​Happy summer! As the days get longer and the temperatures get hotter, let’s consider the essentials of a carefree summer: sunscreen, floppy hat, shade, hydration, and hopefully vacation. Like our summer beach bag, we, in fund development, need some essentials of our own. Earlier this year, my boss, two board members, and I were fortunate to attend the MJ Murdock Trust – Essentials of Development training – a two-part training on major gift stewardship, relationships, and donor development - where we learned about an essential to any fundraisers’ tool box: the case statement.

​The case statement is a presentation tool used for specific meetings with potential donors to discuss your organization. Chock full of information, the case statement is comprised of ten components - theme, need, mission, lifetime values, programs, accomplishments/impact, budget, vision, gift plan, and leadership profile. It’s like your road map – where you’ve been but also where you’re going. It’s there to keep you on track with your donors and a presentation tool to highlight your awesome organization.

April 18, 2018, marks my second anniversary on the job here at the Idaho Nonprofit Center and I cannot believe how quickly the time has gone by! Time flies when you are having fun, as they say! I am having fun but I take my responsibility to support our Idaho nonprofits very seriously. Part of that is to be sure we are always listening to you, our nonprofits and businesses, and working to deliver the programs and services you need.
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That might mean an A for effort but a B for content and delivery sometimes. We understand and that is why we ask you every year for your feedback and input. Based on your feedback each year we have made changes, some big and some small, to the programs and services we offer to you. This year will be no different and I’m excited to share with you three very important things.

We hear you: your greatest concern, as nonprofit leaders, is the potential shift in charitable giving, and I’m devoting the bulk of this column to that topic specifically.  

The reform implications are multi-faceted: charitable giving, federal/state budgets, compliance, and taxation. There are changes in store. We are here to help you navigate them.

Before we dive into my optimistic views, I want to let you know that we are planning webinars, sharing resources, and creating a toolkit for you. All will cover aspects of the reform as information and resources become available to us. As soon as we have something to share, we will.  

​Now, onto the good news. I want to highlight a bright spot and lay out some strategies for you going forward. History tells me that as far as the charitable giving issue is concerned, we don’t need to worry. That doesn’t mean we don’t need to take action or think about things differently, but I’m not worried and you shouldn’t be either.

​December’s Call an Expert (a member only, monthly call with a business professional to help answer your questions), was filled with great information about contacting Idaho’s government officials. Brad Griff, Regional Director for U.S. Congressman Raul Labrador, shared great advice based on his experience working in Idaho congressional offices.

Recently the Idaho Nonprofit Center completed an audit of our 2016 financial records. I know I probably just lost 50% of my readers, but I assure you what I’m going to tell you is GOOD STUFF. Financials and audits are not the sexiest topics for an article, but this is no joke: they are so very important.

Audits are expensive but worth it. One of the questions we get asked routinely is “Do we have to have our financials audited every year?” and the answer is “No, not unless a funder requires it, but you should do it anyway.” Here’s why:
One of the best things to come from our audit was also a review of our financial controls. What we learned is that our accounting specialist, Star Brumfield, is really pretty awesome at her job. We’re lucky that she’s very passionate about numbers and also equally passionate having processes in place for everything related to our finances. Our finances and financial controls are in great shape thanks to her efforts.

​We also learned how we can enhance some of the controls we already have in place. A better system was developed to track deposits and the accounts they are assigned to when dropping off a pile of checks to the bank. Now we each review a list of the deposits and account codes before we go to the bank. This helps us with accuracy and accountability.

Our job at the Idaho Nonprofit Center is to support our nonprofit sector, share knowledge, convene training opportunities, to provide professional development, and to champion the work of our sector through policy & advocacy. It’s a tall order, quite frankly, considering that we too are a nonprofit organization with a small staff, a budget to match, and the need to find creative ways to fund our operations in order to do “all the things” we should do.

A large part of our membership, as well as the bulk of technical assistance calls and emails we receive, are usually nonprofits in the “start-up” or “emerging” phase of the nonprofit life cycle. We understand, it’s tricky and not always easy to navigate the process. There’s good reason for that. 

Recently I hosted a Resource Thursday training on "Starting a Nonprofit" and the first thing I usually do is to try to talk you out of it. True story. But when I try to talk people out of starting nonprofits, it comes from a place of love – and experience. If you are curious about my message you can listen to recorded broadcast from Resource Thursday by clicking this link. There is also a recent post on Board Source about this topic. According to the article “there now are 1.8 million nonprofit organizations in the U.S. Fewer than 15 percent have operating budgets over $250,000.”

​Nonprofits are always created from a place of love, a heart full of good intentions. A passionate person wants to start something to do something to help the community. What they don’t realize is all the work that goes into starting that nonprofit and the inevitable hard decisions that need to be made

I never profess to have all the answers to all the questions. I am humbly aware that, even a year into my job leading the Idaho Nonprofit Center, I will always be learning. Every day I swear I learn something new and valuable that I can put in my toolkit for future use.

I am also aware, now more than ever, that one of the most important aspects of our work at the Center is policy and advocacy. The second is to elevate and champion our work. The third is to provide the resources and training to help our nonprofit sector grow and become sustainable organizations. To that end, the INC also has a great responsibility of sharing what we learn with our nonprofit friends.

​Our policy focus is on the broader nonprofit sector. We will advocate for things that could impact our sector as a whole. We will approach policy & advocacy in terms of how it impacts our nonprofits but we don’t often get a window seat view of how policy can impact one of our subsectors and the people that it serves.

The National Council of Nonprofits released an analysis of President Trump's fiscal year 2018 budget proposal yesterday. The Idaho Nonprofit Center is disseminating this analysis in its entirety. We encourage INC members to take time to understand the breadth and scope of the proposals for cuts to important services, many delivered by nonprofits.

While these cuts give an important view into what the Trump Administration believes is important for the U.S., we remind everyone that the proposals are only a part of the process and the final budget will come from the legislative branch.

Senate Budget Committee Chairman Mike Enzi (R-WY) put yesterday's release in perspective: "I hope that people don't panic over the President's - any President's - budget. They're just suggestions."

​We also suggest that Idaho nonprofits not panic, but be vigilant and reach out to your elected officials to express your thoughts on the importance of programs that have been suggested for cuts. Be sure to get your voices heard!

To learn more about the proposed cuts, please review the article below and from The Nonprofit Times.

*Language borrowed from our partner organization: Nonprofit Association of Oregon

This month for CenterView I thought I might discuss a few of the things we have been working on here at the Idaho Nonprofit Center. As a nonprofit organization ourselves, we are not immune to the challenges that nonprofits face across our entire statewide sector. I hope by sharing our internal work with you, we can better support your work and also learn together.

In this article I will discuss a new tool we developed to manage the day to day highs and lows of nonprofit life, one of our learnings from event coordination and how we can better manage our income/expense, and our new approach to our monthly featured nonprofit member - based on my trip to Sandpoint last month.

I’ll start with our new tool for managing the daily (sometimes hourly) highs and lows that come along with our work for the nonprofit sector. I think all of you can relate to how it feels to chalk up several wins: maybe you got a grant you were hoping for, a sponsor came in for your annual gala, and one of your clients had an incredible personal success. Then the feelings when the low comes in: you didn’t get another grant you hoped for, or a donor decided they didn’t want to support your organization or maybe you received some negative feedback from a client.

​It’s those “lows” that we tend to remember and ruminate on all too often. We don’t take the time to celebrate the highs and the wins like we should. At the Idaho Nonprofit Center we experience this ebb and flow like everyone out there. Just as quickly as you feel full and happy with success the bubble bursts and you’re right back to feeling low again.

February is known for its questionable weather patterns, President’s Day sales and last but not least, Valentine’s Day, a celebration of love. For a short month, we sure pack a lot in! 

I love February because it’s the month following our annual Board Retreat and a time when we are really digging into our work at the Idaho Nonprofit Center alongside our amazing board members.

In each nonprofit leadership role I’ve held I’ve always coordinated one annual retreat with my board of directors. It is important to me to convene the board as a group to set the right tone for the year. This is no small task for a statewide organization with board members in north and eastern Idaho, combined with old man winter you can only imagine what might happen!

During our board retreat this year we took the time to get to know each other and did a pretty cool team building activity that also told us a lot about how each of us like to work. If you’ve never done something like this with your board I highly recommend it.

​This year we also included our staff in the board retreat and having our team involved from start to finish was incredibly helpful for us all. 

2017 has been full of surprises already, I can’t wait to see what the rest of this year has in store for us! Each new year is an opportunity to reflect, make changes, and plan for the future. Here at the Idaho Nonprofit Center we are no different. 
We have been using our Nonprofit Needs Assessment from last June to reflect on how we can continue to serve our members and the nonprofit sector of Idaho, we have made a few changes in staff here at the Center and we’ve mapped a pretty impressive plan for the future including our signature statewide event, Idaho Gives.

If you would like to review the needs assessment results, please CLICK HERE. We learned a great deal from both our nonprofit and business affiliate members about what we can do better and what we do well.

In terms of changes, one of the biggest takeaways from the survey is that we need to focus on our members and continually provide the highest and best value for your membership dollars. It’s not enough for us to tell you we’re worth it, it’s on us to prove it. Over the course of the past few months we’re been working toward that end. 

​If you don’t know all the amazing things we do, please join us for our second quarterly membership orientation on Feb. 1. It’s webinar style so you can join us in person or from the comfort of your home or office. CLICK HERE to RSVP. 

Here at the Center we often we receive pertinent and thought provoking questions, like the one we received a week ago: what is the difference between partnership and collaboration? It seems that collaboration has become a hot topic lately, especially with grant writing and funders. Everyone wants to know who you collaborate with. After all, no man is an island. So, after a google search and numerous articles, here’s our take.

​Collaboration is an open, inclusive process or decision making tool to engage a broad array of diverse entities to come together to find solutions or the best creative outcome for problems/issues but aren’t bound contractually.  Collaborative partnerships are essential to addressing emerging issues and trends. Think about the collaborations with your organization. It’s a group of people with a common goal addressing an issue, like homelessness. Poverty. Domestic Violence. These issues are too overwhelming and daunting to tackle alone.

​November is Idaho Nonprofit Awareness month and we couldn’t be more excited this year! Here at the Idaho Nonprofit Center we have a LOT of great things in store, with our primary focus being to raise awareness of our nonprofit sector as a whole.
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Throughout this month we will be doing several things, including a Governor’s Proclamation of Idaho Nonprofit Awareness month, a nonprofit membership thank-a-thon, sharing two important research pieces about the sector including our Economic Impact Report and our State of the Sector Report (both available on our website), and 11 social media takeovers of our Idaho Nonprofit Center Facebook Page & Instagram accounts spread across the state and our nonprofit sub-sectors. (more details about this amazing opportunity can be found here).

When it comes to public policy and advocacy, the Idaho Nonprofit Center vows to encourage and support nonprofit engagement in the public policy process at local, state and national levels; provide nonprofits effective lobbying and advocacy training and skill building opportunities;  build a unified voice for the sector on matters affecting all nonprofits with which to inform and persuade decision makers; and increase respect and support for the nonprofit community among local, state and national elected officials and the Idaho public.

That being said, the Idaho Nonprofit Center’s Public Policy Committee hosted a webinar to review the Idaho Charitable Assets Protection Act with Deputy Attorney General Stephanie Guyon on October 12th.
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Stephanie described the legislation and the changes that have been made as a result of public input. Attendees had the opportunity to ask questions for clarification and provide further input. 

I’ve been on the road a lot the past few weeks. I spent three days in Chicago where I gained a deeper appreciation for the Idaho Nonprofit Center’s role for policy and advocacy on behalf of our incredible nonprofit sector. While there, I was able to sketch out a long-term plan to develop a more robust policy and advocacy arm for the Idaho Nonprofit Center.

In the meantime, we are working very hard for our members to continue to bring more value to your membership investment, deliver quality training opportunities (we hope to see you at the Statewide Nonprofit Conference this week) and to continue to recognize and champion our sector as a whole.

​One of the best ways we can recognize the achievements of individual nonprofits is through our Nonprofit Excellence Awards event on Thursday, September 22nd. Even if you aren’t attending the conference, we hope you can join us in celebration of the incredible work your nonprofit peers are doing in your communities.

​As President and CEO of the Idaho Community Foundation, I have the unique perspective of seeing the important role that philanthropy plays in enriching the communities across the state. I also have the opportunity to learn about how nonprofit organizations large and small contribute to local, regional and statewide well-being. At ICF, we often see our role as the bridge between donors who want to make an impact and the organizations that create positive change in our communities.

One of the consistent themes I hear from donors and nonprofit leaders as I travel throughout the state is nonprofit sustainability. While this means different things to different people and organizations, the common denominator is based in an organization’s ability to sustain itself over the long term, perpetuating its ability to fulfill its mission. A key part of sustainability is financial stability.

​You asked, we delivered!

In June we surveyed both current and former members of the Idaho Nonprofit Center. The intention was to gain a better understanding of your needs as a member and how we, as the Idaho Nonprofit Center, can deliver the membership value you deserve and learn how we can best serve you as your state nonprofit association.

Over the next few months we will have more of these “you asked, we delivered” articles, which will highlight all the ways that we read your feedback and truly listened to what you said in that survey. We absolutely value your input and want to be sure that we support you in the ways you need us the most.

​One particular section of the survey was used to guide our decisions about our Idaho Nonprofit Center Statewide Conference this year.