Three Simple Steps for Improved Financial and Impact Performance

Making a difference in the world is difficult, especially on a lean budget. Delivering better financial and impact performance is never far from a purpose-driven leader’s mind. Here are three low- to no-cost actions you can take to make you smarter about inefficiencies in your organization.??

• Are your organizational documents up to date??

Donors are asking more from organizations, and it is important to make sure that you, your staff, your board, and other ambassadors work seamlessly across missions, values statements, strategic goals, theories of change, impact strategies, and more.??

Easy Action Step: Schedule an annual session for cross-functional staff and board members to surface ideas about how to refresh your core goals and talking points.?

• When you run your annual budget process, do you benchmark it to your sustainable business model??

If you have a sustainable business model (a financial strategy for a more resilient and impactful organization), is it updated and applied dynamically? If so, it is a good tool for keeping you and your stakeholders on point when it comes to making financial decisions.??

Easy Action Step: If you haven’t run a full sustainable business model development process, you can quickly gauge your need for it with this back-of-the-envelope exercise: compare your core, recurring revenues and your expenses. In a pinch, how would you reduce your costs to balance your budget…and still achieve your mission??

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• How proactive is your organization at identifying opportunities and risks??

If there is one conversation that can move your organization from a reactive to a proactive state, it is a periodic inventory of big change factors, on the plus (opportunities) and the minus (risks) sides of the equation.?

Easy Action Step: Do you know that your biggest donors/grantors are also usually the biggest sources of risk to your organizational stability? It may sound counter-intuitive, but focusing on these relationships may help you tap into creative engagement solutions that could extend donor relationships.? And one other thing, most often, the biggest risk to those relationships can be your own operational capacity (are you ready to accept a transformational grant?) So, make that part of the outreach and feedback process.?

What's next? Reach out to WhiteLabel Partner Christina Zausner with any questions on your organization's finances, business model, and risk management.?