Five Limiting Beliefs of Nonprofit Professionals from Nonprofit HUB

Five Limiting Beliefs of Nonprofit Professionals

From: Nonprofit Hub

Delaney Mullennix is the Director of Partnerships at Nonprofit Hub. She plays a major role in curating and creating educational content with a network of innovative nonprofit services, product providers, and professionals that empower organizations to go from good to growth. Katie Appold, the Executive Director of Nonprofit Hub, has led nonprofit organizations to develop new programs related to free healthcare, affordable and accessible housing, and literacy programs for K-12 students.

These fearless leaders have been trailblazing the nonprofit sector for over 15 years and have compiled a list of common misconceptions that might prevent organizations from reaching their potential in the fundraising space.

Nonprofit professionals have thoughts, convictions, and beliefs that hold us back, everyone does. These are called limiting beliefs. They creep in through our learned experiences, institutional norms, and historical and traditional ways of operating and I am here to tell you they are false. Here are five limiting beliefs that hold nonprofits back:

1. Limiting Belief #1: Overhead doesn’t impact success

   False. Overhead is the total expenses the business incurs to stay in business, regardless of its success level (yes, your nonprofit is a business). You need to keep the lights on, you need to pay your property taxes, and you need to meet your payroll every month. If you can achieve your mission and be successful without any lights or staff, I would be impressed.

   If someone tells you that overhead doesn’t impact success, they are telling you that you don’t matter. You are overhead. Dan Pallotta believes that the way we think about charity is dead wrong, and so are limiting beliefs. Pallotta said, “everyone wants charities to spend as little as possible on overhead. That’s backwards. Overhead is what drives growth. If charities can’t grow, they can’t solve problems. So overhead is a good thing.” Check out his famous TED talk

   Overhead does impact success. Click here to learn more about the overhead myth and how underinvesting in the operation of your organization impacts success.

2. Limiting Belief #2: Nonprofits aren’t responsible for the overhead myth

   False. Ever heard someone say, “manifest it”? To manifest something means to bring it to life or ”demonstrate creation.” If you do not believe having lights or staff matters, no one else will. The Bridgespan Nonprofit Overhead Cost Study published in 2008 reported that 13% of nonprofits said they had no management or general expenses. Really? None? Over a third of organizations with 50K or more in donations report no fundraising expenses. Don’t you agree that it would be really hard to raise $50,000+ without spending a dime?

   These organizations are encouraging donors to use overhead as a measurement of trust. That is not okay. Who would you trust more, an organization that reports no fundraising expenses and raises $50K, or an organization that reports raising $200K and spends $50K on fundraising?

3. Limiting Belief #3: Your nonprofit is not enough

   Your nonprofit is not large enough, staffed enough, experienced enough, well-known enough, prepared enough, and so on. False. Philanthropy favors the courageous. Do you find yourself saying things like, “I don’t believe the organization is ready to handle a large donor?” Whatever you are not enough of, there’s a consultant for that.

   According to Tim Sarrantonio, Director of Corporate Brand for Neon One, who has spent more than 11 years in nonprofit technology, we are living in the golden age of consultant and nonprofit partnership. There are:

   1. Consultants who search - these are consultants that tell a nonprofit what software to buy, but do not necessarily have any relationship with them afterward
   2. Consultants who train - these are consultants that will try to tell a nonprofit how to use the software they purchased
   3. Consultants who coach - these are consultants who aren’t necessarily going to tell the nonprofit how to learn software, but how to leverage the software to better their mission
   4. Consultants who manage - these are consultants who run the software for the nonprofit
   
   

   If you need a little bit of everything and want a one-stop shop, Katie Appold, Nonprofit Hub’s Executive Director manages NonprofitNav.com. This nonprofit consulting firm offers navigation services and referrals to get you wherever you want to go.

4. Limiting Belief #4: Your donors are the expert

   False. Your donors are not the expert, you are. The truth is, donors have more money than you, not more mission-related expertise. There are countless stories of nonprofits accepting money from donors who place contingencies and expectations on the organization’s leadership to shift their mission just a little by adding a new program or focusing on different outcomes. This is not inherently negative, and there are countless stories of nonprofits that decline donors. The most important thing to do is know why you exist. Do not let donors tell you why you exist. Even Simon Sinek agrees that the difference between successful companies and leaders that actually change the world and those who do not is the vision and mission behind their efforts.

   If you need some encouragement to stick to your nonprofit vision, Megha Desai breaks down mission drift’s real and raw dangers and the undue influence from outside forces in this Nonprofit Hub Radio podcast episode.

   Your donors are there to support your vision, not shape your vision.

5. Limiting Belief #5: All you need is a good story

   False. There’s nothing sadder than a post or video with ZERO views. Telling your story doesn’t matter if no one sees it. A visual story is a great start to getting someone’s attention but you also need a strategy and timeline, a marketing and promotional budget, someone to take ownership, and a method of measurement for success.

   60% of nonprofits advertise and we hope you are one of them. Your organization is not competing with the other food pantry in town, it’s competing against major brands and marketing giants for discretionary time and income. Do you want the world to know about your mission and easily support it? We thought so. Nearly every major brand uses digital advertising to reach its current and prospective audience, including nonprofits! Digital advertising is often more affordable, targeted, and trackable than traditional paid media. Digital advertising can help your nonprofit to reach more donors and volunteers, and better steward your marketing dollars while enhancing your other fundraising activities, like newsletters and events.

   The Nonprofit’s Guide to Digital Advertising walks you through how to get started and what channels are most effective for cause-oriented organizations like yours.

Do not let the glass ceiling of limiting beliefs hold your organization back from growth.

About the Authors:

Delaney joined the Nonprofit Hub team in 2021 as the Director of Partnerships. She helps to manage and sustain the organization's growing national presence, modern partnership profile, and highly trafficked educational media platform. Delaney plays a major role in curating and creating educational content with a network of innovative nonprofit services, product providers, and professionals that empower organizations to go from good to growth. Delaney got her master’s degree in nonprofit management and administration from Grand Valley State University, where she served on the executive board of the Nonprofit Professionals Graduate Student Organization. She's an alumna of Michigan DECA and serves as a competitive event judge to help evaluate high school students' marketing and management skills. You can find her jet-setting to a new place in her free time, volunteering for a good cause, and exploring the great outdoors.

Katie’s professional experience includes over fifteen years of marketing and leadership in the for-profit and nonprofit sectors. She has earned a Bachelor’s of Business Administration from Grand Valley State University and later completed a Master’s of Public Administration with an emphasis in Nonprofit Leadership. Under Katie’s leadership, nonprofit organizations have developed new programs related to free healthcare, affordable and accessible housing, and literacy programs for K-12 students. In her first Executive Director role, Katie increased the annual revenue of the organization she led by 300% and received the top grant prize in the nation for affordable housing through the Federal Home Loan Bank of Indianapolis. As a volunteer, Katie co-chaired the fundraising cabinet for Imagination Station 2.0, accessible play space in Grand Haven, MI. The campaign exceeded the goal by 30% and recruited over 1,000 volunteers for a “community build” of the play space over one week in 2018.