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

Matt Stockman (00:00)
A few months ago, I spoke with a passionate nonprofit founder who had a tremendous vision. This person talked about buildings and staff and multiple programs and serving hundreds of people. It was inspiring, no doubt a big vision, but there was just one problem. None of it had been started. This person was so focused on the finished version of the dream that he couldn't see the first faithful step right in front of him. And if that sounds familiar to you, today's episode is for you.

We're continuing our conversation on how to build your minimum viable program. It's the smartest way to start small, create real impact, start to gain some momentum without waiting for everything to be perfect.

Welcome to the Nonprofit Launch Plan podcast for startup, small and growing nonprofits. This podcast is here to help you build your nonprofit from the ground up on a strong, sustainable foundation by providing the clear frameworks,

the practical tools and the real world guidance that you can actually put into practice. Glad you're here. 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 across six key areas. And those areas are 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 make lasting impact without all the unnecessary complexity. Now, before we dive into today's episode, if you'd like some practical help building a stronger nonprofit without wasting time on guesswork or just trying a bunch of stuff without much of a plan, let me encourage you to sign up for my free weekly email. It's called the nonprofit launch briefing.

Each week I share clear strategies and practical tools, fundraising insight, and real world guidance for startup, small and growing nonprofits. This newsletter is designed to help you lead smarter, grow stronger, and avoid some real common mistakes that I've just seen over and over again. So

building a healthy nonprofit that makes real impact and stays around for the long term, I'd love to have you on my email list. Just shoot me a quick email with simple, sign me up in the subject line. My email is matt at nonprofitlaunchplan.com. Again, matt at nonprofitlaunchplan.com.

All right, let's dive in. Today we're continuing with part two of what I shared with you last week about starting your nonprofit's minimum viable program. This is such a common problem that I encounter with really passionate, very well-meaning nonprofit leaders. They've got a big vision for the future, but are stuck in believing that they need the finished version of the dream before they can even begin.

Remember, the goal of the Minimum Viable Program is to launch the smallest version of what could one day in the future turn into your big vision. This smallest version is the way to genuinely start helping people right away, maybe even today, prove demand, create some momentum, and teach you all the things about what works. And it's also how you start creating impact stories which become so important as your nonprofit grows. Now, last week,

We covered the first four pillars of your MVP. Here's the lightning round recap for you. Step one or pillar number one is separate the big dream from version 1.0. Don't let version 10 somewhere in the future stop you from starting today. Step two, define the outcome, not the structure. It's not about a building, it's about results and outcome. Step three, start with what you have. There's no excuses, just solutions.

Start with what you can do today. And step four, focus on access, not ownership.

borrow or partner before you ever buy anything that creates a lot of overhead and financial drag.

All right, now let's get you into the final four steps to move you from stuck to started in launching your nonprofit program. Step one through four, we're about the mindset of starting small. Steps five through eight are about the mechanics of actually doing it. So let's jump in. Step number five, start with a small number of people. Again, start with a small number of people. Another practical principle is just starting to serve a small group of people.

Even if the needs are great and there's hundreds in need, if you just start with a handful, this can be really difficult for people because when you care deeply, you want to help everyone. get that. But trying to serve too many people too early often weakens the quality and creates just a lot of chaos. So serve five people well, then grow it to 10, then 25. Learn their names, hear their stories.

Notice the stuff that works. Notice the things that don't work. Improve your systems and build trust all at the same time. Those early participants often become your best advocates and strongest proof that the program you're dreaming of works. I'm working with a nonprofit leader right now who is definitely a visionary and is being approached by some other nonprofits that do similar work to theirs that are struggling and these nonprofits are looking for some help that this leader

actually can provide, which is technically in line with what their vision for their nonprofit is. The problem is the timing of all of it. The organization is in a bit of a rebuilding phase and he's navigating with my help what they can actually realistically take on and what they can't take on. Even though they'd like to do all the side projects, it's not really feasible right now. So helping a few people exceptionally well

is far more valuable than promising hundreds and not really helping anybody all that well. So that's step five. Step six,

Launch a 90 day pilot program. I'm also a big believer in something like this that's a little shorter term instead of launching something permanent to start. Create this 90 day version of the idea. Ask who you'll serve, how many people will be, what service you're going to provide, what it will cost, what success looks like, and what you need to learn. A pilot program lowers fear because experiments are manageable. A lot of founders sort of freeze up when they think that every decision

is a permanent decision. But what if every decision you made was just a 90 day decision? A 90 day pilot feels possible. And your momentum often begins when the pressure around it sort of decreases. I mean, frankly, I use the same approach when it comes to working with me as your coach. One of the services I offer, if you bring me on your team as maybe an executive coach, if you're the executive director of the organization,

Or maybe you bring me on to work specifically with your development department, stuff like that. Basically, a monthly retainer for a period of time, usually a year or two, which is a big scary commitment for nonprofits. And I get it. So I always say, let's try it for 90 days. My guarantee is that I'll provide so much value in 90 days that you'll never want us to stop working together. But a 90 day pilot program is for sure the way to go. That's step six. That brings us to number seven.

Measure what matters. As you launch, measure what matters. You don't need complex dashboards. Keep it really simple. How many people participated? What changed for them? What stories came out of what you were able to do? What did it cost? Is there a demand that feels like it's growing? What needs refining and what needs to be trimmed?

That gives you something that a lot of early nonprofits lack. Simply put, it's evidence. Evidence creates confidence in you. It creates confidence in people who might be donors down the road. Confidence creates that support that you need and then support creates the growth that you're looking for. So that's step seven. Step number eight, improve before you expand.

Some nonprofits scale way too early. They'll add locations or programs or staff or overhead before the actual original model is even defined or healthy. That's how you end up with a really chaotic behind the scenes in your nonprofit. A better path is just keeping it simple. Do a pilot program, learn, refine what you can repeat it with another pilot program, then you start to expand.

Your growth should follow the evidence, not the emotion of the moment. Let me say that again, because that might be the most important thing I say in this whole podcast, your growth early on in your programs should follow the evidence rather than the emotion behind it. You can see people's lives being impacted, it creates a really emotional response. And it can be very natural as the nonprofit leader to sort of hit the gas really hard and go, we got to make more of this emotion happen.

and you don't have enough evidence yet that you're really, really, really on the right track, you don't need to grow fast, you need to grow strong, so that in 10 years, you're doing all the things that you envision for your nonprofit in 10 years. So if you're listening today, and you feel stuck, let me encourage you with just this one question. What's the smallest version of your mission that could genuinely help somebody in the next 90 days?

Is it just one workshop that you host one mentoring group that you do one support me one scholarship receiver one outreach that you do

One addition of the program.

do not underestimate what can begin with one faithful step. Your dream no doubt includes someday having staff and buildings and system and it's scaled up. But right now, your mission may only need one room, five people, a borrowed card table, a few committed volunteers, and the courage

to get started. Don't wait to build version 10 before you launch version one. So start small, learn what you can serve that small group well, and let your momentum grow from there.

All right, that's all I've got for you in this episode. Thank you so much for listening. Before we wrap up, I want to invite you one more time to sign up for my free weekly email. It's called the nonprofit launch briefing. If you want practical help building a stronger nonprofit without wasting time on guesswork, or trying a bunch of things with no plan,

sign up right now. It's one meaningful email each week I share clear strategies and practical stuff fundraising insights, real world guidance for startup small and growing nonprofits. I designed the whole thing to help you lead smarter, grow stronger and avoid all the common pitfalls and mistakes that I've made. If you're serious about building a healthy nonprofit with real impact.

I'd love to have you on the list. Just shoot me a quick email with a simple sign me up in the subject line. That's all you got to do. Sign me up in the subject line. My email is matt at nonprofitlaunchplan.com. matt at nonprofitlaunchplan.com. That's it for this episode of the Nonprofit Launch Plan podcast for startup, small and growing nonprofits. If this podcast is helpful in any way,

Could I ask you to consider sharing it with another nonprofit leader who you think might benefit from it? Again, thank you so much for watching and listening and until next time, keep building wisely and keep making a difference.