Episode 104: Don't Chase the Money: Mission Creep
Mission creep is when take money to administer programs that aren't aligned with your mission. You take the money to fill gaps. It's tempting but it's expensive: you need to hire staff, that takes away resources, but most importantly it distorts your IMPACT. Instead of chasing money, build out your organization to position it for consistent revenue by building out your infrastructure. If you don't know how check out 90 days to a Profitable Nonprofit, the roadmap.
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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, welcome to On Air with Amber Wynn. I'm so excited about today's topic because this happens so much. Today's topic is don't chase the money, and we're talking about mission creep, right? I think there's so much misinformation out there about nonprofits that people with really great intentions, really great hearts, come into the sector with a lot of incorrect information come in thinking, oh, all I got to do is start this nonprofit, get some grants, it's going to cover that. Then when they get into it and they're like, wow, I'm coming out of my pocket with all of this money. I need to get some money. And so then they become a little bit desperate, right? Because you're shelling out all of your personal money, which you never thought you would do. You thought this grant money would be coming in, and so then what ends up happening is there's these opportunities out there.
(01:17):
Funders will be like, Hey, here's $5,000 if you do this. Here's $10,000 if you do this and you're thinking, I can do that and I need some money. So you end up taking these grants for five, $10,000, not really understanding that you're probably doing more harm to your organization than good. You know what your mama say all money ain't good money. In those instances, when you're taking those dollars that are not in alignment with your mission, you could be doing more harm than good. So that's what we're going to talk about when we come back after the short break is don't chase the money and mission creep when we come back.
Speaker 3 (02:00):
Have you been duped by a grant writer promising you the moon and the stars, but after collecting your $2,000, you never win a grant? No. A grant writer can't guarantee you'll get funded, but if you don't know how to vet them, you could walk right into a scam. Check out my guide the questions to ask a grant writer before you hire them to help you determine if a grant writer is a bonafide professional or out to steal your hard earned money with no intentions of yielding results. This guide explains what to look for in a grant writer if they're novice or seasoned, if they're a fit for the type of proposal you need written, what questions they should ask you. Leverage my 25 years of grant writing experience securing over $10 million in grants for clients to help you find a qualified grant writer and reduce your chances of getting scammed. Order your copy today.
Speaker 2 (02:48):
Welcome back. You're on air with Amber Wynn, and today we're talking about you not chasing the money. This thing called mission creep. Mission creep is when you start doing things that are not aligned with your mission. I'm going to give you an example. During covid, the government gave nonprofits money to do things like distribute PPP and help people get shots. So organizations who had access to the community were now doing things that really weren't a part of their mission. Now, nonprofits are here to serve the public good, so I'm not really talking about that part, but when a funder comes to you and say, Hey, you have access to this community because you're doing tutoring. We wanted to know if we could give you $10,000 to work with parents and getting job skills. Well, that has nothing to do with the population that you serve and what you're doing, but you'll say, oh, yeah, we can do that.
(03:56):
Here's where mission creep starts to creep in. That's why they call it mission creep because you're saying, well, we're teaching kids how to get better grades, and eventually that's going to lead to them having job skills. So if we teach their parents how to get job skills, that's $10,000. Let me break it down for you. It's not really $10,000 because your subject matter expertise is youth. You're serving youth and you may have volunteers from a college or you may be providing support for the youth because that's what your expertise, that's what their expertise, your staff expertise is in. But when now you're dealing with adults, that's a whole different target audience. So now you have to either hire somebody to work with these adults, bring somebody in, or you're going to have to deliver these programs, but that's not your area of expertise. So if you hire somebody, now that takes resources away from your organization, right?
(05:00):
Whereby if a funder says, Hey, we want to help you improve your program by giving you $10,000 for providing tutoring on Saturday instead of during the week, well, that's not depleting your resources because you do have people who already know how to work with that population so that money is going specifically as opposed to having to hire. And then the other thing is you may have to take a part of that $10,000 to get resources that you don't normally use. So we're talking about helping adults with career paths. So now you may have to get camera equipment so that you can have them practice with the interviewing techniques. They want to look at themselves or whatever. That's additional resources to meet the needs of this specific program. So a lot of times people don't think about it. All they see is the money and they don't look at how they're moving away from the mission.
(06:02):
More importantly, this is where it's really going to cost you. If you are saying that at your core, your mission says that you are going to work with youth, you're going to help increase their academic achievement, dah, dah, dah, dah. That is what a funder is going to look for because that's your mission. They're not looking at all these other programs that you do because your mission say that you focus on youth from marginalized communities. So if you're spending half of your year working on this grant because it has deliverables, that means you're not spending a lot of time on what it is that you're supposed to be doing with your mission. So when it comes time for you to apply for a grant for the youth, you don't have the impact because you've been focusing your time on all these other areas because you've been chasing that dollar.
(06:51):
It is important that you understand at the end of the day, every year you want to increase your success, rate your track record. If a funder is seeing that you've been around for 10 years and you can't demonstrate that you are a subject matter expert in the area that you are because you've been doing all of these other things, they're not looking at you like, wow, you're doing all these other things. They're looking at you like, what are you doing? What are you known for? And you're like, well, I had to bring in that money. Remember, there are always more applicants than there is money. So if they stack you up against an organization that's solely doing youth based stuff, their track record is going to be stronger than yours. You've got some youth, but you've got adults over here, you've got seniors, you've got veterans because you've been chasing that money, it is going to damage your reputation.
(07:45):
It is going to damage your track record. So mission creep is not only bad for you because you're probably going to have to shift your resources, bring in more resources, but it's mostly bad for you because it doesn't help to build up your track record in a specific area. And so people may say, oh, well Amber, I need to get money. You do need to get money, but you need to get money that is in alignment with your mission. You need to get money that is consistent with the things that you do. So when a funder comes around, they're like, Hey, would you be interested in $10,000 to help these adults? This is what you say. Wow, that's amazing. We really could use that financial support. How about if we took that $10,000 and expanded our youth program? So right now we're tutoring them for academic success.
(08:40):
How about if we took that $10,000 to now include career exploration? We'll take our oldest group. Let's just say you work with five to 18. You'll say, we'll take our 16, 17 year olds and we'll start a program that speaks to them exploring more non-traditional careers. So now you're still in your target audience. You still have the people who can work with them because they've worked with, you're just introducing a new topic that's better than, okay, well, we're going to start working with these 40 50 year olds. We don't have people who work with them normally and people don't know. You can always counter your funder. The worst they can say is no. And if they say no, well, that's money that you weren't going to get anyway. You didn't have it anyway. But they may be like, huh? Because you want them to know, this is our group.
(09:36):
This is who we focus on. This is our subject matter expertise. This is what we do. That's really not a part of our mission. And if you're honest with them and you're like, no, but here's what we can do, they're either going to say yes or they're going to say no because your organization is competing with other organizations in the same area. You don't want to water down your impact. You don't want a funder to look at your website and say, what is this organization all about? They over here, they over here, funders want, you know that saying a jack of all trades and a master of funders are not interested in that. You don't get more points by doing more things. A lot of people think that we do this, we do this, we do this, we do this. That does not make a funder feel comfortable. A funder feels more comfortable with an organization that focuses on one, two, or three things, and those one, two or three things is going to be with the same target audience. They're not comfortable. When you have veterans over here and then you've got domestic violence over here and then you've got youth, those are three different areas. What do we do? We look at your budget. You've got three different areas. You've got adults, you've got teens, and you've got little bitty babies, but you don't have a paid staff who's delivering the work.
(10:54):
Those are the things that we look at when we look at your budget, you are all over the place. If you're saying we're serving this whole gamut from zero to 65, but you don't have a paid staff, I know that you're not providing quality services. You don't even have a paid staff. So when you think, oh, we're doing this, we're doing this, we're doing that, and that looks good, it does not narrow your focus and focus on your mission. That is what's going to move you forward when it comes to being funded. When we talk about don't chase the money, I'm saying learn what it takes to move your organization into a position where it can get funded, because that is how you're going to grow your organization. Chasing the money is not going to get you there. You don't believe me. I'm telling you the truth. More than that, I'm giving you the roadmap. Let's take a look at 90 days to a profitable nonprofit because if you are not sure how to get where I'm telling you, where you don't have to chase the money where there's mission creep, this is the solution. 90 days to a profitable nonprofit,
Speaker 4 (12:09):
Are you struggling to 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, 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.
(12:58):
I take my 30 years of nonprofit experience as a founder, executive director, program developer, grant writer and funder, giving out over $7 million annually in grants, and I save you literally thousands of dollars and 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 secrets, 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.
(13:55):
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
Speaker 2 (14:50):
Below to register for this course. Welcome back. You're on air with Amber Wynn, and today we're talking about mission creep. I'm encouraging you not to chase the money because there is a roadmap out there that shows you how to get the money that aligns with your mission. I feel confident in encouraging you not to fall down that slippery slope. When you start chasing the money, you start moving away from your mission and it creates all kinds of issues. Now we're going to shift gears and we're going to move to the part of the episode where you get to ask me your question. I'm here and I'm talking about topics that I think are important, but I want to make sure that I'm providing you with the type of information that helps you move your organization forward. And so that's why I have this segment called Ask Amber and today's Ask Amber, I was sent an email from Sherie, Sherie is in Atlanta, and she has a question about the organization name.
(15:58):
Hi Amber. My name is Sherie and I'm from Atlanta. I recently posted a fundraiser on Facebook. Some lady reached out saying I needed to shut down my fundraiser because we have the same organization name. She said She's been around longer, so I have to change my name. Is this true? Wow. So Cherie, here's how I'm going to answer this question. One of the first things that you should have done before you incorporated was to check your name availability. There are three places you should have checked, right? The first one should have been the US Department of Commerce website. On that website, it would've made sure that your name was not trademark. So if it was trademark, it would've come up there. The second place to check for name availability is on the Secretary of State's website in the business search section, and that would've let you know in your state if that name had been chosen.
(16:59):
And then third, if you check the availability of your nonprofit domain's name on the who is domain lookup, you would've found out if there's another website out there with your name. A lot of you will see that. Well, I'm like, why is your website domain name nowhere close to that of your nonprofit? Well, I had already incorporated and then found out that that name didn't exist. You want to catch all of that before you incorporate. It's important because, and this is going to answer your question, Sherie, if someone else has the same name and they can sue you because it impacts their ability to fundraise. So let's just say this is happening right now with Cars for Kids. There's a Cars for Kids in Texas and there's a Cards for kids in another state, and the other state is suing Texas because they're saying that they had the name first, and as a result, all of the fundraising that they're doing is being impacted by this other Cars for kids.
(18:12):
So if you guys have the same name, they're doing a fundraiser and they accidentally click on your link and they start donating, that's going to impact them. So that's why they have these three areas for you to check before you even incorporate so that you can make sure that your name is not the same or similar because it can impact another organization's brand. There's been instances where a nonprofit, you click on it and something not so great, not so charitable comes up that impacts your brand. People think, oh my God, is what this organization is about. No, it's not. And it can impact their ability to generate revenue. So the short answer is yes. If they incorporate it first and your fundraisers are out there, it could potentially take away from their ability to generate revenue. So you may very well have to change your name.
(19:13):
How do you approach that? I'm going to suggest that you reach out to an attorney that focuses on intellectual property or taxes and they can let you know. Great question. So those of you thinking about starting a nonprofit, make sure you take a look at those three areas, run your name through it to make sure no one else has that. Now we get to shift to the part of the episode that I love the most, and that's where we support the most amazing people in the community doing the work, shine on nonprofits. We are on the final episode of Magdalena's Daughters. Ashley Hill, the executive director is sharing more information about the work that she's doing in the community, trying to prevent sex trafficking. Let's take a look with Magdalena's daughters.
Speaker 5 (20:15):
We were incorporated in 2018 at the end of 2018, and we got started in 2019, and that was pretty much not a lot of time right before the pandemic. So when the world shut down, part of what we do is the collaboration. Part of what we do is connecting and building relationships. And when that happened, when the world shut down, it was so hard to connect with the community and community organizers and things like that. So that was one of our barriers and getting over that hump because what was happening was, okay, everyone shut down. So then services were only being provided in group homes and social workers are being overworked, and so they just didn't have a lot of time, a lot of time to meet with community providers such as Magdalena daughter's. Another challenge for us is just like being in a space where human trafficking is a huge problem and the grants are so very competitive and there are not a lot of grants for human trafficking.
(21:16):
So imagine this small uprising organization really trying to make impact and change in the community, and then not being able to have access to a lot of the resources that we need to actually get started. And so that's really a huge problem and issue, especially being a black led, a black leader in this space. It's like a lot of limited grants that we have coming our way and a lot of support that we have coming our way or even just knowledge about different grants and where we can access them and things like that. And so I think that's just another challenge for us because it limits what our resiliency building and our restructuring our program, and us being able to hire the staff. I hire and I pay my survivor advocates. I pay them well, and I think it's so important that you pay your staff and you treat them well. And so for them to be able to share their stories, be able to impact kids who could build that similarities of familiarities with them, that is so important. Having a survival led aspect to any program, especially when it's human trafficking, is very important as well. And so just like the funding and the limitations that comes along with limiting funding, those are some of the huge barriers that our organization faces.
Speaker 2 (23:02):
You can watch the full interview with me and Ashley from Magdalena's Daughters on my YouTube, and if you'd like to be featured on my spotlight, I'd love to feature you, reach out to me, send me an email at amber@amberwynn.net or hit me up on any of my socials. My goal is to get you as much visibility as possible, not only so the funders can see you, but for the people in your community can know that this resource is out there. All right, so that's all we have for this week's episode. We talked a little bit about organizations not chasing the money. There's a tendency for you want to be able, like Ashley said, to secure revenue so you can pay your staff and so that you can keep the organizations going. There is a roadmap for you on how to do that.
(23:53):
You don't have to step outside your mission and do things that's going to potentially damage your reputation as a subject matter expert. So check out the resources on my website, check out the 90 days to a profitable nonprofit that can guide you through how to generate not just grants. Every nonprofit should have 10 streams of revenue. If you're not sure what those potential streams of revenue are, how to position your organization to qualify for them, to generate all of these different resources, get the knowledge that you need to powerfully position your organization for success. That's what I'm here for. I have the resources, I have the roadmap, and I am happy to share them with you. If you've heard anything in this episode that you think might be helpful to someone in our community, please forward the link, forward the episode. Make sure you share, subscribe, and be sure to join me again next week where I'm sharing with you more information on how to strengthen your organization. Thank you for spending a half hour with me, and I hope to see you next week. Take care.
Speaker 1 (25:08):
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.
