"Do I need to start a Nonprofit to do this?"

Starting a non-profit is just one of dozens or  hundreds of possible ways to make a positive social impact in the world. Maybe you feel  inspired to take action on a particular cause or issue that you care about but you're not  quite sure if the process of starting a formal non-profit organization is truly necessary to  accomplish your goals. So in this video I'm going to talk through how to think through whether  going through the process the paperwork the steps in order to create a formal nonp

rofit organization  is going to be worth it depending on what your objectives are. I'll talk through some scenarios  in which starting a formal nonprofit would be the right fit and those in which it might not be well  there's a lot of nuance and differences in various scenarios that you might encounter i'm hoping that  at the very least this will give you a framework to think about whether or not it would be a good  fit for what you're trying to accomplish based on your unique situation welcome

or welcome back to  my channel my name is Amber Melanie Smith! I'm a non-profit founder and executive director of the  nonprofit that i started i started this youtube channel a couple of years ago to help others who  wanted to get out there and make a difference and just needed some guidance on how to get started  whether that's through starting a non-profit volunteering taking on a leadership  position for a cause you care about and more if you're in the process of starting a  non-profit or dev

eloping a sustainable fundraising plan for a non-profit i hope you'll check out  my website FounderToFullTime.com. I provide some trainings and resources there for folks who are  going on that journey and as always i hope that you find this video helpful and useful and please  don't forget to give it a like and subscribe to my channel for more content like this alright so  let's get into this when you are starting to think about whether or not you should go through  the formal process of startin

g a non-profit organization in order to meet your social impact  goals it's important to get clarity on the answers to a few questions first the first question  is what is your ultimate goal for creating a social impact now knowing where you're going where  your destination lies what your ultimate outcomes are these are important questions no matter what  type of endeavor or project that you're taking on so really think about this in terms of your social  impact goals is your goal to meet an imm

ediate need in your local community is it to raise money  for a cause or issue that you care about is it to create an impact on a larger scale social issue so  you're thinking about your goals for social impact and the second question is what are your goals  for yourself personally is your personal goal to be able to see that you're making an impact on a  specific issue in the community right now is it to make this type of work work in non-profits work  and social impact your full-time career an

d very importantly are you interested in or able to make  your work on this a long-term commitment or would you prefer that it's a short-term commitment and  by short term i'm usually referring to something that would be less than a year or two worth of  commitment for your life and third question is do you have others around you who are also interested  in supporting this initiative or is it just you at this time and if it is just you are you willing  to go rally some others to help out it's re

ally important to know what your goals are not just  for social impact but as i said for yourself personally because starting a non-profit is  essentially like starting a business it's going to be a long-term commitment and a big  investment of your time and possibly resources it requires strategy and planning and research  and financial resources and skilled leadership in some cases it can take multiple years to be  able to raise funds gain some traction and start seeing results and that can be

okay social change  takes a lot of time it's just something you need to know that you are comfortable with making  the commitment for with that in mind let's talk about a few situations in which you might consider  going through the process of formally registering as a non-profit organization so if one or more of  these is true that might be a sign that starting a non-profit officially is something you're  going to want to consider seriously the first sign is that your goal is to make a sustain

ed  impact on a larger scale social issue over time for example decreasing the rates of poverty in  your city or increasing the number of kids who graduate high school each year these are  things that are going to take a long-term investment to accomplish the second sign is  that the outcome that you're looking to achieve is probably going to require a significant amount  of financial or other types of resources some projects or programs are going to require some  solid infrastructure in order t

o be effective and in order to build that infrastructure you're going  to need to be able to raise money and develop that infrastructure and those systems and processes  with a team of people all with varying skills over a probably significant period of time the  third sign is that your efforts whatever project or initiative you're planning on undertaking would  benefit from the protection of a legal status or protection from personal liability if some of  the activities that you are looking at

taking on in order to make your social impact are going  to require some kind of physical or legal risk then doing so without the legal infrastructure  the protection of the nonprofit status could mean that you are held personally responsible for  anything that goes wrong of course i'm not a lawyer so please consult an attorney if you have  specific questions on whether your activities might carry some personal risk and the fourth  sign is something i alluded to before and that is that you have

the ability to and the interest  in recruiting others to help you over time this is something that i've learned with with much  chagrin that it's very hard to do by yourself you need people with lots of different skills  um and lots of different levels of experience to participate and of course when you're starting  a non-profit you're also typically required by law to have a board of directors which means you  literally legally can't do it by yourself anyway so if you can sustain the operations

of a  non-profit for at least a couple of years and you are willing to work with others to get it  off the ground that might be a good sign that this endeavor that you're going to take on would fit  the non-profit structure okay so now let's talk about a couple of scenarios in which you might not  have to start a nonprofit or might not need to or desire to start a non-profit the first is that  you just need to complete a short-term project or initiative for example if you have community  servic

e hours for your college or your high school you do not need to start a non-profit for that  you can lend your time and your talents to a cause that you care about simply by volunteering for an  existing organization another scenario in which you might not need to start a nonprofit is that  there's already another organization serving your target area your community that is tackling  the same issue the issue that you care about and they just need a little extra help if your  goal is to make an i

mpact on an issue that you care about in some cases it is more time  savings and more cost-effective to simply serve or even apply for a job with a non-profit  that already has that infrastructure set up and that could look like a lot of different things it  could look like volunteering for this organization it could look like offering to take on a special  project for them doing a fundraiser for them or as i mentioned before even applying for an open  paid staff position the third scenario in w

hich you might not need to start a non-profit is if  you are trying to start a club or an affiliate organization of a larger organization that can  grant you its non-profit status because you are a chapter of that existing organization an example  of this might be a club like Kiwanis international so here's a question i sometimes get what if your  project or initiative would greatly benefit from the tax-exempt status of a non-profit or the  reputation of the non-profit world but isn't particular

ly well suited to going off and forming  your own official nonprofit what do you do then in that case you might consider trying to find  a fiscal sponsor or finding a non-profit who is willing to partner with you on the project that  you're looking to do fiscal sponsorship is when an existing nonprofit essentially lends you its  tax-exempt status because whatever you're doing will further their mission as well and you have a  mutual understanding as to how the project will be mutually beneficial

and to determine how to get a  fiscal sponsorship you need to find organizations who have the same mission that you have and make  sure that your values align with one another and that you have the capacity to work with each  other at that point it's just about determining what the partnership looks like and getting it in  writing to have a formal partnership finally you might determine as you're thinking through all of  this that you do need some kind of formal or legal structure in order to d

o what you are looking to  do but perhaps the non-profit structure is not the right fit for you in that case forming a private  business or a B corporation might be a better fit i do have a couple of other videos that talk about  the pros and cons of forming a non-profit versus forming a business or what a b corporation does  so be sure to check those out too i'd love to hear what's on your mind at this point do you feel like  after hearing all this or after reflecting on some of these questions

that going the non-profit route  is the best fit for you or perhaps going some other route is a better fit be sure to share your  thoughts in the comments below and as i mentioned before if you are starting a non-profit or  trying to figure out how to start a non-profit or develop a fundraising plan for your nonprofit  check out my trainings at FounderToFullTime.com. I also have a newsletter for non-profit leaders and  change makers i'll leave the link to subscribe to that in the description be

low as well but i send  out regular updates and articles on all things going on in the social impact world funding  opportunities and more one last thing i have a facebook group called Change The World or Bust.  We've got a couple thousand people in there from all around the world at this point all looking  to make an impact all sharing their stories and what they're working on i hope that you can join  us there just look up the group in facebook and come on by that's all i got for today once ag

ain  i'm Amber Melanie Smith and i hope to see you next time don't forget to give this video a like and  subscribe to my channel for more and see you later