When the Funding Dries Up - The Plight of the Non-Profit Teenager

When non-profit groups are put in the situation of having to become customer-focused self-sustaining organizations, I don't see many succeeding without help. Rather than seeking sources of funding, and conforming to the requirements of the granting bodies, the organization now has to focus on their customers, on becoming sustainable, or even, dare I say it, becoming profitable! Never! Sacrilege!

The process has the same flavour as those of a teenager shifting into adulthood. The crucial economic skill of a teen is convincing mom and dad to give them money; "Can I have twenty bucks to go to the movies?"

As they get older and the parents desperately try to push their thirty-five year old son out of the house, the grant money starts to dry up. The new economic survival skill becomes, OMG, a JOB! Now this "older" teen has to figure out how to get someone, anyone, to pay them money for the work they do. It's time to EARN some money, and to do that, you have to provide real value.

It's the same for non-profit labs, non-profit service providers, non-profit clinics, and non-profit whatevers when, for whatever reason, they are faced with becoming independent and self-sustaining.

Shift your thinking. Change some people that you hang around with. Focus on your customers' needs rather than your own. Dare I say it, grow up?