Don’t skimp out on program details, including the functions and beneficiaries. It gives you a roadmap from the start, through the middle, and to the end. In this scenario, you have already laid the foundations for your nonprofit. You’re now at a point where you need financing to get your nonprofit off the ground.
For nonprofits, you’re going to talk about how you’re going to reach your target client population. It isn’t about just writing a physical document that is static, but a continually evolving strategy and action plan as your organization writing a business plan for a nonprofit progresses over time. It’s essential that you run regular plan review meetings to track your progress against your plan. For most nonprofits, this will coincide with regular reports and meetings with the board of directors.
Once you understand (and can articulate) your purpose, you’ll be ready for everything else. Conventional advice suggests that you get started with your executive summary and nonprofit description, but we’re going to do things a bit differently here. You’ve likely heard the stories of famous nonprofits, CEOs, and entrepreneurs who found success without a plan. Make sure to customize your executive summary depending on your audience (i.e. your executive summary page will look different if your main goal is to win a grant or hire a board member). These define the real bottom line of your nonprofit, so they’re the key to unlocking support.
The plan should address the everyday costs needed to operate the organization, as well as costs of specific programs and activities. Describe the campaigns, outreach events, and initiatives you coordinate to reach beneficiaries, donors, and volunteers. Here’s where you’ll include all the details about your target audiences. Your operational plan details the day-to-day operations of your organization. For example, it might describe how you work with partners, suppliers, and volunteers to execute events and fundraisers. Here’s where you explain how your nonprofit addresses the problems or opportunities presented in the need analysis.
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Just like businesses, nonprofits also require marketing, outreach, and advertising. Through marketing, the organization gains awareness and brand growth that helps to attract partners who will power their operations. As such, it’s essential to include these strategies in the business plan. A nonprofit business plan is called just that — a ‘nonprofit business plan.’ You may think that its nonprofit element makes it very different from a profit-oriented plan. As a rule of thumb — and this will vary depending on the complexity and size of your business plan — a nonprofit business plan is typically between seven and thirty pages long. Besides a business plan, starting a nonprofit requires a lot of other documentation.
It’s also important to remember that fundraising and volunteering go hand in hand. So while you’re planning your fundraising strategies, start to think about your volunteer program. Answering these questions will help you get to the root “why” behind your nonprofit.
Let’s take a look at the different sections you’ll find in most templates. One of the biggest reasons for writing a nonprofit business plan is to attract investment. After all, without enough funding, it’s nearly impossible to get your business off the ground. There’s simply no business without capital investment, and that’s even more true for nonprofits that rarely sell products.
Your markers of success are not just how the organization performs financially, but the impact it makes for your cause. According to Propel Nonprofits, business plans usually should have four components that identify revenue sources/mix; operations costs; program costs; and capital structure. Finally, you’ve made it to the last step in putting together your nonprofit business plan.
- Nonprofit business plans aren’t just nice to have—more like need to have.
- A business plan serves as an action plan because it provides, in as much detail as possible, the specifics on how you’re going to execute your strategy.
- Any nonprofit has its standard level of funding required to stay operational, so it’s essential to make sure your organization will consistently maintain at least that much in the coffers.
- The executive summary can also cover, at a high level, the goals, vision, and unique strengths of your nonprofit organization.
- Sometimes, a person may be interested in learning about your non-profit, but doesn’t have time to read a 20+ page document.
In this section, describe the ways you’ll raise money and serve your community. Below is an example from Bplans’ nonprofit catering business template for a fictional business called Catering https://simple-accounting.org/ for Kids. You might use a combination of direct mail, advertising, and fundraising events. Detail the key activities and programs that you’ll use to reach your donors and raise money.
Products, programs, and services
Marketing will be crucial to achieving your non-profit’s mission because it’s how customers and donors alike will learn about what you do and how you help the community. In this section, come up with a detailed plan for how you will get the word out about your non-profit and how you will attract customers and donors to your cause. I recommend that you review your financial plan once a month to see if your organization is on track, and then revise your plan as necessary. Use this section to talk about how you’ll work with other organizations. Maybe you need to use a room in the local public library to run your program for the first year. Maybe your organization provides mental health counselors in local schools, so you partner with your school district.
And while other organizations worry about taxes in the planning stage, nonprofits have little to no taxes to consider. Any business exists to provide products, programs, and services — perhaps with a focus on the latter two for nonprofits. Your business plan should outline what you are bringing to your community. This will influence your target market, potential investors, and marketing strategies. You can customize this sample nonprofit business plan outline to fit the specific needs of your organization.
Step 3: Describe Your Target Audience
If you’re running an after-school tutoring organization, you might be competing with after school sports programs for clients. After reading your executive summary a person should ideally have a general idea of what the entire plan covers. Sometimes, a person may be interested in learning about your non-profit, but doesn’t have time to read a 20+ page document. In this case, the executive summary could be the difference between whether or not you land a major donor. The goal of a mission statement isn’t just about being able to showcase things externally, but also giving your internal team something to realign them if they get off track.
Essential sections of a nonprofit business plan template
Use this customizable nonprofit business plan template to organize your nonprofit organization’s mission and goals and convey them to stakeholders. This one-page nonprofit business plan template has a simple and scannable design to outline the key details of your organization’s strategy. Use this template as a foundation for building a powerful and attractive nonprofit business plan for youth programs and services. This template has all the core components of a nonprofit business plan. As outlined above, your nonprofit business plan is a combination of your marketing plan, strategic plan, operational plan, impact plan, and financial plan. Be sure to use the nonprofit business plan outline we’ve provided to help create one of your own.
If you create an outline and find you don’t have all the materials you need to fill it, you may need to go back to the data collection stage. However, it’s your plan, and you don’t have to include all these sections or stick to these conventional naming methods. Sure, you’ll want financial stakeholders and donors to understand it, but make it your own. Many nonprofits start with passion and enthusiasm but without a proper business plan. It’s a common misconception that just because an organization is labeled a “nonprofit,” it does not need to operate in any way like a business. Every nonprofit needs a certain level of funding to stay operational, so it’s essential to make sure your organization will meet at least that threshold.
It’s important to remember that a business plan doesn’t have to be set in stone. It acts as a roadmap, something that you can come back to as a guide, then revise and edit to suit your purpose at a given time. Think about what your prospective clients were doing about their problem (the one your organization is solving) before you came on this scene.
