For Purpose Live: Recent Episodes
Rebecca Britt
Helping founders Get Clear, Get Focused and make BIG IMPACT through our unique framework. Breaking limiting beliefs of the nonprofit industry and lifting up a FOR PURPOSE mindset.
Alright so I have talked a lot about choosing metrics that matter and it is amazing how many nonprofits think this is the end point. You define what you're trying to achieve, you create yummy metrics to demonstrate your impact and you even create key activities that will ensure you hit your metric goals done, done and done right? NO this is the starting point. Now you get to track the data and see if you’re actually hitting your goals, if these metrics are even feasible to measure, if your data collection methods work…so I think one of the reasons strategic plans sit on a shelf and are underutilized is because people don’t exactly know how to track the data. I can be done in a pretty simple way, but there does need to be intentional systems and processes put into place, or you’ll get to the end of the year, when you’re trying to draft your impact report and you’ll launch a HUGE effort to retroactively go back and collect all the data you said you’d report on…which would make anyone want to crawl under a desk.
Get your free one pager at forpurposelive.com/page
Get your free one-pager at http://www.forpurposelive.com/page PRACTICAL AND APPROACHABLE NONPROFIT STRATEGY THAT HELPS ORGANIZATIONS GET CLEAR, GET FOCUSED, and GET FUNDING SO THEY CAN BE IMPACTFUL without being overwhelmed by all the traditional nonprofit advice. Nonprofits don’t have to be grueling and Executive Directors shouldn’t be constantly exhausted. It takes courage to step out in faith and follow a calling and I believe the world needs the solution your nonprofit offers. Running a thriving nonprofit takes leadership, strategy, program evaluation and intentional fundraising but it doesn’t need to be overwhelming. Everything you do can be maximized and leveraged to accomplish your mission in one solid, cohesive way. Stop working for a nonprofit and start working For Purpose, On Purpose. ********** HELPFUL TOOLS & RESOURCES 💰 FREE FUNDING ONE PAGER TEMPLATE: https://www.forpurposelive.com/page 📄 5-Day Grant Mastery course: https://www.forpurposelive.com/grant-... 🏁 STRATEGIC PLANNING REINVENTED - IMPACT ROADMAP: https://www.forpurposelive.com/impact 🤪 STOP WEARING ALL THE HATS - Nonprofit to FOR PURPOSE transformation program: https://www.forpurposelive.com/waitlist ➡️ FREE LOGIC MODEL TEMPLATE: https://www.forpurposelive.com/logic #️⃣ METRICS THAT MATTER WORKSHEET: https://www.forpurposelive.com/metrics 📅 NONPROFIT COMMUNICATIONS PLAN: https://www.forpurposelive.com/calendar ********** Come say hi on social: TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@forpurposelive Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/forpurposelive #nonprofit #nonprofitleadership #nonprofitstrategy #impact NOTE Know that this description may contain affiliate links to help you easily find the tools, products, programs, and/or services mentioned in the video. Self Leadership Global may earn minimal sums by recommending and sharing links for various helpful tools, products, services, and programs. When the viewer uses the links provided the minimal commission we receive is of no cost to you and is greatly appreciated because it supports the channel! In saying that, the viewer is in no way obligated to use the provided links. Thank you for your ongoing support! *** For Purpose Live provides resources for educational purposes only. In saying that, results may vary. For Purpose Live encourages viewers to do their homework before taking any strategic action on the resources recommended or before purchasing any of For Purpose Live products, programs, or services.
Many nonprofit founders have a hard enough time trying to manage their nonprofit's brand with blog posts, newsletters, and social media that they don’t even think about their brand. In fact, they think they’re being humble by not promoting themselves and just promoting the nonprofit, but it is essential for founders to build their personal brand because the whole reason you are marketing is to make relationships, with donors, the community, strategic partners and we don’t make relationships with businesses, we make relationships with people. We want to know who’s at the helm, and who we’re talking to, we want to know their heart. So today I’m gonna walk you through how to build that brand awareness WITHOUT adding just one more thing you need to manage to your plate Get your free one page funding template at http://www.forpurposelive.com/page
In this episode, I dive into how to use Chat GPT to write grants. Nonprofit founders and executive directors are best positioned to win funding for their mission and now it’s easier than ever leveraging AI, Get your free one-pager at http://www.forpurposelive.com/page
Scale your nonprofit and make money by licensing your program model. Work less and impact more by allowing others to implement your replicable nonprofit program model. Get your free checklist at http://www.forpurposelive.com/model
Have you done your 2023 strategic planning yet? I know a lot of nonprofit leaders are overwhelmed by the strategic planning process and for good reason. As nonprofit leaders we want to make sure we are spending our time on high ROI activities and the old way of strategic planning just seems, well kind of pointless. I know you think you spend your time on things that matter, but you HAVE to be able to articulate that to stakeholders and funders, and the way you do that is through a strategic plan…or a document that says exactly what you are trying to do, why, for who, how you’re going to measure success and the exact key activities you’re going to focus on to get you there. Every year you need to state your intended goals and key activities to get you there, so at the end of the year you can prove you did what you say BUT you don’t need to be a slave to the old strategic planning process where you spend 6 months dissecting every piece of your existence, the industry landscape and developing a 20 page document. As someone who has founded a nonprofit myself and been a nonprofit consultant for years, I HATE spending months or even weeks on planning and talking just to have the plan sit on a shelf. It ends up being more of a philosophical document than a practical one. So I have reinvented the strategic planning process to one that require less talk, and is all about more action so we can make BIG impact. I call this reinvention an IMPACT ROADMAP and you can create yours in a day and be ready to kick 2023 off right
What breaks my heart is that there are people who stepped out in faith to follow a calling to serve this world and now they are overwhelmed, burnt out, questioning the sustainability of their organization, wondering if they’ve done more harm than good, and just completely confused to why they’d be given a calling to step out in faith if they weren’t going to be supported in that decision. This breaks my heart because this was me. And after going from struggling nonprofit developer to scaling my program nationwide and now consulting, I find common themes among founders, so today I want to break down the top three barriers for nonprofit founders and ways you can overcome them.
There are so many online courses out there now and if you made it through the the COVID era without developing an online course, then you may find yourself irrelevant pretty soon. Maybe not, but we all know people’s attention spans are less and we have to find fun and creative ways to get our message through. People are getting used to online learning and because of this, other ways we used to get our material across is becoming well….ineffective. Aint nobody want to read about your research….sorry but its true. Creating ecourses for your nonprofit can breath new life into the cause that you stand for, while keeping community members engaged and bought into your brand. Today I talk to you about the two platforms I have used Kajabi and Thinkific. Check out a more detailed analysis at https://www.kotulo.com/learn
There are so many online courses out there now and if you made it through the the COVID era without developing an online course, then you may find yourself irrelevant pretty soon. Maybe not, but we all know people’s attention spans are less and we have to find fun and creative ways to get our message through. People are getting used to online learning and because of this, other ways we used to get our material across is becoming well….ineffective. Aint nobody want to read about your research….sorry but its true. Creating ecourses for your nonprofit can breath new life into the cause that you stand for, while keeping community members engaged and bought into your brand. Today I talk to you about the three ways you can use ecourses to set your nonprofits ON FIRE Check out the platforms I like https://www.kotulo.com/learn Free trial of Thinkific: https://bit.ly/3QepBlX Free trial of Kajabi: https://bit.ly/3B9PJKA
Lots of nonprofits develop their own programming, because they have an idea to serve a population in a unique way and they have to come up with what that will look like. Unfortunately there isn’t a whole lot of sharing that goes on because even though we are all looking to serve people, there is still ownership issues, intellectual property issues and even ego when it comes to the nonprofit world. Program developers and nonprofits should be sharing their innovative ideas but you don’t have to give it all away. You can license your program model which allows you to keep ownership, while serving potentially the whole world with your model and you can bring in a nice revenue from it. Maybe its because I’m a global thinker but I LOVE licensing and in this video want to convince you that you should also be sharing your secrets and serving more people.
If you do any type of strategic planning or program development or even you run a program, you should have KPIs. They’re so important because we all need goals - but we don't need goals just to have goals, we need goals that help us determine whether or not we are working toward accomplishing our mission. In this episode, I’m going to walk you through a free worksheet to develop meaningful KPIs so you can start measuring what matters. Get your free worksheet at: https://www.kotulo.com/metrics
I know a lot of grants ask for a theory of change and people get really overwhelmed by this…like a deer in headlights - i’ve seen it, but you don’t need to be overwhelmed. What’s super cool is you already know all this information, you just need to get it down, and once you do you’ll feel so much lighter and have more clarity. In this episode, I walk you through a quick exercise to map out your theory of change and then condense it down into a 250-word paragraph, which some grants ask for. This is good because not only can you use this to look good when applying for grants you’ll have a meaningful elevator speech to use anytime you are promoting your program. Get your free editable theory of change template at: https://www.kotulo.com/theory
As organizations grow, and start hiring team members they usually assign a whole bunch of nonrelated tasks to different people. The same person who answers customer emails may manage social media. Or the person who handles accounting writes blog posts and manages events. It happens because you don’t have enough budget to hire a dedicated staff and once you find great people you want to involve them in everything, but as your org grows and you will need to make more hires. Ideally, your staff would have expertise in their dedicated role. There comes a time when you need to pause, understand what everyone is doing, and more importantly, what they should be doing so you can be intentional about your hiring and make sure everyone is in the right seat on the bus. One tool to help you do this is a skills and interest assessment and in this episode, I walk you through exactly how to do that. Grab your free skills & interest assessment at https://www.kotulo.com/skills
Whether we like it or not, we’re going to run into problems and, as a leader of a nonprofit, we can’t ignore these problems. You may have a couple things you can think of right now where mistakes were made, or an event happened and you haven’t quite known how to address it. Today we’re going to discuss root cause analysis as a formal process you can take anytime something goes considerably wrong. This process should help you feel confident in attacking issues and making sure they dont happen again. Get your root cause analysis guide here: https://www.kotulo.com/rca Join our facebook group here: https://www.facebook.com/groups/kotulononprofitacademy
If you haven’t read Atomic Habits by James Clear it’s a must read - simply because we all have habits and we should understand how habits work. This book not only covers the psychology of habits and why most people have things they want to do but don't do them, but also gives you super practical action items to build positive habits and break negative ones. Nonprofits just like individuals have habits that either over time lead them to accomplishing their mission or derail efforts and in this episode I talk about how the principles in the book can be applied to your nonprofit and ultimately get you where you want to be quicker.
Many of the nonprofits I speak to don’t have an email list yet, or they are just getting started and don’t have much of one. In this episode we discuss prioritizing that email list and give you practical advice to build and use it.
Get your free masterclass at http://www.kotulo.com/startup
Even after I realized that I had to start paying myself from my nonprofit, I didn’t know how to do that. Our donations were irregular, I wasn’t landing big multi-year grants that included my salary, so I wasn’t sure how to pay myself. Do I just take more money some months and none the others? In this episode, I show you exactly how to pay yourself from your nonprofit regardless of how little revenue you are bringing in.
Many people go into starting a nonprofit thinking they will do this for free…but that's not a good idea. You need to build a sustainable business model so your mission and organization will live on long after you can run it and nobody else will be willing to run your baby for free. So, you need to build your organization to a point where it can sustain staff. Not just you, but a whole team.
Get your free masterclass at http://www.kotulo.com/startup
If you want to really upgrade your nonprofit’s revenue you want to secure funding from grants and corporate partners. If you are talking to the right people, at some point you will be asked to develop a proposal. Writing proposals doesn’t have to be overwhelming, so in this episode I’m breaking down the basic elements so you can start feeling confident about asking for some big dollar amounts. Get your free editable template at http://www.kotulo.com/proposal
As a busy Executive Director you might be overwhelmed by all the leadership paradigm shifts that are being offered out there, but good leadership is actually pretty simple and there are a couple of foundational things, that if you focus your time on getting those qualities right - you will have a ton going for you as a leader. Get your free masterclass at http://www.kotulo.com/startup Join our facebook group at https://www.facebook.com/groups/kotulononprofitacademy
Managing a team is tough. Many Executive Directors don’t have any supervisory or leadership experience before starting their nonprofit and unfortunately, that is all too evident to their volunteers and staff. Good culture can make or break an organization. Is this a place where everyone works together, feels valued, and feels like their contribution is meaningful, or is this a place that is disorganized, some people get treated differently or worse than others, and people aren’t really sure where they fit in. A lot of nonprofit leaders KNOW they have poor culture but they don’t know what to do about it so today we are going to help you with that in very practical terms.
Get your free masterclass at http://www.kotulo.com/startup Join our facebook group at https://www.facebook.com/groups/kotulononprofitacademy
When developing an advisory council you want to make sure you define the core elements upfront. What’s the purpose of the council? How do they function? What are its policies? Who do you need and how and when do they meet? With all this laid out upfront, you are much more likely to have engaged advisory council members.
How do you feel about your surveys? Do you get a good response? Do you use all the data you get? As evaluation gains traction, more and more organizations are launching surveys. There are so many surveys, collecting so much data, but the truth is there are so many BAD surveys. Bad surveys ask for a whole bunch of data, take too long and worst of all are never really used for anything. In this episode, you will learn the survey basics to make sure your surveys have a purpose and are actually utilized for that purpose.
In this episode, I want to help you apply an evaluation lens to your operations and processes. Hopefully, you have written some SOPs or policies, but we don’t just want those sitting on a shelf, right? We want to make sure they’re being followed and ensure that they are helping our organization be a well-oiled machine. So, process evaluation can help you get there. Here is the episode on developing SOPs: https://youtu.be/DYhaHogEziQ Get your free masterclass at http://www.kotulo.com/startup Join our Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/kotulononprofitacademy
When I started my nonprofit, measurement & evaluation was the last thing on my mind. I don’t even know if I had heard of it, but eventually, I realized even though I knew the work I was doing was impactful, I didn’t have much to show for it. I wasn’t collecting the right data to be able to really demonstrate my impact. This led me on a path to pursuing my master’s degree in Program Evaluation and now I look at everything with an evaluation lens. So, I want to break down what that means so you can start asking the right questions and collecting the right data to ensure your programs are impactful. In this episode you will learn: How to define what you are measuring How to actually measure your key indicators for success How to utilize the data you’ve collected Get your free masterclass at http://www.kotulo.com/startup Join our Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/kotulononprofitacademy
I’m amazed by how many nonprofits I work with, even big ones, that don’t have standard operating procedures. This causes huge headaches because EDs feel like “how” to do everything lives in their head, and they are afraid if they delegate tasks, they will lose work quality. With SOPs you have a set protocol for staff and volunteers to follow so you don’t have to do everything and you know things are getting done correctly. Plenty of nonprofits know they should have SOPs but stopping to create protocols for everything they do can seem super overwhelming, so in this episode I’m breaking down SOP development to make it easy and useful. Get your free masterclass at http://www.kotulo.com/startup Join our Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/kotulononprofitacademy
One of the biggest complaints I hear from Executive Directors is that they do everything, or they wear ALL the hats. While the ED hat can encompass a whole bunch of things, you shouldn’t be wearing all the hats. In this episode I discuss the top three things that Executive Directors should be doing so you can make sure you’re spending your time where it counts. Get your free getting focused worksheet here: http://kotulo.com/focused Check out our episode on getting focused: https://www.kotulo.com/blog/get-focused Join our Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/kotulononprofitacademy
The success of an organization really starts at the top. You need solid leadership to make an organization thrive, and unfortunately most of the Executive Directors I speak to say their board is a pain point for them. A board is there to provide oversight for the ED and organization, as well as fundraise and contribute their time and talent, but many nonprofit leaders spend more time begging their board to get engaged and wishing they could hold them accountable to their commitments than being truly helped by their board. So in this episode, you will learn: How to get the right people How to set clear expectations from the get-go How to ensure each board member is engaged
If you’re going to be focused in 2022 you need to get good at saying no. Saying no can be uncomfortable and feel unnatural for many of us, so I want to help you exercise your no muscle and let go of any discomfort or guilt you may have about setting boundaries that will keep you focused this year. In this episode you will learn: How to clear nonessential things from your life How to evaluate whether or not you should say no How to say no with tact
I know people talk about celebrating successes, it might even be an agenda item at board or staff meetings, but do we really do it right? Do we really take the time to celebrate successes in a way that honors all we have done? It is so easy as executive directors of busy nonprofits to just move on to the next thing, but I think we all need to make a concerted effort to really celebrate our successes in a way that is meaningful and incentivizes us to accomplish even more In this episode, you will learn: 1) How to move from acknowledging successes to celebrating them 2) How to fill your life with meaningful celebrations that all count as work time 3) How to utilize celebrations to make your work more streamlined and your team incentivized
You really should be creating a strategic plan each year. Some nonprofits don’t do this because they are too busy, others don’t know how to do them and they can’t afford a consultant, others do a strategic plan but its OVERLY complicated draining staff for the whole fourth quarter and unfortunately lots of nonprofits make a plan just to please the board but they don’t stick to it or maximize the plan to keep them focused on goals. It is important to make a plan and the good news is it’s actually better to make a simple, clear plan than a super detailed complex plan because there is only so much we can plan for so I wanna help you develop a strategic plan in a simple and intentional way. In this episode, I will go over the 5 essential questions you need to answer to develop your plan.
Get your free Accepting Donations Comparison sheet at http://www.kotulo.com/crypto You would have to be living under a rock to not have heard about some type of cryptocurrency such as bitcoin, but up until now, it hasn’t really been on nonprofit’s radar as something they should be looking into. With approximately 3 trillion dollars invested in cryptocurrency, it is becoming quite popular and crypto investors have started to donate bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies and I’m here to tell you, you should get in on the action. In this video you will learn:
-What is cryptocurrency
-Why you should accept crypto
-How to accept crypto
You know why most nonprofits fail? The number one reason is LACK OF FOCUS. Without a clear mission stating what you are trying to achieve and without investing all our energy in mission-critical activities, Executive Directors find themselves trying to do everything for everybody and taking on the kazillion activities that are thrown at us but if we are going to build a sustainable organization and not completely lose our minds trying to do it we need to get focused and I’ve got some practical ways you can do just that as we head into 2022. In this video you will learn: How not to be a slave to our over productive culture (essentialism) How to set boundaries with tact How to take inventory to see just what you are spending your time on How to take action to delete or delegate and only invest in activities with high ROI for your mission. Get your free ”getting focused tool” at http://www.kotulo.com/focus Join the Facebook community at https://www.facebook.com/groups/kotulononprofitacademy
Do you know that you’re supposed to have an end-of-year campaign but you’re overwhelmed at the thought of coming up with an idea, creating the plan, and making the ask? The end of the year is a great time to ask for donor support and when most people do their giving so you don’t want to miss out on available funding just because you didn’t ask. An End of Year campaign doesn’t have to be complicated and even though there are only a few weeks left to the year it is not too late to launch a campaign. In this video you will learn: How to quickly write an end of year campaign How to make donors care and want to give to your cause How to use stories to maximize your campaign Get your free masterclass at http://www.kotulo.com/startup Join the Facebook community at https://www.facebook.com/groups/kotulononprofitacademy
Grab your free logic model template at www.kotulo.com/logic Join the facebook group at https://www.facebook.com/groups/kotulononprofitacademy When I work with nonprofit clients to develop evaluative measures they often ask me, “Rebecca, what do we need?” What’s the difference between a logic model, a theory of change, which one should we focus on and how can they help us? In all honestly I most often get hired to help organizations develop a logic model because a grant requires one and the org sees it as just one more hoop to jump through...but logic models are actually really useful tools and if you find yourself developing one, don’t create it just to create it, create it to use it. I know theories of change and logic models may seem like buzzwords that are over your head but they really don’t have to be confusing or complex so let me break them down for you. What you’ll learn in this video: What is a theory of change and what is a logic model Elements of a logic model How you can use a logic model
Check out my free masterclass at www.kotulo.com/startup
Join the facebook group at https://www.facebook.com/groups/kotulononprofitacademy
I often get asked from those who have yet to launch their business whether or not they should start a nonprofit or an LLC or for profit. It’s a great question because there are some distinct differences and just because you are wanting to build a business around a social cause doesn’t mean it has to be a nonprofit, but there are some benefits to 501(c)3 or nonprofit status. So, in this episode I’m giving an overview of the key differences so you are better equipped to make a decision on which one is right for you.
In this episode you will learn about:
- The difference funding sources and taxation laws
- The differences between the organizational structure and what that means for your intellectual property and control over the organization.
- Implications for staff and volunteers.
Check out my free masterclass at kotulo.com/startup
Join the facebook group at https://www.facebook.com/groups/kotulononprofitacademy
You wouldn’t believe how difficult it is to find a mission statement that concisely articulates the results an organization is trying to achieve. There are so many statements out there that claim to be mission statements, but they leave me, and I'm sure other stakeholders, confused about why exactly the organization exists. Today I want to share a few pointers to help you develop a clean and clear mission statement. Get your free masterclass for nonprofit startups at www.kotulo.com/startup Join our facebook group Kotulo Nonprofit Academy https://www.facebook.com/groups/kotulononprofitacademy
Nonprofit founders and executive directors take being humble to an extreme. Often when I am working with small programs and startups, I almost need to sell their program to them. Do I think arrogance and unchecked ego are good, no, but I feel like insecurity plagues way too many nonprofit founders and I’m here to tell you you’re a big fricken deal.
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Join the facebook group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/kotulononprofitacademy
Welcome to the harvesting results podcast! We are going to talk about everything nonprofit success including, nonprofit startups, leadership, operations, marketing, culture, building community, and my personal favorite, program evaluation. Make sure to join our facebook group - Kotulo Nonprofit Academy