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VMOST for Nonprofits

The concept probably predates Rakesh Sondhi’s Total Strategy but a VMOST analysis is still a useful way of figuring out what your organization wants to accomplish and how it plans to go about it. Assumptions are sand traps when it comes to planning and submitting proposals. Instead of assuming “everybody knows” why we do what we do and how we do it, this is a useful framework for thinking through the hierarchy of intentions and actions for your organization.

A Case for Collaboration

More and more nonprofits are discovering the benefits of collaborating with other organizations (other nonprofits or for-profit businesses) to get things done. These collaborations might be formal partnerships, joint applications, mergers or other arrangements. Whatever their structure, they often deepen and expand the impact of a program or initiative.

Does Your Board Know Its Business?

In the worlds of nonprofit programs, management, fundraising and development, there are few topics more widely discussed and more generally misunderstood than the role of the board. In development, e.g., some nonprofits expect (demand?) that board members make a financial contribution to the organization. Others beg and plead with the board to do something, anything, to help raise money.

Chop This Year’s Wood for Next Year’s Fire

One of the inescapable truths about proposal writing and grants funding is the time it sometimes takes for a funder to make up its mind. Weeks, months – many months – can go by without a word. Funders work on a variety of timetables: some wait for a regular board meeting; some review proposals as they are submitted; some put requests through a series of screens and determinations, each one setting the stage for the next one.

Put Your Mouth Where Your Money Is

Across the country, thousands of nonprofits have been hard at work for many years, delivering life-saving social and human services to millions of people. Your organization is one such. In addition to doing the work, your nonprofit has learned some things about the causes of the problems you’re trying to address. You’ve begun to reflect on the words of Desmond Tutu: “There comes a point where we need to stop just pulling people out of the river. We need to go upstream and find out why they are falling in.”

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