When you are starting a nonprofit, your first budget may seem unbalanced — with expenses outpacing income and donations. One way to balance that budget is to use volunteers to cut expenses. Any service that you are currently paying for — from office cleaning to website maintenance to accounting — is a candidate for replacement by a volunteer.
You may be able to get a single volunteer to pick up a specific service or it may take a group of volunteers to replace your existing service provider, but it is a good way to cut the expenses of your nonprofit while getting more volunteers involved in your cause. You may also be able to get your service providers to “volunteer” and provide the service for free or at a reduced cost. They get a tax break and you get a budget break.
So, while you are trying to balance your budget, keep your eyes open for opportunities to cut expenses by using volunteers.
Starting a Nonprofit? Start Here. Go Far. LaunchX.com
Excellent suggestion and one that my clients typically respond to with something along the lines of “yeah, If I only had the cycles to manage volunteers…” It’s a tough hurdle to get over for some orgs. I’m looking for creative solutions and will share any that I come across. Thanks for the post!
One solution would be to recruit a “super-volunteer” to act as a volunteer coordinator. Great candidates are people who are looking to add managerial experience to their credentials – such as technical specialists – who don’t have many opportunities to lead people in their primary careers but need the experience to move up. Another great source are retirees – many times they have people management experience and the time to spend coordinating other volunteers.