A personal note from Joseph Boyd, MPA:
“You’re creating public value. How can we build on your success?”
When I started working in the non-profit field, I encountered a surprising number of people who had good intentions, but were falling short. Many did not understand they needed to run their non-profit agency as a business – and do it well! In fact, I sometimes find directors who dig into their own pocket to keep the organization afloat. This is a tell-tale sign that something’s going wrong fiscally and programmatically.
People who are suffering depend on that organization’s food service delivery, that health care clinic, that mental health outreach program. If your organization goes out of business, what will your program recipients do? Where will they go? This is one of the reasons I do what I do; I want to help ensure people receive the vital services they need. The non-profit agency needs to survive in order to continue to provide services, help more people, and create public value.
What does it mean to create public value?
A well-managed non-profit agency WILL create public value. What does this mean? Think about how public corporations work to create value for their stockholders. Similarly, organizations that fund providers of health and human services seek to create public value for the community as a whole. They want the highest ROI possible for the funds they award. They want to see a tangible “give-back,” for example, the overall health of the client population has improved, the community is beautified, or the region’s education level has increased.
When consulting, I ensure adherence to governmental regulations and programmatic guidelines – and provide recommendations for best practices.
Whether you are a funder (e.g., government agency) or a non-profit services provider, you are working to create public value. My goal as a fiscal/administrative consultant is to help make this happen. To that end, I team with organizations to ensure best practices are in place for fiscal and administrative compliance as well as the long-term viability of the organization.
Of course, I pour over the policies, procedures, and accounting books to assure compliance. In addition, I challenge the leadership team with questions like this:
“How do you define and measure success?”
Together, we clarify questions about their strategic mission, such as: What does success look like for your organization – this year and next year? What is the value of the service you provide in “units of service”? How much does each unit of service cost? How many units of service does your budget support? By addressing these questions, the organization can be poised to provide quality services, year after year.
“How can you build capacity?”
Working with the organization’s leadership team, we look at the budget, staffing pattern, outreach strategies, revenue-generation activities, and current capacity. We discuss their potential for growth and opportunities for improvement. Analyzing and improving each of these facets is critical to achieve the strategic mission and safeguard the organization’s long-term viability.
“How do you ensure you’re not creating an entitlement service?”
Every non-profit agency is charged with enhancing its consumers’ quality of life and helping them become self-sustaining so, ideally, they won’t require ongoing services. However, I find that many organizations struggle to communicate “self-sustaining” versus “entitlement” messages to their consumers. Agencies providing services must consistently put forth a positive, accurate message regarding self-sustainability.
Call me – let’s get started.
Non-profit agencies need to build a rock-solid foundation to guarantee their long-term viability and continue to create public value. This means the people you are impacting can live a better life. Whether you are a funder or non-profit agency, please call me to discuss your organization’s specific needs.
