Non Profit Policy & Procedures

Whether you're starting a new nonprofit organization or participating in the leadership of an existing group, you must periodically step back and look at the big picture. The policies you put in place will depend on why your organization exists, what needs you meet in society and what you do to meet those needs. Your procedures will greatly affect how well you do those things.

Mission

What's Your Mission?

Develop a clear, concise statement of the reason for your organization's existence. This mission statement must be carefully thought out and then widely dispersed through the organization. It will help clarify direction, bring focus to decision making and keep your workers on track.

Structure

Clarify how your group is organized. If you are just gathering with some friends to do some work you decide needs done, you can exist informally without much in the way of formal policy. But if you want the organization to become a legal entity that can continue on when the people that start it may no longer be involved, you need to be more deliberate about structure.

Incorporating allows your group to have a bank account and property. It limits the liability of individual members, and makes it easier to file for tax-exempt status if you so choose. To incorporate, you need a board of directors to oversee the organization's activities and supervise the executive director or CEO. Board policy is written to describe how the board carries out these functions.

Leaders

The board of directors should meet regularly to plan and develop the organization. Writing bylaws, policies and procedures will be high on the list of priorities. Keep minutes of the meetings. Form committees as necessary to work on sections of this material. One group might work through volunteer training guidelines, while another lines out fund raising parameters.

Bylaws

Bylaws are the rules by which you will run the organization. They will describe your organization precisely, and detail how you are to operate. Everything from who can be a member, to how often and where the board will meet, and what can be done when problems arise with volunteers or staff can be written into the bylaws.

Detail

Think of policies and procedures as a member's handbook or instruction manual. After the board has carefully worked out the larger picture for the organization, it must paint in the details, so that volunteers and staff working day to day, will know how to conduct the activities of the group.

Policies should define codes of conduct and acceptable ways to organize events and raise funds. Procedures will stipulate forms to use, and what to do in case of trouble. Policy determines which volunteer expenses are reimbursable, and a procedure needs to be developed for requesting reimbursement. Every aspect and function of your nonprofit should be addressed, so that everyone knows what is expected, what is acceptable, how to go about making things happen, and even how to evaluate the effectiveness of what's been done.

References

• Managing the Non-Profit Organization; Peter F. Drucker; 1990
• National Council of Nonprofits
• Sample Bylaws of a Nonprofit Organization

Resources

• Complete Toolkit for Boards
• Nonprofit Good Practice Guide