Book of the Week – The Nonprofit Workbook

When it comes to navigating a nonprofit, there are a lot of elements you need to understand. “The Nonprofit Workbook: Tips & Best Practices for Start-Ups Serving the Greater Common Good” is the perfect book for anyone venturing into this industry. Author Rebecca Rodriguez, Principal and Chief Social Engineer of For the Philanthropist, is well-equipped to explain both the basic and complex elements of starting and or maintaining a successful nonprofit.

What is your book about?

The Nonprofit Workbook is a hands-on guide that lays out all the organizational options open to 501(c) and other charitable entities that serve the greater common good. Written in the format of a workbook to better prepare you for what lies ahead, it provides a road map for how to go from creating a startup to building a sustainable organization that delivers meaningful, long-term impact in the community; one that can prove its social value. There are several factors to consider when launching an enterprise that focuses on a social problem.

Topics include:

1. Recruiting, training and working with a board of directors
2. Choosing an effective business model to generate income and raise money
3. The truth about grants for startups
4. Starting with sufficient capital
5. Creating an effective, efficient foundation to build upon
6. Program design to include monitoring and evaluating
7. The importance of systems and processes
8. Considerations for using volunteers
9. Compliance, rules and regulations
10. Advocacy
11. Fiscal sponsorship
12. Collective impact

Why should people read it? Who is the book for?

For people who want to make a business impact for the greater common good, and for those founders who have already started a social enterprise and are in their first year or two, this workbook is great. The material will either confirm you are on the right track or help you make some course adjustments to ensure you are following a path that will get you to a place of sustainability effectively and efficiently.

Single most important takeaway:

“The Nonprofit Workbook is a real-world, hands-on workbook that lays out all the organizational options open to nonprofits, and provides a concrete road map for how to go from creating a new startup to building a successful organization that delivers meaningful, long-term impact in the community.”

Meet the author

For more than 20 years, I have worked with nonprofits of all sizes to ensure their success. Having worked as a fundraiser for 10 years, I had an epiphany that if leadership could prove their programs were creating positive change in people’s lives with data, then program and organizational financial sustainability would follow. I deliberately got off the fundraising track and learned daily operations to include program development and implementation. In 2014, I created For the Philanthropist and work with donors in areas of grant administration, scholarships and impact investing. I also work with nonprofits in the start-up lifecycle phase to ensure they get to a place of sustainability quickly. From my work with start-up founders, I was inspired to write The Nonprofit Workbook and also offer an Accelerator Program to work with founders and their Board of Directors for their initial first few years.

Did you enjoy this article? Check out this other handbook for more hands-on learning: The Remote Work Handbook.