The idea of starting and running a nonprofit can be very amusing and interesting, especially when you truly care about creating change. Of course, everybody has their own motives behind taking such a step. Some do it to keep themselves busy or gain more experience and learn managerial skills, some do it so that they make it to the CSOs hall of fame, and others simply do it to give back to society. Sometimes all these motives come in one package. And that is okay. There is nothing wrong for wanting something in return as long as you create positive impact and bring concrete, measurable results. There is no such thing as a 100% selfless deed, especially that the CSO-deeds are the hardest to achieve particularly when there are no funds or sponsors. But, who said you need lavish donors in order to make your ideas come true?
Some social agents of the civil society are starting to become more and more dependent on funds that sometimes they give up on their nonprofit projects just because they did not manage to get funds, or their project ideas did not match the objectives of donors, or they did not write a good enough funding request. But, what if I told you that you can start and successfully run a nonprofit project with no funds?
First thing is first. Get to know your community, be it a local one or a global one. Define the needs of that community from your own, unique understanding. Start small! Now, I know that I said the word “global” earlier, but you can start small when you tackle one common issue that occurs at the global level. Write For Humanity is one example of that where the project is based on the idea of writing activism. Or you can start small by tackling multiple issues in a specific local community. It can also be one issue in one local community. Once you do your needs analysis, personal motivation will find its way towards you and everyone who will be involved in the project.
Along the way, always ask yourself, why are you doing this? What should you work on to create a greater impact? That will help you in defining the purpose of the project and what it aims at achieving whether at the long term or the short term. During this process, you need to focus! Because if the purpose of the project changes, then it means you have created a new project without even realizing it. Then, everything will change from the needs and aims of the project to the community of volunteers and people supporting your cause. At that point, people might stop taking you seriously, and that will definitely slow down the wheel of change.
After defining the purpose of the project, move to developing a list of objectives and coming up with the appropriate tools/methods. These two, however, are okay to change. They will not mess with the supreme purpose of the project. You may update the objectives at any point of the journey, and you may use as many tools/methods as possible, all depending on the regenerative state of the project. While developing those tools, make your plan of activities. You might think ‘Aha! This is when I am going to need those funds!’. Nope! You can create a list of activities that can be held with a 0 budget.
You can hold events at public cultural centers, or partner with other organizations and associations who are willing to provide a venue. You can hold training sessions and workshops and ask for volunteer trainers and facilitators to lead those sessions. There are tons of things that you can do. You only need to work hard, have the right problem-solving skills, and stay focused. If anything, having no money will make you more motivated to reach your goals more than ever before. You can hold meetings online for free. You can engage more people using social media. And again, for free!
If you want to be a true active citizen, if you want to create social/political change in your community, you should not rely on funds to make that happen. If donations come along the way, then that is great! The more the merrier. Money will sure make a lot of things easier. But, some things are not meant to be easy; some things should be done the hard way in order to reach the intended results. And I know that some people become an active part of a nonprofit project only when there is a fancy organization behind it or when they are going to gain something out of it. Do not focus your energy on those people. Those are not your target audience. The people you are looking for are waiting for you somewhere out there. You just need to keep looking!
Thank you for reading.
Write For Humanity 