Excerpts Series: NPO OD- The Basics

Nonprofit Organizational Development: The Basics is a training we offer at CDP. Below is a brief overview - an excerpt - from this training. Find out more about this important hour long training by clicking on the image below or the button at the bottom of your screen.

“This graphic is something that you’re going to see with every training you take at CDP.

CDP really is committed to helping nonprofits build capacity. We want you to be strong for the long haul — that’s our goal for you — that as nonprofits you’re not just around today, but you’re around for a long time, serving your community. As an overview, we divide nonprofits into these six components. We want everyone to understand the composition of a nonprofit, why you need all six components and what each of these components entail.

Each component is important to the health of a nonprofit. Again, our goal for you is that you have a healthy organization that’s around for a long time. We call that sustainability. When we talk about long-term sustainability, we mean — we want you doing the work that you do in community for a long time. In order to do that, paying attention to the business side of the nonprofit, these six components, is really important. Legalities, Board Governance, Image Management, Resource Development, Strategic Planning and Program Impact are the six components of an nonprofit. That’s what we’re gonna walk through in this session today. We want to leave you with good language and a good understanding around each of these components.

The idea behind all six components is that there’s not one more that is more important than the other. They’re all important and they all are integrated together. Legalities is impacted by all the other components just like all the other components are impacted by each other. So for you to have long-term sustainability and be healthy and balanced over the long haul, paying attention to each of these components is really important.

We’ve shared a lot information that really just touches the surface of everything nonprofit, but hopefully gives you some infrastructure. As you learn and grow as a nonprofit, you’ll learn new details and gather information. Now, you’ll have a “component” to put that information into.

For instance when you’re watching other webinars, when you’re reading books, when you’re hearing people’s advice about what you should or shouldn’t be doing as a nonprofit, you can start filing what you are learning under each of the different components. You’ll be building some organizational structure as you grow by understanding how all of these components of a nonprofit are organized and work together.

My challenge for you is to think about three things you can do over the next 30 days to move your organization forward. What can I do to move this idea that I have?

Maybe you’re just trying to potentially look at starting a nonprofit. What can you do to move it forward? Or if you’re in a nonprofit or you work with a nonprofit, what can you do to take this information and move something forward?

Name three things that you can accomplish over the next 30 days.”