Episode 86: The Nonprofit Success Roadmap: Stage 6 – Build Your Credibility
How do you get grants as a start-up? You’re competing against organizations with long track records. Learn what you have to do and how to get them before applying and getting rejected for grants.
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Nonprofit Elite: https://nonprofitelite.com/
NONPROFIT SPOTLIGHT:
This week's episode highlights the nonprofit "Teen Line".
"Teen Line" is an organization that provides support as well as anonymously acknowledges the struggles teens go through to reassure them that they are not alone.
Check out Teen Line! 👇🏿👇🏿👇🏿
Website: https://www.teenline.org/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/teenlineonline/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/teenlineonline
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/user/teenlinevideos
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Podcast Transcript
Speaker 1 (00:02):
Hey fam, it's your girl, Amber Wynn, Philanthrepreneur, and I'm excited about 2024. A lot of changes are in store here on air with Amber Wynn, and as I wrap up with new episodes and some new additions to the format, I wanted to revisit probably the most important episodes on the show, the nonprofit success roadmap, because when you stage your nonprofit, you save yourself hundreds of hours in sweat equity and thousands of dollars out of your pocket because you're not focusing on work, your organization isn't ready for it. Here's the thing, you have to be honest. If you've been self-funding your organization for the past 5, 10, 15, 20 years, don't say, oh, I have an accurate budget, or I have a clear mission. Because if you did, you wouldn't still be self-funding your organization do something different to get a different result. Okay? So take a look at the seven stages of the nonprofit success roadmap to determine where your organization is and work to move toward the next stage and look out for new episodes.
Speaker 2 (01:15):
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 3 (01:38):
Hello everyone. It's your girl, Amber Wynn, Philanthrepreneur, and you're on air with Amber. I'm so excited to be here today. We have been covering the seven stages of the nonprofit success roadmap, and for those of you just joining us, it's important that you stage your nonprofit organization because if you jump in, you can get overwhelmed thinking you're supposed to be doing this and that, and next thing you know, you just don't do anything because it's just so much to do. A nonprofit is a business. It's just a business with a philanthropic purpose. And so there is a lot of work to do. And so I've created this nonprofit success roadmap to help nonprofit leaders get rid of the overwhelm, get rid of the fear, and just all of the information overload, stage your organization so that you know exactly what you need to accomplish and that level. Once you complete it, then you move on to the next. And today we are talking about stage six, which is to build your organization's credibility and we're going to jump into all of that. But you know what we do right now, it's time for a sponsor break, but when we get back, we're going to talk about building your nonprofits credibility.
Speaker 4 (02:57):
You're a school, a foundation, a healthcare provider or an environmental group, a museum, a church, a shelter or a community service. You're starting a nonprofit on a startup budget, and you need to get this right the first time. No mistakes, no misunderstandings, and no costly. Do-overs at Nonprofit Elite. We know what you need because we've been there too. Accurate information, mistake free filings and peace of mind assurance that your 501(c)(3) application will be successful. This is what we do and we are very good at it, all backed by our industry leading guarantee and 100% IRS approval rate. But forming your nonprofit and obtaining tax exempt status is just the beginning. Once you're up and running, nonprofit Elite will consolidate the bulk of your operations into one place, including your accounting, compliance, website, fundraising, and more. We do the work of several full-time staff for just a fraction of the cost so that you can remain focused on advancing your mission. Contact nonprofit elite for expert preparation of your formation documents and 501(c)(3) application and for a full range of accounting, fundraising, and administrative solutions.
Speaker 3 (04:18):
Welcome back. You're on air with Amber, and today we are talking about stage six of the nonprofit success roadmap and it's build your credibility. Now, I'm just going to bottom line it. Credibility equals fundability. Nonprofits will start their organizations. They'll get their 501(c)(3) tax exempt status, and the first thing they want to do is how do I get a grant? And I'm going to tell you upfront, nine times out of 10, you're not even qualified for a grant. Funders want to know and understand if an organization is even grant ready and we'll talk about the specifics of being grant ready in another episode, but right now you want to make your organization more competitive for funding. You want to do things like build collaborations, get visibility and build your portfolio of social proof of success. Those are the things that are going to say to a nonprofit funding agency that this organization, if I give them money, they'll know what to do with it. So you want to be noticed, you want to get known, and then you want to make sure that the funder sees you as someone different than all of your other competitors. So let's talk a little bit about why it takes more than a 501(c)(3) to qualify for a funding. Think about this. You file your paperwork and now you say to an funding agency, please let me have $250,000.
(05:54):
Yeah, that's what you expect to take your idea and to have it funded well, the reality is a funding agency needs to be comfortable with you. So how do you do that? Well, funders are looking for a track record. So when I talk about building collaborations, let's just say there is an organization that's doing something similar to what you're doing, but not quite the same thing. You may say to them, let's collaborate on a project. Your collaboration on that project helps to build your credibility not only with the organization that you're working with. So let's just say you're working with young girls and they're doing things like college readiness, career readiness, and you come in and you say, Hey, I want to do a workshop on resumes, or I want to do a workshop on how to dress for success. That's not something that they currently do.
(06:51):
So you partner with that organization, you provide an amazing job, and next thing you know when people are talking, they're like, oh my gosh, we need someone to do our just for success portion of our, oh, I worked with this amazing organization. You need to partner with them. That's how you gain visibility. You gain visibility and then people want to partner with you. People want to write you into their grants, people want to fund you, but it's only if you are credible. So if you partner with an organization, you don't show up on time, you don't provide your reports on time, then that's going to damage your credibility. So the whole purpose of getting out there and collaborating and having people see you is so that they can work with you and so they feel comfortable with funding you. So yeah, because they look at a track record, you have to have one.
(07:43):
Now, some founders are doing the work before they incorporate. You can leverage that success, that track record that you had before you started your nonprofit, and you'll simply say, I've been doing this work for 20 years. I incorporated my nonprofit organization last year, but I've been doing the work in the community. That's completely plausible because you've been doing the work. You just haven't put your organization in a position where it can partner with other people and get the tax benefits, but you still can leverage the work that you've been doing in the community. Also, when we talk about credibility, if you just started your nonprofit and you have an amazing board, you can leverage that because the board, regardless to how your organization is operating according to the IRS, the board is responsible for running that organization for governing it. So if you have an amazing board, you can leverage that to say, Hey, we're credible.
(08:40):
We've got these amazing leaders guiding the vision, the fiscal responsibility, all of that of the organization. So that's another way to gain credibility is from your clients. If you've worked with youth and they've graduated, what's your success rate? Are you graduating 90% of your population? 98? If it's up there, then that demonstrates your credibility. If you've helped people get jobs or those things need to be documented and they need to be placed not only on your website, but when you're doing social media blasts, it's called bragging, but it's bragging for a reason. I had a client tell me yesterday that she had been approached by a nonprofit funding agency. They approached her and said, would you apply for our grant? What? That's what you want? And let me tell you why that happened because she's now been sending out email blasts and social media blast saying, Hey guys, 25% of all of our kids get fully funded to go to college.
(09:58):
Hey guys, we've supported all of our kids, made sure that they stayed in college during the pandemic, so she's tooting our own horn, but no one can toot their own horn, but you, you've got to let funding agencies know what you're doing so that they can fund you. They don't know about all of the organizations out there. So when I say that credibility equals fundability, now she has credibility. It's EST. I featured them in one of my nonprofit spotlights a couple of weeks ago, and she's been working with me to build up her agency's infrastructure and build up their credibility, and now she's ready to put them out there and she had a funding agency reach out to her. So if you can get on the news, then you get all of these people looking at you, they never knew about your organization. So your credibility is really, really important because there's so many organizations out there competing and there's not enough money.
(11:00):
So you want to stand out, and one of the ways that you do that is by making sure that you're getting out there. So someone may say, well, how do I get visibility? I don't know what to do. This is what I'm going to tell you to do. When you first get your 501(c)(3), don't start trying to get all of these grants. Yes, you can look for the smaller grants to 5,000, 10,000 because those help you. They help you to say to a funder, listen, I got this seed money and I managed it well, but those $250,000, $300,000 grants, you're going to have to wait on those. But while you're building up your portfolio, here's what you want to do. You want to start to attend meetings. You want to attend meetings where elected officials are hosting. They have town hall meetings, they have council member meetings.
(11:48):
You want to go to those. You want to have a voice and an opinion. You want to be a subject matter expert. You want somebody to say, who was that? Who was that who got up and spoke? Because now that gives you visibility. Someone's like, oh, I heard this person speak last week. Let's see if we can get her on our panel or let's see if we can fund them with this money that we have. So attend meetings. You also want to go to community-based meetings. You want to go to the meetings that your counterparts are hosting. You want them to see you because you want them to see you as a viable partner, a collaborator, someone that they could call if they're going to get a grant. So people don't know that you're there if you're not out. So you got to be out and about networking.
(12:34):
Sometimes funding agencies will host events. You want to go to those because you have opportunities to talk to the program officers and the people on the board. So you want to be out in the community and you want to be seen. Secondly, you want to volunteer. People don't understand social capital, and I'm telling you, a lot of the success that I've had, I've had just by volunteering, an elected official may say, Hey, we're looking for people to help us man a booth or a collaborators like We're looking for people to help us. I don't know. Raise your hand. Yeah, I'll do it. I'll volunteer. Number one, it builds up social capital, meaning that's goodwill that people have towards you. You're not asking to be paid, but what they don't realize is it puts you in front of other people. It puts you in front of that elected official.
(13:25):
So volunteer to support and help and contribute. And then secondly, get on mailing lists. For example, your elected official, right? They send out newsletters all the time. You want to be listed on their website, on their newsletters, letters. You want them to say, Hey, I'm a resource. And that's what I tell, especially my startup nonprofits, reach out to your council people. Let them know. Don't ask them for any money asking them for money, and they don't have a lot. Let them come to you and ask you if they can give you money. Well, how do I do that? You call up your elected official, they have representatives. Find out if it's in education, if it's in social service, whatever, and you meet with them and you say, hi, my name is Amber and I run the Institute for Nonprofit Management, and I just really wanted to share what my nonprofit is doing.
(14:20):
We're in the community. We serve nonprofit leaders. We help them to build up their infrastructure so that when funders give them money, they get a return on their investment, and they're going to look at you like, okay, what do you want? What I'd love to do is for you to feature me in your newsletter so people know that I am around so people know that I'm a resource and they're going to be like, that's it. That's it. Well, if you can feature me on your social media, that'd be great. If you could put me on your website as a resource, that would be great. And that's all you do. Your elected official will look at you like, wow, right? Because you didn't ask them for anything, not realizing that they're giving you a lot. Elected officials have really huge followers. They've got a big constituency.
(15:05):
It's their whole district, and so they're giving you free advertisement, but you are saying to them, I want to be a resource. So take advantage of that. Then also your social media. Leverage it. Let people know what you're doing. Just put it out there. Hey, we're having a workshop today. Hey, we're collaborating with this other organization. Come out and support some nonprofits have been sleeping on social media, and I'm not mad at you because I'm Gen X. I'm not a big fan of social media. I don't like people all up in my business, but I run a business. If people don't know that I'm here, then I'm not going to have clients. So I do what I have to do. I don't do the social media specifically myself. I have someone on staff that's doing it, someone who enjoys doing it, someone who knows what they're doing, and you have to do the same.
(15:57):
If you are a nonprofit founder and you are like, I'm not into all of that stuff, that's fine. That's good. Get somebody on your staff who knows what they're doing, who loves what they're doing, and who can put your organization out there. It's really, really important. And then finally, you want to gather as many success stories as you can. If someone says to you, oh my gosh, this was amazing. What could I ever do to thank you? You save them. Can you write that up please? Can you send me an email saying that? Is it okay if I put that testimonial on my website? Is it okay if I blast that through social media? It's even better if you can get a picture of them, because then it's not you tooting your own horn. It's your client saying, this was an amazing experience. And so not only does potential clients see it, but also funding agencies and they're like, so these people are really pleased with your service.
(16:51):
It's just like the Amazon reviews. People look and see how other people experienced you. So if they're saying, this was amazing. On my website, I have one of my clients who was working with her board, friends and family that really loved her, but they weren't an authentic board, meaning they didn't have real board experience. I met with them. I did a training, and within 30 days, she was no longer funding her nonprofit out of her pocket. Now they had outside resources coming in funding her bills, and she was like, I want to cry. I want to cry because I'm not writing a check from my personal account to cover the expense of my organization. Oh my God, Amber, I can't thank you enough. And I said, can you thank me in writing? Can you put that in writing? And she did. And now it's on my website and it's a testimony.
(17:41):
So when we talk about visibility and credibility, get it from the people whose lives you're changing, and it doesn't have to be anything super duper fancy. Let them speak from their heart. I had one of my clients say She changed my life, and that's all the testimony that I need. She changed my life. So gather your success stories, put your testimonials on your website and on your social media, because what that's going to do is let people know that other people see you as an expert and that you're making an impact. Alright, so now we're going to break for another sponsor. When we come back, we're going to have our question of the day where you ask Amber your pressing question. So I'll see you on the other side.
Speaker 5 (18:28):
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(18:54):
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Speaker 3 (19:41):
Welcome back. You're on air with Amber, and today we're talking about stage six of the nonprofit success roadmap. The success roadmap goes from zero to seven, and stage six is building your credibility. Before we stopped for a break, we were talking about how credibility equals fundability, and we were talking about how your organization can demonstrate impact, and I am going to provide for you a free checklist of ways that your organization can demonstrate impact. I'm going to put it the link in the comments below. So sometimes you do things and you don't even know that it represents impact. For example, something as simple as a sign-in sheet. How does that demonstrate impact? Well, it shows the number of people that you served. So if you've served 30 people this month and 25 last month, and at the end of the year you have 250 people that you've served, that's proof that you made an impact because you've served these many people.
(20:43):
So I'm going to provide you with a free checklist. Look for that, download that so that you can start to build your credibility. But now it's time for you to ask Amber your pressing questions. If you have a question that you'd love for me to answer, you can always drop me a line on my social media, go to my website, whatever. Let me know what it is that you're thinking. So here is the question, how can I increase my visibility without a marketing budget? This is a great question because when you're starting up, the last thing you're thinking about is paying for marketing. Who has that money? You're just trying to keep your organization open. The answer to that is you've got to leverage your resources. For example, your board are supposed to be your brand ambassadors. Your board members are supposed to be out there talking you up talking about the amazing work that they're supporting.
(21:38):
So if they're talking in other circles about your organization, that's giving you visibility. Number two, your volunteers should have great experiences because if they have great experiences, they're going to share those experiences with other people. Someone may be saying, oh, I'm thinking about volunteering, and they should be able to say, well, you should come to this organization that I volunteer with. Oh, we're making an amazing impact. We're doing this. We had this program. So your volunteers. Secondly, I mean, third, your clients should be singing your praises. We talked about success stories. So if someone's saying, I'm trying to get my daughter into this SAT prep course, someone should say, if they're your client, well, you need to come to this program. My daughter increased her SAT scores by 200 points. So that's visibility, word of mouth, and your collaborators, they should be happy to share that you are an amazing partner.
(22:34):
And then elected officials, we talked about you being a resource for them. They should be in a room and someone says, oh, we're looking for an organization. Oh, I've got just the organization. Go to my website. I've put them on there. I've sent so many people to them and they've been amazing. I've only gotten great results. And then finally, your donors should be happy to refer you. When you get to the space where someone's going to write you a check, you should have it to where that you're so responsive, you're stewarding their resources, you're making such an impact when they're in their circles. And trust me, they get in their circles. That's how that other organization I was telling you about new to reach out to my client and say, would you apply for this grant we're giving is because they were in a circle with other funders and this organization said, this is an amazing organization.
(23:24):
You need to check them out. So you want to do everything in your power to make sure that the funding that you get, I don't care how small it is, impresses your funders enough that they would be willing to actually tell another funder that they should fund you. So that's how you can increase your visibility without a marketing budget. Have the people who are in your space be so impressed with you that they're willing word of mouth to talk about you and talk you up so that other people would be interested in partnering with you. And now, here's the part of our episode that I absolutely adore. It's where I feature a nonprofit that's doing amazing work in the community. As I said before, nonprofits have a tendency not to toot their own horns. They just keep their heads down in the weeds and they do the work. And I consider myself an ambassador for nonprofits. So during my episode, I do what's called a nonprofit spotlight, and today I'm going to Spotlight Teen Line. Teen Line was created in 1980 by a group of mental health professionals who through their personal work with teenagers, realized that a more inclusive approach to adolescent mental health was needed. Let's take a look and hear what the current chief officer and executive director has to say about line.
Speaker 6 (24:51):
The teen years are hard. Many of us feel alone, isolated and hopeless with no one to talk to, with no one who really understands. We can sink into depression and despair. Some of us will even consider suicide.
Speaker 7 (25:09):
A lot of kids don't feel like they can talk about what they're going through with anybody. They just want someone to be there for them. They just need somebody, anybody to just acknowledge them. Yeah, it must
Speaker 6 (25:18):
Be so frustrating since 1980, a group of teens have been there listening and saving lives and at the same time changing their own. Hey, this
Speaker 8 (25:28):
Is Josh Teen Line.
Speaker 6 (25:29):
Teen Line is an anonymous and confidential helpline answered by teen volunteers who take phone calls and respond to texts and emails every night from 6 to 10:00 PM
Speaker 7 (25:40):
He doesn't go to your school, right? Have you thought about doing that for a while? For any teen who calls or texts or emails Teen Line, they're going to get a teenager just like them, who're just going to be like, Hey, this is Teen Line. What's up?
Speaker 8 (25:52):
We get calls dealing with relationships, suicides, child abuse, rape, self-injury, eating disorders. It can be anything.
Speaker 6 (26:01):
The teen volunteer listeners are supervised by adult mental health professionals who provide them with support and information. Every year, more than 10,000 teens from around the world reach out to Teen Line.
Speaker 7 (26:14):
When I'm on that phone and someone's saying, I have nowhere else to go, no one wants me here anymore. No one cares about me here anymore. All you do is you just say, I'm here right now. I care about you.
Speaker 6 (26:24):
I'm so glad you
Speaker 7 (26:24):
Called.
Speaker 6 (26:27):
If you want to know more about Teen Line, please call or visit the website.
Speaker 3 (26:36):
I can't stress enough, especially during these trying times, how important it is to have someone there for you. And Teen Line is doing amazing work. So please consider donating online at www.teenlineonline.org/donate. That's teenlineonline.org/donate. Your donation to Teen Line will directly support their Crisis Hotline, outreach services and suicide prevention program. Alright, so now it is time for what I call a mindset minute. A lot of times in the nonprofit sector, my amazing and well-intentioned nonprofit leaders come into this space without actually knowing what to expect. And so they have this frame of mind that the nonprofit is supposed to be and it's not. So one of the major issues that I have with founders is just their mindset. So I pause during my episode just to give you, as a founder and an executive director, something to chew on. And this mindset Minute is basically your brand is your business.
(28:02):
I've said it and I'll say it, I'll continue to say it. A nonprofit is a business. It's just a business that focuses on philanthropy, but it is a business. And so if you go into this understanding that if you shift your mind from thinking this is an organization that people are supposed to take care of you, they're supposed to fund your operations, they're supposed to give you money, you're going to stay stuck. If you shift your mindset to understand that what you do, how you do it, and when you do it impacts your ability to be funded, then you're going to be successful, right? If you go into the community and you talk to people like crap, then people are going to talk about you like crap, because you're supposed to be a public charity. If you blow through people's money, funders money and you don't steward their resources, they're going to talk about you.
(28:51):
So your brand is your business. However, if you deliver on your promises, meaning if you've been contracted to do X, Y, and Z, and you do X, Y, and Z according to what you agreed upon in the grant, then you're going to get a good reputation if you follow IRS rules, which is extremely important. A lot of nonprofit founders come into the space and they just make things up and it prevents them from being able to get funded. So if you go in, you understand the IRS rules, what they require, and you follow them, that's going to help increase your credibility. If you focus on your mission, if the reason that your organization was started is evident, not only in how you respond to people, how you carry yourself, your organization, how you deliver your programs and services, those things are important. If you focus on your mission, that's going to help to build your credibility.
(29:51):
And then finally, you need to make an impact. People start nonprofits all the time, but because they don't have the funding sources, they stay small and so they don't really make an impact. And without making an impact, you can't get funded. That is the bottom line. So when we talk about shifting your mind, what I want you to think about is your brand is your business. And when you're out in the community, think about what I'm doing right now is either going to help or hinder my credibility because it's going to be one or the other. And you want to build your credibility and you do that through visibility. So that's all that we have for today. We're in stage six. We've got one more stage you guys. And then after that, we're going to start diving into specific topics. But if you've been grinding with me from stage zero, thinking about getting a nonprofit all the way up to stage six, which is building your credibility, first of all, congratulations.
(30:48):
I'm so excited. I hope that understanding what you need in each one of these levels has helped you to crystallize where you are and what it is that you need to do at your particular stage. And the other thing I want to say is you are exactly where you're supposed to be, right? Different people are at different stages, but you're exactly where you're supposed to be, and I'm going to help you get to that next level wherever you are, whether it's thinking about starting a nonprofit or if you're stage six, building your credibility. You're exactly where you're supposed to be, and I'm here to support you. All right? Don't forget to pick up your free checklist Demonstrating Impact, and join me here again next week. We're going to cover stage seven. Take care, guys.
Speaker 2 (31:36):
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.
