JCFT Podcasts

Employee engagement describes the level of enthusiasm, motivation and involvement of an employee towards their job and at the workplace.However this cannot be related with employee happiness or employee satisfaction. Many times employees are happy at work, but not necessarily fully engaged. Here are 7 ways to boost nonprofit's employee engagement

Volunteer management is equally or may be even more challenging than managing paid staff as it's much easier for volunteers to leave their position than paid one. With limited budget, time and resources, it's very important for a nonprofit to identify the most common volunteer management challenges and build a strategy to handle them as they arise. Here are the top 8 challenges in volunteer management that a nonprofit should know

How nonprofits can turn one-time donors to recurring donors and more importantly how to encourage them to donate more. Here are 7 proven ways to convert your one-time donors to highly engaged, loyal recurring donors.

SWOT stands for Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats.  SWOT analysis for nonprofit organisation is very important as it helps to  protect NPO's core values learn what is working and what is not look for opportunities for growth minimise risks conduct feasibility studies build actionable plan to achieve organisational goals By performing SWOT analysis will help NGO in strategic planning, fundraising, marketing, staffing, program development etc. It's a vital tool that helps to empower your nonprofit, create a contingency plan and make it more sustainable.Follow these steps in the podcast to create a SWOT analysis for your nonprofit organisation.

When people talk about branding, it is just for businesses and startups. However the truth is that it's equally important for non profit organisations and charities sometimes even more.  But what exactly is Nonprofit Branding? For most people, it's a logo that acts as a visual symbol of any nonprofit organisation - which is not true. A logo is just a part of branding.  Nonprofit branding is all about how all your donors, volunteers and the general public sees your organisation, the work you do, how you differentiate from peers and build relationships with your audience to create loyalty and trust. It's like a promise of your actions that is well-aligned with your core values. In a nutshell, it's a total experience of all stakeholders with your organisation.

Just managing a team is not leadership. It's more of an art, where leaders of nonprofit create a vision of their organisation and then strategically involves every stakeholder to make it a reality. A true leader is one who sets up direction, creates an inspiring vision and guides its team to achieve set goals within a defined timeframe. Apart from passion, it needs creativity, persistence and great management skills to lead successfully.

A well-planned growth strategy is beyond a marketing strategy that is designed to help grow and scale any business. Growth strategies for nonprofits are quite similar to any business or startup. Over 50% of the nonprofits every year fail or stop operations within a few years due to lack of proper leadership and unclear growth strategy. On the other hand, successful nonprofits look to convert potential challenges into opportunities. Nonprofits constantly look for ideas on how to increase brand awareness, convert one-time donors to recurring donors, how to retain donors and how to effectively make use of technology to enhance growth. Below are 7 nonprofit growth strategies to help attain long-term sustainable growth

Events are considered to be one of the top most funding sources for most of the nonprofits today. Through an event, you can attract new donors, connect with new volunteers, raise awareness for a cause and grow brand recognition. Additionally, you can showcase the work you do and introduce upcoming projects to supporters. It's really fun to host an event, however it requires a lot of hard work, proper planning and execution to be successful. Here is an 8-step guide on how to plan an engaging and unforgettable event for your non-profit organisation.

Funding is very important for every nonprofit irrespective of their size. With every passing year, they look for new ways of revenue streams to support their mission and goals. It's quite common among nonprofits these days to look for funds from multiple sources to achieve financial stability and sustainability. Also, It helps nonprofits stay flexible and adapt to uncertain times like covid-19.

Crowdfunding is a great way to persuade a large number of people to make small donations to raise funds for a specific project or support a cause. It's a type of fundraising strategy used by nonprofits to fundraise for their mission while engaging with their supporters through in-person events or online.

Through storytelling, nonprofits can effectively communicate about the problems, how they are trying to address them and make emotional connections to attract supporters.

As with other businesses, public relations for nonprofit organisations play an important role in determining the success of their vision and mission. But the main challenge for most nonprofits is to allocate funds to PR efforts, as most of them have extremely tight budgets. Making a small investment in public relations is a great way to raise awareness, reach a wider audience, acquire new volunteers, and increase donations.

For nonprofits, their primary goal is to make profits to support / promote their mission or cause and drive a social impact. Hence, their challenges are not same as any for-profit organisations. Just like every for-profit organisations, non-profit organisation also faces some common and uniques challenges that they should find a way to tackle it.

Every nonprofit organisation needs volunteers to support their mission and objectives. They are the most valuable asset for any nonprofit that contributes in spreading awareness, fundraising and managing administrative and operational level tasks. Without a doubt, this is not at all possible to manage with limited staff working for nonprofits. Secondly, volunteers devote their valuable time and energy because they believe in your vision / cause and wish to help in the best possible way to make a difference.

Act of giving is an important decision and a right step to make your life happier and meaningful. Apart from making you feel good, there are other reasons too on why you should donate to a charity or nonprofit of your choice.

Jay Charara, Chairman of JCFT was invited to the SeFolk.com network by its founder Robert Whitwood on 27th July 2021 to talk about the foundation. Selected invite-only social entrepreneurs, founders, lawyers, accountants and CEOs of social enterprises at various stages on their journey attended this session via zoom. There was a Q&A at the end where he gave some specific practical insights about the JCFT work. It was well received on the night.