The Nonprofit Business Plan: A Leader's Guide to Creating a Successful Business Model Paperback – Illustrated, July 3, 2012

This book was so helpful. Great templates.

Good source for management class

Good read!

A very well written guide that helped me, a beginner at writing business plans, to write my first, which a fellow board member called exceptional.

This book contains detailed, actionable info that will truly help me develop a business plan. I highly recommend the book.

Purchased this book for a school course. Found myself re-reading chapters for clarity. Best when discussed in group or learning settings.

NONPROFIT BOOK REVIEW: The Nonprofit Business Planwww.rainmaker-solutions.netThis how to "Guide to Creating a Successful Business Model" for nonprofit executives is one of the best, I believe, on the topic. Its the companion guide to the previously reviewed "The Nonprofit Strategy Revolution," but I might advise the reader - if he or she must chose - to skip that one for this one.To begin, the author makes an important distinction between strategic planning and business planning, which are often treated as interchangeable concepts. In simplest terms, the difference is revenue generation. If your nonprofit produces its own income, then you need a business plan. Since independent revenue generation is a major trend in the nonprofit sector, its essential to understand the difference.Unlike the strategic plan, the business plan includes financial and ratio analysis, cash-flow planning, balance sheet projections, and yes - proper financial planning for nonprofit organization - so the sector can not only survive, but thrive during volatile economic times. It demands that we produce a reasonable profit to create enough risk reserves and fuel expansion plans. It constrains the pursuit of mission to its economic logic.Throughout the manual, the author weaves a fictional case study, which builds into a sample business plan for the last chapter. This approach is especially helpful to nonprofit managers new to financial and accounting concepts.It demonstrates how business certain, simple business principles are critical to nonprofit decision-making. Do you base your fundraising projections on historical data and proven growth rates? Or at least on realistic trends?In my experience, most nonprofit leaders do not use financial analysis, or even common sense (seriously) to project fundraising goals. Rather, they plug revenue and charitable giving projections with unrealistic and imaginary numbers, calling them "stretch goals." Its a great approach...for an inevitable deficit. I know that I sound severe, but the problem is that pervasive.This book is a good dose of common sense essential to proper financial management and fundraising expectations. It would greatly benefit Executive directors, development professionals and nonprofit financial mangers that hunger for a more sophisticated approach to the marriage of fundraising and finance. It is a pragmatic, step-by-step guide to a brighter future.It does require more than financial skills, and might take an outside consultant to overcome resistance to change, because it does represent a new paradigm. It does change the culture of the organization. However, the process is not too complex.The business plan springs from market research, based in both qualitative (shareholder interviews) and quantitative analysis (statistical analysis). It then aligns the proposed services and organizational infrastructure to the need established by the market research. This part of the process produces a viable nonprofit business model.The financial projections that drive and constrain the business plan are derived from those revenue and cost drivers, inherent to the business model. Because few nonprofits produce a profit from revenues, the difference between cost and revenues established the "charitable gap" - the annual fundraising goal, with room for reserves - that's how it comes full circle.The book covers so much more. It explores the financial implications of the Board structure, volunteer management, and even marketing marketing. In particular, new and start-up nonprofits would benefit from turning this process and these principles into traditional, making them central to a new organizational culture.Is it a dry read? Yeah.. It is also essential to the success of modern nonprofits. Its so rich in vital information that I read it twice...and I sure took copious notes! I am still high from the yellow, highlighter ink that covers the pages of my tattered and dog-eared copy of this book.

The Nonprofit Business plan was one of three books that I used as source material to craft my own nonprofit business plan. As someone with no experience writing a business plan, I found this book to be most effective and comprehensive. The book requires you to do the work as you move from chapter to chapter. I found that that book made me think deeply about my own model in ways that I had not thought of before. It was important to collect data from a variety of sources to compliment the information that was being provided. Chapter 4, "Researching your Market," was my "ah-ha" moment in that it forced me to examine my mission statement as compared to what the competition was offering. The final business plan that was produced as a result of this book has positioned me to speak about my model in ways that is both beneficial to my organization and to the population that my nonprofit currently serves. My program has just completed a 4 week summer camp for 10 young people and we have two confirmed elementary and middle school literacy contracts for the fall. Baby steps! The book is a resource that I plan to use to think about my business as it grows over time. My one recommendation for a future version would be to have two sample business plans at the end for a start up vs. an established business.