Say your nonprofit recently secured a grant to execute a new project. This requires you to increase your work capacity by hiring more hands. You need highly skilled people who are also passionate to fill the specific roles. But you don’t have a well-defined hiring process.
Hiring can be time-consuming and expensive. Worse still, you might not find the perfect fit because of the sensitivity of the sector. Effective hiring requires planning, organization, and smart work. However, there are ways to streamline several processes in your nonprofit and be more efficient all around.
1. The Hiring Process
Hiring the right candidate starts by setting priorities. Determine the requisite experiences and capabilities that candidates must have to be considered. Also, have another set of requirements that will enable your recruiters to find ‘gold’ candidates. This will help you come up with a clear and powerful job description.
Different technology solutions can help you weed out unqualified candidates and speed up the hiring process. Career and job board sites like Indeed and LinkedIn can help you target suitable applicants through the job requirements. A digital form to evaluate skill sets can further weed out unqualified candidates.
Pre-screening candidates can also save time. Conducting phone and video interviews will help you find out information not highlighted on resumes and CVs. This method also applies when selecting volunteers. Preparing questions will make the interviews smoother.
2. Case Management
Nonprofits deal with a lot of data and have to track different individuals in real-time—client information, appointment schedules, history, case managers, and lots more. This information needs to be presented in a way that aids visualization, analysis, and interpretation to improve decision-making. This is where implementing nonprofit case management software can help.
A nonprofit case management software aids collaboration and communication. It makes it possible for superiors to track the progress of case managers in real-time. It also offers various report types, summarizing what the team has achieved. It saves time and reduces the loss of data that can occur with paperwork.
3. Event Planning
This is another vital activity for nonprofits. From fundraisers, stakeholders’ retreats, charity auctions, and outreach, nonprofits often organize multiple events. This can often be overwhelming, stressful, and time-consuming. Again, technology solutions come to the rescue.
Digital tools like Eventbrite help with ticketing, invitation, and check-in. It also offers on-site equipment rentals and staffing, which would be invaluable for one-off events. DoubleDutch offers data analytics and a customer relationship management (CRM) system that allows attendees to interact with the host. These platforms help advertise events and give an estimated number of guests.
Nonprofits can also keep some events on their calendar yearly. This way, they don’t have to start from scratch when making preparations. It can also build a following and bring in larger crowds each year.
4. Fundraising
Every nonprofit needs fund to execute projects. Fundraising can be a daunting task. However, there are tools that nonprofits can leverage to bolster their chances of securing funds. Crowdfunding is one such tool. It is a proven way to raise funds, and it even rivals venture capital.
Social media is a simple tool that organizations use to tell interesting stories and raise funds. Mobile apps are another avenue, and it helps nonprofits stay closer to donors. Text-to-give has also seen much success in recent years. These tools also help collect funds on the go.
5. Finances
Working with numbers can be very challenging, especially when it comes to accounting. If there is one area nonprofits need to streamline, it’s the finances. Tools like Microsoft Excel and Google Sheets offer budget templates that simplify the process and make projections.
As effective as these tools are, be sure to hire an accounting expert to handle analysis, projections, and track the process. These automation tools come in handy when comparing your projections with your actual numbers. They can also help make operating cost forecasts and project growths of new initiatives.
Nonprofits need to have a proven means to regulate excesses and cost control. You can achieve this by introducing a board member with a finance background to be an auditor or introduce a consultant to avoid compromise. It helps to have a more professional view when it comes to finances.
Technology Drives Efficiency
Nonprofits are traditional organizations that sometimes lack acceptance of technology. A lot of their processes are still manual and involve tedious paperwork. However, if technology solutions can be implemented across key areas, a nonprofit can become more efficient.