Non-Profit 101

I am writing today via gasoline generator. We live in Texas and although we are about four hours north of Galveston, where Hurricane Ike hit over the weekend, our small town has the worse electric service in the country! Our damage was very minimal–two limbs split on one of our trees, so it isn’t the damage that caused the power outage, but the bad service that makes us loose power at the drop of a hat. All surrounding towns have power–they use different electric companies. We are told that our town might have electricity in three weeks. Who knows….I hope it is sooner.  So, I am briefly able to write to you through a borrowed generator that I wont have access to tomorrow.

As a nonprofit organization, you are running off limited funds and invariably you always need something to help those you serve, or to advertise your services so that others will know you are there for them.

I have found that in most cases you can get what you need without paying for it. In most cases, you can do this through local companies who are looking to boost their business. This past weekend, IMDSA was at the Down Syndrome Association of Greater Cincinnati Buddy Walk. We were able to hold a booth there to let others know about our organization and our upcoming conference. One thing we needed was a banner that would advertise the upcoming conference so all who were in attendance would be able to walk by and read the announcement. This way, if they were not able to get a brochure, they at least could see the information and later ask about it. However, it usually costs a lot to print a banner. So, we contacted a local printing company and asked that they make us a banner and include their logo on the banner. This enabled us to advertise what we needed, and at the same time the company was getting free advertising as well.

We also needed something to raffle off at our booth, so we asked the hotel that we will be holding our conference at to donate a free weekend to their hotel. Again, this benefited both of our purposes and our organization did not have to pay for anything.

Often when we need prizes for our fundraisers, we contact our services that target families whose children have mosaic Down syndrome or Down syndrome. They are always happy to donate their products because this will give them free advertising.

In almost every case, if you need a service or product companies are eager to help because everyone benefits from the free advertising and those you are serving will benefit by knowing about the great services out there. 

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