Inspired Nonprofits

As a nonprofit focused on your important mission, your sustainability is likely anchored in your relationships and support from companies, foundations and individuals who see the importance of your work and commit to your cause.  This can’t be a one-way effort.  Understanding what is going on in your supporters’ world is critical.  One movement picking up steam that has a significant impact on you is Corporate Social Responsibility, commonly referred to as CSR.  Social Responsibility is being demanded by consumers more and more every day.  That means companies have to focus on their SR-quotient and you can help them. 

Inspired Connections suggests that nonprofits consider two key efforts to drive viability and sustainability of your mission:

1. Become a wise strategic supporter to your corporate partners to help them realize great success in their CSR initiatives.
2. Embrace our unique Individual Social Responsibility (ISR) concepts to help transform and sustain your mission and your important work – individually created; individually championed = individual and organization-wide success.

Nonprofit as Strategic Corporate Partner
If you can help your corporate partners support their CSR initiatives, you will be a solution-provider and a value-add investment. With CSR efforts, companies look to:

• Increase customer loyalty with consumers looking for companies that are doing well by doing good and impacting the triple bottom line – people, planet and profit.
• Attract and retain employees who want to align their values with their workplace, and in turn, will increase their productivity and increase innovation.
• Enhance their reputation in the community with impact on consumers, the media and investor value.

We can help you plan and reshape your sponsorship and partnership relationships with key companies to bring out the value they are looking for.

Nonprofit as Transformative and Sustainable Community Organization through ISR

So what is Individual Social Responsibility?  Inspired Connections defines it in the following way:

• The ongoing and regular behavior of an individual to live a thoughtful, sustainable, successful and giving existence that supports/nurtures all relationships around them.  They work to leave a minimal eco-footprint, support community building and inspire others by example.

The first question to ask is WHY? Sounds good. Know it’s the right thing. Just tell me how we’re going to work it into the other million things we have to do at our organization?

Well, aside from the obvious and altruistic concepts, it just might mean that your organization will be around to talk about it. How else are you sustaining yourself? How are you cutting costs? How are you rallying your team to all contribute to the bottom line, the critical relationship-building, the employee satisfaction and motivation needed to keep going day in and day out?

A top down approach is no longer the way in this fast changing, social media blur where the individual voice matters and can shout from the rooftops or from her blackberry.  The grassroots elected a president, the individuals are starting their own fund raising efforts, and corporate are creating hybrids to compete against nonprofits that might not offer just what they need. Are you ready for that?

We believe that the individuals in your organization are the key to your success. Their potential rippling impact into your organization and the greater community can be transformative.  We invite you to learn more about our unique ISR concepts and what they can do for you.  Just send us a note and we’ll coordinate a chat with you.