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When I asked someone in a recent conversation how familiar they are with nonprofits and the social sector, they responded with, “I just know they don’t operate well.” I frequently hear a version of this, typically from individuals who have not worked in the nonprofit sector.

When I hear these comments, I get annoyed – a good indicator that I need to investigate why. As I reflected on this comment, I realized these kinds of statements come from a lack of understanding of the context in which most nonprofits work.  Nonprofits often operate with constrained funds, unfunded mandates to provide data to prove impact defined by a funder (not defined by the nonprofit itself), and the expectation to maintain unrealistically low overhead while still maintaining strong financial, outreach, fundraising and operational practices. A tough environment indeed.

This made me think of a quote from Paul Polak – a visionary in international development and solution design oriented to needs of lower income individuals. He said the problem with people experiencing poverty is that they don’t have money. By this Polak meant that people are not incompetent, but rather they have limited resources to thrive. This is the same for many nonprofits –they don’t have sufficient (or abundant!) resources to work with. 

This is why I’m excited to see the Nonprofit Infrastructure Grant Program in Colorado. This program allows nonprofit leaders to describe their capacity needs and apply for funding to address those needs in strategic planning, research, data collection, evaluation and other areas that support the improvement of an organization’s operational structure. For anyone who has run a nonprofit or company, you know that assessing your highest organizational infrastructure needs and finding the resources to address is a constant game to achieve success.

While this funding opportunity is focused on Colorado, it can serve as a model for other states and foundations.  To progress on pressing social challenges, it’s critical to support nonprofit leaders to strengthen their operations where they know they most need it.

Founder & CEO

PS: Colorado Nonprofits - We’re excited to see that data collection, data technology and evaluation are areas for which nonprofits can apply from the Nonprofit Infrastructure Grant Program. If you or your leadership determine that data is an area of focus for you, let’s connect. Tell us about your data practice needs by filling out this form and we’ll provide support to help craft your grant request.

July Resources

TOOLS

• Nonprofit Infrastructure Grant Program in Colorado – Nonprofit Infrastructure (NPI) Grant Program is a Colorado grant program for small, community-based nonprofit organizations. The grant is designed for nonprofits in historically-marginalized communities that need funding for infrastructure improvements that are intended to positively impact an organization’s operational structure.

• Get Support with Your Grant Application Here. 
  

READING

• Out of Poverty – Book Overview – A book on approaches to solving social issues when traditional approaches have failed.

• Avoiding Burnout and Preserving Movement Leadership - "Too often, government contracts and philanthropy do not cover the full cost of operations. A bad “solution” to this gap is to overwork, underpay, and under-resource nonprofit staff and leaders to sacrifice their bodies and health to the cause." And how boards, philanthropies and nonprofits can respond.

• The Nonprofit Starvation Cycle - What's making it difficult for nonprofits to function, and how the sector can change to better support nonprofits. 

• Increase Learning & Evaluation Skills for Nonprofits - A funder’s equity-centered approach to strengthen nonprofit partners’ capacity and confidence in data and evaluation.

WATCHING & LISTENING

• Vu Le: Nonprofits, General Operating Funds, & Ridiculous Restrictions - A humorous take on grant restrictions, and what we can do to stop perpetuating the propensity to restrict funding.

• General Operating Support Is Vital to Advancing Equity, Strengthening Nonprofits, Say Leaders – A moderated panel making the case to reduce red tape and place more trust in nonprofits.

• Ford Foundation Makes Changes to End Nonprofit Starvation Cycle- "insider’s view of how things are changing inside the Ford Foundation... as their team seeks to provide more equitable and effective grants to the organizations they support."

ANNOUNCEMENTS

• 2023 Impact Accelerator Waitlist is Open! Impact Accelerator is a 7-12 month program for nonprofits who want to build a solid foundation for their organization’s data practices, and equip their team with the skills, tools and processes to carry it forward. Join the waitlist.
• Impact Collective
  • Impact Collective Info Session - learn more about ResultsLab's online community of changemakers that are ready to do more with data. Hear how our online course, learning deep dives, and data mastermind groups are helping nonprofit evaluators and data professionals strengthen their networks and organizational data practices.
    • July 12 at 1pm (MT).
    • No cost to attend.
  • New CoLab (an impact data mastermind group) starts September! Mark your calendars. Learn more and join today.
• We're Hiring! Check out our current open positions and please share in your networks.
  • Impact Consultant
  • Senior Impact Advisor
  • Growth, Impact Driver

LET'S CONNECT

If you would like to contribute to content or would like us to include your resources in the future, please reach out to info@resultslab.com and we will connect with you!

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ResultsLab is a woman-owned social enterprise that propels organizations, communities, and networks to the next level of impact through quality design and effective use of data. We are reinventing impact management by providing strategic design and capacity building for data informed decision-making to organizations and networks that exist to drive change for our communities.