Nonprofit Launch Plan Podcast for Startup, Small, and Growing Nonprofits

Matt Stockman (00:00)
If you've got a big vision for a nonprofit, but you feel stuck because you don't have the money or the staff or the building or the resources yet, this episode is for you. This is part one of a two part series that I put together. Too many future nonprofit leaders believe they need the finished version of the dream before they can even begin. And in today's conversation,

We're going to start talking about how to build what I call a minimum viable program. The smartest way to start small, create real impact and gain momentum without waiting for everything to be perfect.

Welcome to the nonprofit launch plan podcast for startups, small and growing nonprofits.

This podcast exists to help you build your nonprofit from the ground up on a strong, sustainable foundation by providing clear frameworks, practical tools, and the real world guidance that you need that you can actually put into practice. My name is Matt Stockman. I'm a nonprofit growth coach. And here at Nonprofit Launch Plan, we believe that every successful nonprofit has to be operating at peak performance in six key areas in order to be successful. Leadership, fundraising,

marketing, programs and services, operations, and finances. So on every episode of the podcast, we focus on one of these core areas to help you create lasting impact without unnecessary complexity. Now, before we dive in, I want to give you a heads up if you're in the dreaming or the early phases of your nonprofit, you're looking for clarity on your mission and vision.

You're thinking about how to build out your board, who needs to be on it, who doesn't need to be on it, doing your initial fundraising and figuring out what your MVP is. That's your minimum viable nonprofit program. It's what we're talking about in this episode. I want to invite you to the upcoming virtual Launchpad Workshop, Essentials for Moving from Nonprofit Idea to Impact. Now, if you're listening to this podcast in real time, this is actually the workshop is happening next week.

It's three hours over three days where we workshop your mission statement and your vision statement. We define who your board members should be. We drill down into fundraising and we help you build out your beginning program and a whole lot more. talk about stuff that we're not necessarily able to get into during the podcast all that deeply and a lot more. So if you're feeling overwhelmed and kind of stuck in your dream for a nonprofit and not sure what to do next,

The next thing you do is sign up for next week's workshop. It's April 28th through the 30th, an hour each day. I want to encourage you to try your best to be there live. That does make a huge difference to be able to experience it with other people who are in exactly the same place in the journey as you, but you will have access to the recordings as well. Sign up today. It's next week. Cost is 49 bucks for the whole thing. We do have space, not a lot, but we have space.

go to nonprofitlaunchplan.com and click workshop to sign up. nonprofitlaunchplan.com and click on workshop to sign up. All right, here we go. One of the most common scenarios that I encounter when talking with new nonprofit leaders or people who are thinking about starting a nonprofit is that many new leaders are confusing future vision with mission. They're confusing future vision with their mission. Remember,

The mission is the why you do what you do every day, the impact that you're making. And the vision is the where you are headed as an organization, an imagined future where your impact leads you. And we can sometimes get these two interchanged. Most of us,

And certainly most nonprofit leaders have a vision of the future of your nonprofit that's quite elaborate. And if you listen to this podcast, especially if you go back and check out episode 10, which is called crafting your nonprofits North Star, the vision statement, you've heard me encourage you to create a vision statement that feels too big and maybe a little scary and right on the edge of impossible. So

vision is important, I encounter a lot of nonprofit leaders that equate that vision of the future as the mission for today. In other words, if the vision is a homeless center feeding 8,000 meals a month, then on day one, the leader is saying, well, we've got to start looking around for a building and we're going to need five or $6 million for a plot of land to build a kitchen facility on.

And that might sound a little ridiculous when you hear me say it, but I encounter situations like this on the daily when I talk to new nonprofit leaders, every nonprofit leader I talked to without fail, they have the passion, they've identified the need that can be met a problem that should be solved. But many get stuck because the dream in their mind has become so large, and so expensive, and so complex.

that they convince themselves that they can't start until everything is ready. The vision of the future is somehow now the starting point. And that's wrong. They picture the finished version, the building the staff of 30 full time employees, the polished branding, the marketing, the major donors, the fully developed programs, the vehicles, the office space, the technology, all of it. And because they can't build the final version today, they delay taking the first real step.

because somehow they've convinced themselves that the future vision is the first step.

And if you're saying right now that this is starting to feel all a little too strangely familiar, you are not alone. This is a very common trap that a lot of nonprofit leaders fall into. And today's episode, I think could be a game changer for you because we're talking about how to build what I call your MVP, your minimum viable program. And note, this isn't just startup business language. This is one of the smartest ways that a nonprofit leader can move from dream to impact. And remember,

This is part one of a two part series on this. So make sure you take a moment to subscribe so you don't miss the second part of this. And remember, the goal is not to launch the biggest version of your mission first. The goal is actually to launch the smallest version that can genuinely help people prove demand, create some momentum in your organization and teach you what works. Starting small is not thinking small. Starting small is actually thinking wisely.

So let's jump in. Step one, separate the dream from version one. One of the biggest mistakes nonprofit founders make is confusing the long-term vision with version one of your nonprofit program. Your long-term vision may include a facility and a multi-person staff and regional reach and all these different completely built out programs, strong funding systems, broad community recognition.

Which is awesome. That is fine. Dream big. But version one should almost never look like version 10. As a self-professed space nerd, if you listen to the podcast, you know that I use space analogies all the time.

for Crying Out Loud. So, space analogy coming, the recent Artemis 2 mission is the latest in a long list of steps that will ultimately result in landing more astronauts on the Moon. But version 1 of the project was simply testing the new rocket to see if it would get off the ground.

then sending up unmanned Orion capsules in Earth orbit to test the heat shields, eventually sending Artemis 1 to the Moon unmanned while running more tests and eventually ending up with what we just all experienced a couple of weeks back, sending a crew into orbit around the Moon. Artemis 1 wasn't a failure because it didn't have people in it. It was a success because it proved the heat shield would work.

Your minimum viable program is your heat shield test. If you try to launch the mature version of your nonprofit program on day one, failure is just about assured. You create an unbearable and unnecessary amount of pressure, financial strain, burnout, and disappointment. separate these two questions. One, what do we hope this becomes someday? And two,

What can we responsibly begin now? That distinction matters more than a whole lot people realize because here's the truth about fundraising. Donors aren't just looking for a big dream, although that is part of it. They are looking for return on their impact. When you launch an MVP, you're not just helping people, you're actually creating proof of

It's much easier to ask a donor to fund the expansion of a program that has already helped five people than it is to ask them to fund a $5 million maybe. So your MVP provides the data and the stories that turn a skeptic into a partner. So that's step one. Step two, define the outcome, not the structure.

for example, say they want a youth center or a food pantry, transitional housing or counseling campus for their nonprofit. But those are structures. Those are methods. Those are tools. The better question, and the one you should be asking first is what does real change look like and what real change are we trying to create? So instead of saying we need a youth center,

Maybe the real goal is helping at-risk teens build healthy relationships with trusted adults and develop life skills. Or instead of saying, we want a food pantry, maybe the real goal is helping families reduce food insecurity with dignity and consistency. you define the outcome clearly, you become far more flexible about the method and flexibility is critical in the startup phase.

This is why you hear me beat the drum of mission statement clarity so often because your mission statement is never about structures, but it's always about outcomes. When you focus on outcomes, that helps you see what you can start doing today. So that's step two. Now step three, ask how you can start with what you have. Here's one of the most important questions a nonprofit founder can ask. If we had no building, no staff, and very little money,

How could we still begin helping people? That question strips away all the excuses and reveals some creative solutions. If your dream is a homeless shelter, maybe the MVP is not opening a shelter yet. Maybe it's just helping five individuals with motel stays and transportation, and maybe some referrals and next step support. If your dream is a youth mentoring campus, maybe the MVP is a monthly mentoring night in a donated church space.

If your dream is a workforce training center, MVP is a six-week job readiness workshop at the local library that you're hosting. I talked to a person a while back who was dreaming of launching a nonprofit that would provide childcare as well as some other Christian education for self-employed and work-from-home parents, which is a great idea. And one of the first things this person shared with me

was that they felt like they needed to secure a building or get into a lease in order to start operations. In a bit into the conversation, I just floated the idea that maybe version one of this dream might be to go to their home church and ask if they'd be willing to allow access to their childcare facilities for a couple of days a week. I mean, after all, churches are very often equipped with state-of-the-art childcare facilities that get used, I don't know, maybe six hours a week?

The point is simple, you may not be able to build the full dream today, mission now. Alright, so step four, focus on access instead of ownership. Let me say it one more time, step four is focusing on access rather than ownership. This is also where a lot of leaders end up losing time and money. They assume that they need to own everything first.

You gotta own a building, gotta own the land, own the vans, own the office, own the equipment. Maybe someday for all that stuff, but early on, focus on access instead of ownership. Can you borrow some space like we were just talking about? Can you rent by the hour? Can you partner with the church? What if you asked who is using your facility at 10 a.m. on a Tuesday morning? Can you use a library meeting room?

Can you collaborate with another nonprofit that might have some space? Can you use space at the community center? Can volunteers bring the needed professional skills that you have? Ownership creates overhead and invites a lot of unnecessary burden, especially early on, and creates a huge financial drag before you've really ever even refined your programs. Access creates the momentum you need. All right, so before I let you go, remember this is

Part one of a two-part series, let's do a quick lightning recap on how to move your nonprofit from a massive dream to immediate impact. Step one is separate the dream from version one.

vision for the future is your North Star, but version one is the rocket test that gets you off the launch pad. All right, that's step one. Step two then, define the outcome, not the structure. Focus on the real change that you wanna see, like helping a family reduce food insecurity.

rather than getting obsessed over owning a physical food pantry, at least to begin with. Step three, start with what you have. Ask yourself how you could begin the mission today if you had no building, no staff. This reveals some creative sort of low cost, low impact ways to get the ball rolling. And then step four, prioritize access over ownership. Don't wait to buy the van or the building, borrow rent.

partner with local organizations, do whatever you can to create momentum without the overhead. Starting small isn't thinking small. It's the wisest way to build a sustainable foundation. All right, part two is coming up in the next episode of the Nonprofit Launch Plan podcast. Don't forget if you're in the dreaming or the early phases of your nonprofit, you're looking for clarity on mission and vision, building your board.

doing some initial fundraising, trying to figure out what your MVP is, what we've been talking about, your minimum viable nonprofit program. I want to invite you one more time to join me for the upcoming virtual Launchpad workshop, Essentials for Moving from Nonprofit Idea to Impact. It's next week, if you're listening to this podcast in real time, three hours over three days, where we workshop your mission statement, your vision statement, we define who your board should be,

We drill down into some fundraising. We build out some beginning programs and a lot more. talk

All kinds of stuff that we're not able to get into on the podcast and so much more. So if you're feeling overwhelmed, stuck in a dream and can't figure out what step one looks like, sign up for the workshop. It's next week, April 28th to the 30th, one hour each day. Try your best to be there live, but you will get access to the recordings. If you can't make all the sessions live, you can sign up today. Space is limited and it's going quickly, especially in the last week or so.

Nonprofitlaunchplan.com, click on workshop to sign up again. Nonprofitlaunchplan.com and click on workshop. That's it for this episode of the Nonprofit Launch Plan podcast for startups, small and growing nonprofits. If this podcast has been helpful, please consider sharing it with another nonprofit leader who you feel might benefit from it and do all the podcast things, share, like, leave comments.

All that kind of stuff. Thank you so much until next time keep building wisely and keep making a difference.