Is your nonprofit leadership team searching for new revenue streams to balance fundraising efforts?
eLearning has become a strong revenue source for nonprofits of all sizes.
Module One of the Integrated Nonprofit Marketing certification course points to eLearning as one of five new viable revenue streams for nonprofits. While nonprofit leaders and fund development officers may immediately see the revenue opportunities with eLearning, how do you demonstrate the value of non-traditional, major programs to board members?
Gaining leadership buy-in for big change isn’t easy, but it has to come first for the project to be successful. Since board members are often the voice and face of the nonprofit, they also need to be leading the change. So, what’s the best route to convince leadership to take more than a look?
Start by creating a clear and compelling case for the major program. Let’s use a new eLearning Program as our example. Here are a few questions to support your case.
1. What are the top priorities for leadership?
Put yourself in their shoes. At the last board meeting, what was on the list of top priorities? By looking at what is important to board members, we can search for opportunities to tie the new program to these priorities. For most nonprofits, the top priorities are often revenue development and improving outcomes. eLearning, when used as a revenue-generating program, supports in revenue development and using eLearning as a professional development platform for staff certainly tackles improving outcomes.
2. Have similar organizations successfully used this strategy?
Seeing is believing, and nothing proves a point better or faster than seeing how someone else has benefited from implementing an idea. eLearning is not new but it certainly could be new to leadership. Begin by searching for the organizations with stories that will resonate with your leadership and highlight the success stories. Build a case study that features the organizations, their leadership, a synopsis of how the program was created, and the results. A strong leader wants to learn from their team, but also from their industry peers.
3. What are the organizational risks of not changing?
Second to demonstrating how others are succeeding with an initiative is to show the risk of not moving forward with an initiative. It’s also often considered the value lost from a missed opportunity. In the case of eLearning and refraining from digital programs, there is a risk of staying with the status quo, which will ultimately have a negative impact on performance outcomes.
4. Is there an opportunity for funding?
Often money is the driving factor for improvement. How do we pay for this change? Every eLearning program is an expense for the organization even though they will eventually recoup that expense from the value-add of the eLearning. There will always be startup costs involved. Program development may require the use of staff time and expertise, equipment, marketing, and promotions.
To support your case, research opportunities to offset these expenses by identifying funding sources. This might include partnering with a local community business, offering advertising opportunities through the platform, or securing grants to support the project. Because eLearning programs will generate revenue, this is a strong selling point for leadership. Revenue from eLearning can be earmarked as green money – where it is not tied to a specific project as with donations or grant funds – and can be used to enhance and expand your nonprofit services. When building the case for leadership, include information you find about other nonprofits and the amount of revenue their programs are generating.
Is revenue generation a top priority for your nonprofit? What is getting in the way of success? Consider taking the on-demand, self-paced Integrated Nonprofit Marketing course. The course teaches you how to optimize your marketing, develop new revenue streams, and maximize employee and board performance.
For more information on how to build an effective nonprofit board, check out this complete guide from Wild Apricot.
A version of this post appeared first on the Moving2Virtual blog.
