“You can’t be everything to everyone.”
Have you heard that saying? It’s an old proverb that has a deep ring of truth to it.
Many people try to cut corners and save money by doing everything themselves. Sooner or later, however, you realize that you can’t do everything well. By trying to be everything to everybody, you fail to be the best you can be in one specialty area. Your organization can suffer as a result.
Nonprofits often suffer from this problem. Founders try to handle their marketing, fundraising, and operations, as well as the mission of the nonprofit. Faced with ever-increasing duties, burnout is common as too many tasks pack into the same 24 hours. And since you can’t be great at everything you set your hand to in a given day, something, somewhere, has to give.
The Flip Side: Hiring Too Many People
Faced with such a dilemma, many nonprofits turn instead to hiring people to fill specialized roles. They hire someone to handle fundraising, and someone else to manage grants. Before long, they have many employees, but now feel the pinch of not enough cash because it’s all going to salaries. While they’re getting more work done, efficiencies suffer as organizations become staff-heavy.
What’s a nonprofit manager to do?
Outsourcing for Operational Efficiencies
Outsourcing is a great option for nonprofits to improve operational efficiencies. In today’s virtual, digital world, you can outsource almost any role at your nonprofit. Of course, the actual work that you do may be hands-on; visiting nurses must still care for patients, teachers must teach, and an animal shelter has animals that need to be fed. But many other roles, like communications, marketing, fundraising, and even accounting can be outsourced.
Outsourcing improves operational efficiencies by:
- Reducing overhead and staff redundancies.
- Finding and working with highly experienced specialists in their respective disciplines.
- Offering flexibility so that you can tap into expertise when you need it, rather than hiring someone full time.
- Providing access to top talent without the expense and time of recruiting, hiring, and training.
Outsourcing provides you with the flexibility to find and work with the best people in the nonprofit world. It also frees up your time so that you can focus on what’s critical to your organization.
Everyone’s core strengths are different. When you can work solely with your own strengths and outsource other tasks to someone else, your entire organization benefits. Not only is your time better spent on what you do well, but you can tap into a wealth of information and experience when you outsource specialized tasks.
Finding the Right Outsourcing Partner
Once you’ve made up your mind to find a company to outsource work to, it’s time to make some phone calls or emails. You can find potential vendors through a variety of channels.
- Ask other nonprofits for recommendations. Many are happy to help out a fellow organization by recommending great companies, consultants, or individuals to you.
- Review trade association memberships. Many associations include fine companies that provide outsourced services to nonprofits.
- Search online. Be sure to read testimonials, case studies, and other third-party reviews of the organization.
Evaluate several companies so that you have an apples-to-apples comparison of their experience, approach, and other critical information about how they work and how they approach their projects.
Outsourcing is a great option for finding experienced professionals to help you with tasks that aren’t your strong suit. It can save time as well as add value to your organization. Whether you outsource fundraising, grant writing, or accounting, finding a great outsourcing partner is a step in the right direction.
Measure Your Results
How do you know that your nonprofit is working efficiently? Measure your outcomes. Leading nonprofits use outcome measures to demonstrate success to donors and stakeholders. Learn more about specific outcome metrics for nonprofits at this free webinar, Outcome Measures: Metrics that Matter for Nonprofits held Friday, September 16 at 2 PM ET.
Beck & Company
Established in 1987, Beck & Company is a CPA firm serving the Washington, D.C. and Eastern Seaboard area. Our services are personalized to your organization’s needs. We provide independent auditing, accounting, tax services, and consulting to help keep your organization’s finances running smoothly. Fund accounting is just one of our many specialties. Contact us today or call 703-834-0776