Non-Profit Entrepreneurs: Benefit from Experienced Volunteer Consultants
Many angel investors are allegedly interested in non-profit startups. Moreover, non profit organizations are obviously more favoured by the community than their for-profit counterparts.
Did you know that, adding to those already-huge perks, non-profit entrepreneurs can also benefit from volunteer consultancies, aiming to help them grow their organisations?
What or who is volunteer consultants?
Volunteer consultants are those that aim to offer their expertise voluntarily, either for free or in exchange for a smallish consulting fee.
Let’s take nesc as an example for non-profit consulting service organisations.
National Executive Service Corps (NESC), founded on 1977 and has already helped thousands of non-profits in New York, Connecticut and New Jersey, are offering fellow non-profits consultancy to tackle managerial and operational problems, as well as providing guidance on nonprofit strategic planning and business plans formation.
NESC members consist of volunteer consultants – hundreds of former senior executives and seasoned professionals – who offer their expertise on voluntary basis, in exchange for a fee that is only a fraction of their commercial, for-profit counterparts.
How non-profit entrepreneurs can benefit from non-profit consultancy service, such as NESC
The main advantages working with non-profit consultancy organisation are experience, dedication and reasonable fee. So you should rate your potential consulting partner according to those measurements.
Experience
Not all non-profit consulting services are offered by experienced consultants. Obviously, you should look for consultants who have strong career background, such as senior executives and seasoned professionals.
You should also seek information on their track records – What is the scale of projects they are handling or have handled? How many clients have they helped?
Dedication
Are they walking with you hand-in-hand, or just providing advices only?
Some don’t expect their consulting partner to walk them hand-in-hand. This is a wrong mindset. Being charged a reasonably low fee doesn’t mean you should lower your standard.
Expect only the best service – Authoritative non-profit consulting organisations, such as NESC, are dedicated to help you with Action Plan that will instantly transform your non-profit organisations, while makings sure that you take your required steps accordingly.
Reasonable fee
Again, being reasonable doesn’t make a non-profit consulting organisation offering you sub-par services. This benefit is logical – Being non-profit, the primary focus is not money, but reached milestones.
Looking for the right non-profit consulting service, you should contact your local town hall for such service. Alternatively, you can seek referrals from fellow non-profit entrepreneurs, as well as online and off line publications on such services.
Ivan Widjaya
Non-profit consulting
Image by millermz.
About the Author
Ivan Widjaya is the Owner/Editor of Noobpreneur.com. He is a web property investor, blogger and web property maker, and currently manages and writes for Franchise Note. He also runs a web design business, Chalcedony Design, specialising in Wordpress theme creation.
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I like how you say Angel investors are “allegedly interested in non-profit startups”.. you always wonder what they feel is in it for them.. I guess community appreciation and respect is a great reason.
But it sounds like your not entirely convinced either :)
LOL – Yes I do wonder what they actually have in mind :) I have never been one, but at this moment, should I invest in a start-up, I do interested in the non-profit ones… They does have more “compassion for others” that the rest of us, which is well respected.
I’ve been doing volunteer work for years and with the dwindling economic system, the need for volunteer consultants is up by a notch, most of the time we have to pay for them in order to acquire funds from companies and individuals, unfortunately not a lot of them would be willing to do it at no charge.
Cha Marquez
http://www.CostaRicaHQ.com
cha,
That’s great! Are you doing consultancy, too?
Nope, I’m more on the operations side, mostly project-based volunteer work and recruitment. I leave the money-making job to the big shots :)
Cha
Cha,
LOL – Nevertheless, your role is very important!