According to the National Center for Charitable Statistics, religion related organizations make up the largest number of nonprofit organizations in the country, about 222,000 organizations in existence in 2010. Yet, as is true for all nonprofit organizations, faith-based organizations often struggle to find the funding to operate.
Whichever method of the two is chosen, one of the first and most important steps is to clearly define a specific problem your nonprofit is going to address. A clearly defined challenge will help those interested in supporting your nonprofit to understand your approach to the problem and the solution you propose they donate to.
Develop the Purpose and Mission The first step in creating a non-profit’s vision is developing the purpose and mission. This is where a nonprofit defines who it will help, how it will help them, and what it will put in place to accomplish the help. The mission statement often comes from this exercise and should be short, concise but clearly explain what the nonprofit will do. The reason I believe many nonprofits are more successful than others is they can look at the same problem everyone else is but see a solution that is completely different.
Organizations with a high degree of religious activity might be best understood as faith-filled organizations. These organizations, such as worship centers or evangelistic associations, exist to further the tenets of a faith and have a high degree of religious activity, or perhaps only exist to serve a specific denomination.
On the other hand, some organizations are faith-based only in as much as they are managed or were established by individuals of faith. These organizations may best be described as faith- associated. An example of a nonprofit that is faith-associated might be the Catholic Charities. Despite their affiliation with the Catholic Church, the Catholic Charities focus primarily on reducing poverty and assisting the poor and are not particularly evangelistic. However, the charity will often rely on their Catholic roots when faced with difficult decisions that may compromise the faith foundations of the organization.
Still other organizations are what I consider to be truly faith-based. These are organizations that are firmly rooted in a particular faith but the activities they carry out are not necessarily faith activities. A Christian school is a good example of a faith-based organization. The essential function of the organization is education. Yet they are firmly rooted in Christianity and these beliefs often permeate some of the activities of the organization.
Get Crazy So far you should be having a blast and now is where it goes into warp craziness. I like to take some time to imagine how the organization I am putting together might become the premier nonprofit that single handedly ends the need for anymore help in its particular service. Imagine after your nonprofit gets started it solves all the world’s problem in what it focuses on. What would that look like and what would it need to do to completely be the solution?
Using these three steps in defining the specific problem that the nonprofit will address will help the nonprofit correctly address the challenge while providing a unique solution to immediate help and long-term eradication of the challenge.
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