it that we haven't made a dent?
(01:23):
Today I'm going to talk about ditching the poverty mindset. When people start their nonprofits, they start off with, well, I can't afford that. I can't afford to pay people, I can't afford to. And as long as you come into this space small, that's how you're going to make your impact. If you have a small mindset, then you're going to have a small impact. And I am so serious about this because the world needs nonprofits now. So when we come back, we're going to talk about why big problems require big solutions and how we even approach that when we come back. Not sure how to price your programs or how to cover salaries. Are you scared to increase your program fees? If you're struggling to fully cover the cost of running your program, then you need how to price your programs for profit. This workbook provides step-by-step instructions for how to develop programs funders love to fund, determine the cost to charge for your programs and present salary costs in a way that funders will approve.
(02:29):
Learn the secret formula I used as an executive director for how to fully cover program costs. Order your copy today. Welcome back to On Air with Amber Wynn, and today we're talking about why big problems require big solutions and specifically ditching the poverty mindset. Listen, nonprofit does not mean no profit. Contrary to the popular belief, nonprofits need to generate quite a of revenue. And if you think about it, we probably need to make more revenue than the for-profits because we are in existence to address the problems of society. So big problems require big solutions. A lot of my nonprofits go in, well, I can do it off of 25,000. I can do it off of 10,000. That is not the mindset you want to have. You shouldn't go in thinking I can do something with the least amount possible. Your community needs you, so your budget is what you fundraise to.
(03:36):
If you're saying, I can do it off of 5,000, then that's what you're going to fundraise to and your budget will always be 5,000. That's not what you want. Big problems require big solutions. What you need to do is operate at optimal level, not just because of the impact that you want to create, but because of the lifestyle that you are entitled to live. If your budget is always 50,000, that means you're not getting a salary. That means if you have a salary, which I don't know how you could exist off of $50,000, you're not getting increases. That means if something happens in your community, oh, I don't know, like a pandemic or some type of natural disaster, heck, if one of your clients comes in and says, Amber, I have nowhere to lay my head. You're either going to come out of pocket to help this person or you're going to say, I can't help you.
(04:33):
Big problems require big solutions, and your community deserves the type of impact that you are capable of giving, but you can't get there. If you have a small mindset, if you're coming in saying, oh, well, I don't have any paid staff. I'm doing it volunteer based, or No, we're going to just hire only 1099 employees. 1099 employees mean that not only do you not have to pay taxes on their payroll, but they don't get benefits. So this small mindset is what keeps a nonprofit in poverty mode. It's what keeps the community from really experiencing an impact. Think about it this way. If every nonprofit was fully funded at the level that it costs to really run their business, you would see more impact. You know why? Because if you're running an organization off of $50,000 versus $2.5 million, you don't think there's going to be a difference in the impact.
(05:39):
Absolutely. You're going to have more creative programming. You're going to have more resources. If someone comes in and says, Hey, Amber, I am in a domestic situation. You can go to your discretionary funds, put person in a room safely, or maybe heck with $2.5 million. You have a partnership now you have housing, right? You can put your people up there. You have more choices when you have money. I was listening on my drive into the studio today. Progressive has a really cool commercial, and it says, money doesn't buy happiness, but it will buy you that boat so that you can go lay out and feel peace instead of being at home with your three teenagers, right? So that's some sense of happiness. Listen, money does not buy happiness, but money buys resources. If you are operating at an optimal level, not only are you able to take care of your community, but you are making bigger impact.
(06:45):
If your organization is focused on reentry, if you have more money, then you have more resources for the people coming out of prison, you now can say, all right, you don't have to go to that halfway house that is still in that community where you're going to be tempted to get back into that criminal life. No, no, we've got housing over here. We've got partnerships with transitional homes that's not in the same community. That's not going to tempt you. Now you're going to see more of an impact, or we can hire people to come in and teach you those soft skills that you need, teach you those hard skills that you need because we can afford the facilitators to come in and train you, which then means you're going to make more of an impact because when they have these soft skills or these hard skills, now they can get employed.
(07:33):
Do you see what I'm saying? If you're still trying to hire people for free that's not hiring or minimum wage, or when you have individuals with greater skills, you have greater impact and you're going to see them faster. Because if you have people who don't have skills, they either don't know, so they can't even input or they've got to learn and make mistakes. If you can hire people at their value and at their worth, it's going to take your organization to a different level. Nonprofits have a tendency to work with volunteers. Absolutely nothing wrong with volunteers. We love them. Yes, we do. Here's the problem with volunteers. In the space of big solutions, if you have a volunteer, a volunteer can come today and not come tomorrow. So there's no consistency in your programming. So if we're talking about making big solutions and there's this incontinuity in your programming, then that's going to contribute to you not making the impact that you need.
(08:32):
Are you following me? So we need to drop this poverty mindset thinking that number one, a nonprofit shouldn't generate revenue. It should generate tons of revenue in support of its mission because we have big problems and they require big solutions. Are you understanding what I'm saying? What we want to do is make sure that when you create a budget, it's not a budget based of fear. It's a budget based off of the impact you want to make in your community. Do you want to make a $5,000 impact or do you want to make a $250,000 impact so you build out your budget so that it represents how much it really costs to operate at optimal level? That doesn't mean that you're going to fundraise to that first year, right? But when you start recruiting board members, you don't want them coming in fundraising to $50,000.
(09:24):
You want them coming in to fundraise to $250,000 and $2.5 million. That starts with your budget. Your budget sets the tone for what type of impact you want to make in your community. So if you have a $50,000 budget, you're going to have a $50,000 impact. And what I'm saying to you is that we have work to do. So drop that poverty mindset, create that budget at optimal level, start recruiting high net worth, high powered board members who are going to be in partnership with you to fundraise to meet that budget, and that's how we're going to shift the tide. That's how we're going to start making a dent in our communities. We're going to make an impact that commiserates with the type of issues that we have. If everybody is scrounging around trying to make it off at 25,000, 50,000, listen, if you go to the IRS right now and you put in nonprofits under $50,000, do you know what's going to come up?
(10:28):
Over 60% of those nonprofits have budgets under $50,000. That's why we're not making an impact, because big problems require big solutions, and it's not going to happen with $50,000. So you may be saying, oh, Amber, well that's good enough for you to say, but how am I supposed to raise $50,000? It's not just about the money, it's about the infrastructure. It's about understanding that you are running a nonprofit business and when you have your infrastructure in place, when you have your high powered board members, when you have your systems in place, when all of these things come together, then you're able to generate that revenue that you need to operate at optimal level. It may take you a year or two to get there, but guess what? There is a roadmap, and that roadmap is going to show you how to operate a profitable nonprofit so that you can make the impact in your community that you need to make. That's what I'm here for. That's what I created the profitable nonprofit to help you do. So, I want you to drop this poverty mindset. I want you to get committed to making big solutions, and it starts by really investing in your organization so that you can become profitable, and here is the solution for you right now.
(11:52):
Are you struggling? Fund your programs? Can't get a grant to save your life? Most consultants will share the what of how 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 business woman 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 spend your will. I 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.
(12:41):
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 in hundreds of hours. 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 programs. 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.
(13:39):
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. 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. We're back. You're on air with Amber Wynn, and today we're talking about why big problems require big solutions. But it's time for me to answer your questions. Yep, it's time for Ask Amber, and it's where you reach out to me on any of one of my socials and you ask me your question. So today we have a question coming out from the community. Let's take a listen.
Speaker 3 (15:03):
Hello, Amber. My name is Ruth. I'm calling from Gardena, California. I've been trying for over three years to get a grant writing nonstop, and last month I sent out over 15 grants, but I have yet to get funded. I've been funding my nonprofit, but it's getting harder to keep it going. I know you've got to fund your organization until the grant money comes in, but how long does that normally take? And do you have any recommendations on how to get grants? Thank you so much.
Speaker 2 (15:33):
Hey, Ruth, thank you so much for your question. I appreciate it. There are a couple of things going on in your questions, but the first one that's a little bit telling to me is that you have been submitting grants for three years and you haven't gotten a one by now. You should have gotten some experience, learned some of the buzzwords. You should be getting better and you should be getting more and larger grants over the years. So the fact that you haven't landed, one says to me that maybe writing is not your thing, and that's perfectly fine. If you asked me to do a budget, it's not going to be the best budget because me and numbers were cousins. We're not best friends. So grant writing is a skill. As a matter of fact, if you are comfortable with writing stories, grant writing is going to be really easy for you.
(16:33):
But if writing is a challenge, grant writing is going to be even more challenging. That's why grant writers charge the amount that they charge. When I was a grant writer, people were paying me for my expertise, my knowledge. So I can also tell you as a seasoned grant writer, if you sent out 15 proposals last month, they are not competitive and I don't even have to see them as a seasoned grant writer. Even with the boilerplate, right? Even having written grants for the same organization for three, four years, you have generally speaking, what you put for your agency description, what you do for your, even having a boiler plate, the most that I would be able to get out is maybe two or three because you have to look at your funders guidelines. You have to tweak them and make sure that each question is answered according to their guidelines.
(17:30):
If you're just copying and pasting like you think this is somewhat of the answer and you're just copying and pasting, it's not passing the eligibility screening. It's not because a funder is going to read that and be like, they didn't even answer the question. So if you're putting out 15 grants in one month, I suspect that that's what you're doing. My recommendation, honestly, at this point is that you look into hiring a professional grant writer, get some recommendations from people who have worked with grant writers who are ethical, who have gotten some wins. Check on my website. I have a resource. The questions you should ask a grant writer before you hire them so that you can vet some of the grant writers. But it takes skill and knowledge and a solid program with results. It could be that too. You could be writing and writing and you haven't really crafted your program descriptions.
(18:30):
You're not providing measurable goals and objectives, but a seasoned grant writer will help you to develop those because those are the key things that you need in order to win a grant. So remember, it's more than just a cut and paste. Successful grant writing is not a numbers game. You don't just submit, submit, submit until you finally hit one. Successful grant writing is predicated on having a quality product. Quality content, it needs to be funder responsive, and a seasoned grant writer will get you there. Thank you, Ruth, for leaving your question. Anyone else out there? If you have questions for me, I'm happy to answer them. You can hit me up on any of my socials, my website, Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, and I'm happy to answer your question. Alright, so now we're moving on to my favorite time of the show, and that's where I get to put the spotlight on the most amazing people on the planet. My nonprofit founders and executive directors. Listen, you guys work hard. A lot of times you've got your head down in the weeds because you're doing what you started your nonprofits to do, which is to serve your community. But here's the thing, in order for you to address those big problems we talked about earlier in the show, you need to generate revenue. And the way that you generate revenue is to be seen. Funders need to know that you exist.
(20:03):
I've had several organizations say to me, Amber, I had a funder reach out to me. They want to donate $250,000. We got our first major donation, it was $300,000. And you know why? It's because they saw them. Big problems require big solutions, and if you're constantly just in the weeds and not doing what you need to do to be seen so that people can donate to you, then you're going to stay small. So in this episode, it's part two of my conversation with Kim Watson of Project Joy. Let's take a look.
Speaker 4 (20:47):
Years ago, I think very, very, very early in starting the nonprofit and it was lead with the need. And to be quite honest, it's been kind of that simple for us. So looking at the covid years, right? So when 2020 hit, I really thought Project Joy was going to close its doors. I was ready to wave the white flag, I surrendered, I'm done. Why? Because the funding wasn't there and the programs that we were offering, I did not immediately see how we could still do that when the community was on shutdown lockdown mode. So it caused a pivot. That's when I first got introduced to the concept of pivoting in a real way and to lead with a need because I had to pause and just look at it Amber and say, wait, our community still needs us. It's just a matter of how are we going to show up?
(21:44):
We just can't show up the same way. We just need to show up differently. So the way we showed up differently was by doing drive-throughs, and of course that took on wildfire, but we were pretty early out the gate with that. We were approached by a larger nonprofit who had not done too much outreach or things like that, and they asked us the partner and helped them with that. And the first event we did with them was called Helping AV Babies Thrive. And so with that, it was a drive-through baby diaper distribution because things like that, the essential baby needs were very high and still are high, but particularly high in 2020 at the start of the covid. So anyway, so we pivoted. We led with the need, we figured out how to show up for our community.
Speaker 2 (22:45):
Welcome back to On Air with Amber Wynn, and I love having conversations with my nonprofit leaders. I've been in this space for 30 years, but I'm always learning something new and I'm always getting inspiration from my nonprofit leaders because you guys are actually in the community doing the work. If you'd like to be featured on Air with Amber Wynn and my nonprofit spotlight hit me up on my socials, I am happy to do an interview with you and feature you on my nonprofit. I'm Spotlight. That's what it's there for. It's to give you that visibility. It's to let people in your community know that you exist. And then it's also to get you in front of those potential funders because I'm about that money, honey, listen, today we've been talking about something that is near and dear to my heart, and that's your money mindset. If you come into the nonprofit sector thinking that everything is supposed to be given to you, donated to you, that it's supposed to be free, you're setting your organization up for failure, but more importantly, you are setting your community up for failure.
(23:54):
Because if you are trying to get everything for free and donate it, that means that you are at the whim of your donors. You need to generate revenue, consistent revenue, 10 streams of revenue so that you have the agility to meet the needs of your community. Your budget needs to reflect how much it costs to run at an optimal level, not how much you fundraise, not how much is in the bank, but how much it costs to run at optimal level. And then your fundraising strategy should be to fundraise to that optimal cost. That's how we in the nonprofit sector can start to really make a dent. When we shift that 60% budgets to being over 50%, I mean over 50,000, then we'll start making a dent in our communities because now we'll have the resources to do that. So just focus on shifting your mindset to, I've got big problems to solve, so I need to generate some big money so that I can make those changes. I know you can do it, and guess what? If you don't know how to do it, that's what I'm here for. Right? All right, so that's all I have for today. I will see you next week. And as always, if you found the information in this episode useful, like subscribe, share, leave a comment, forward it on to somebody else in your community, because all in this together, the more we know, the more we grow. All right? So take care of yourself, like you take care of your community, and I'll see you next week.
Speaker 1 (25:36):
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 today's podcast. See you next time.
