Need help on Non-Profit Management.

I am working on setting up a non-profit organization (working on a good cause) here in florida with a vision to have operations worldwide. I will share the whole idea and story behind this effort on the website i am building for the same. I will share the website with the board once it gets a shape. I have done a lot of ground work already. I am in the process of involving people all over the world. I am successful in getting couple of people (Doctors and specialists) in Florida, Canada and India. All of them realize that this is a non-profit effort.

This is the help i need from the friends and like-minded people on this board.

Any tips and advices in successfully managing a non-profit.

Any personal experiences.

All sorts of do's and dont's.

Any inexpensive/free online courses or websites that can help me to increase skills in Non-Profit Management.

If you wish to get involved in this effort, please let me know. I am looking for serious involvement and long term commitment. If you are interested please email me so that i can discuss with you in detail.

I am travelling outside US next month on the same effort.

I am not sure if this is the right place for this post. Please move it if needed.

 

I hesitate to answer because I suspect that you already know more about this process than me but (maybe just for others) I have found this book:
How To Form A Nonprofit Corporation by Anthony Mancuso, to be quite thorough and helpful. Beyond that I think that PR and fundraising are the critical pieces. Please let us know when the website is up.
Jack
look here:
http://www.cnm.org
http://www.alianceonline.org
http://managementhelp.org

 

these might get you started:

http://www.uwex.edu/li/learner/sites.htm

http://www.uwex.edu/li/

http://www.firstgov.gov/Business/Nonprofit.shtml


good luck,

Kevin

 

Southwestern College (Winfield, KS) offers a distance education degree majoring in not-for-profit management. Southwestern College also accepts DETC credits.

 

Check out applicable IRS documents at this site:
http://www.irs.gov/charities/index.html

Also check out your state requirements.

I was president of a CA not-for-profit sporting organization - it was pretty simple running it (no paid employees) - but I just took the organization over from someone else for a couple of years.
We had to pay sales tax on refreshments we sold.

 

GO to:
http://www.managementhelp.org/np_progs/org_dev.htm
for :
Free, On-Line Nonprofit Organization
and Management Development Program
(the Free Nonprofit Micro-eMBA(SM))
{from a past post by TCord}

 

Capella University www.capella.edu (BG15, 156) Master's & Doctorate
Hope International University www.hiu.edu (BG15, 115) Master's
University of Maryland www.umuc.edu/gen/virtuniv.html (BG15, 140) Master's
University of New England www.une.edu.au (BG15, 141) Master's
Oral Roberts University www.oru.edu (BG15, 127) Master's
Regis University www.regis.edu (BG15, 129) Master's
University of Wales Lampeter www.lamp.ac.uk (BG15, 148) Bachelor's

 

You say you are doing the groundwork, so you probably are aware of the work of incorporating as a 501(c)(3), etc. One thing to be aware of is the different types of incorporations, as a religious body, as an educational organization, as a service organization, etc. Religious corporations often have a great deal more freedom from many reporting rules than even other tax exempt not-for-profits. Be very careful in compiling your Board of Directors; these people will be the decison-makers of the juridical person the corporation becomes. A religious corporation sometimes will have a smaller Board of Members over the Board of Directors, but this greater control also means that you usually have less recourse to the courts in the case of a dispute. An educational corporation might have fewer concrete obligations than a service corporation, but possibly fewer advantages as well. In short, don't scrimp on the legal advice you will need to get off to a good start, and good luck!

 

Thanks for the info. This is a service organization. I will keep in mind all these things.

 

I think this is just what you are looking for...

This website is a free management library designed for nonprofits. I have utilized it in the past when I worked for a nonprofit that had very few financial resources.

Good luck!


http://www.managementhelp.org/

 

You might want to see if there is a Foundation Center near you, or if your local library carries their books. They are a nonprofit library and publisher of books on grantmaking, grantseeking, foundation boards, forming a nonprofit, etc.

I've worked in nonprofits for years, and suggest finding an attorney in the area served to advise you on the legal aspects and obligations.

Other than that, the only other advice I can give is to appoint a Board. You will need all the help you can get, and a motivated Board is priceless in harnessing volunteers and $$$.

 

check out MPA classes at CSU Dominguez Hills