Save time, money and effort
By: Melissa Lagowski
CEO, Founder and Queen Bee, Big Buzz Idea Group
When your plate is full—perhaps too full—it’s hard to do anything well as you’re pulled in different directions and constantly hurtling from one task to the next. Meanwhile, your team is also working hard, but they likely don’t have the time or all the necessary skills to propel your nonprofit’s growth. The result? Burnout, stagnation and missed opportunities.
Rather than focus internally, the solution may lie outside of your organization. Partnering with an external business to delegate key tasks or areas of expertise can save your nonprofit time, money and effort – allowing you to focus on critical priorities.
Understandably, it’s not easy to delegate, especially when work is so hectic and only you know the workings of your nonprofit inside and out. But taking a little time to establish that relationship with an outside service provider will pay off big time.
Here are the top reasons why outsourcing is so beneficial:
You’ll have more time and attention to focus on larger strategic efforts.
To drive the organization forward, your leadership team needs to focus on the big picture: strategy, growth, fundraising. Channel your unique talents and skills into those places and outsource areas such as administrative work, bookkeeping, event planning and execution, communications, or social media management. You avoid getting bogged down in the tactics and enjoy all the support you need.
You’ll gain access to the full skillset of another team.
By partnering with an agency, you’re able to tap into the talents of more than one person and have a whole range of expertise and skills at your fingertips. No more outsourcing to multiple businesses or hiring different people for specific roles. You’ll cover all areas of need with a one-stop shop.
You can enlist a bit of help as needed.
When assistance is needed in just one area or for a limited time, hiring an additional full-time staff person is costly and unnecessary. Outsourcing provides the options to supplement your team in exactly the way you need—and nothing more.
You can reinvest the cost savings to promote organizational growth.
All those cost savings mean you will stretch budgets, revenues and donations further. By reinvesting in the organization, you’re able to make a bigger impact.
We’ve seen these benefits play out for our clients. To quantify the savings, we have two success stories to share:
- A nonprofit client shifted the work of one full-time employee to our team. This switch saved them an astounding 23 percent of what they’d been paying, simply by not having to pay taxes and insurance to hire a full-time staff member.
- Another client had a full-time executive director in place, but she was lacking certain skill sets. They’d also been outsourcing bookkeeping, specialty administrative work, and events to three different companies. After choosing to partner with our agency, they gained one holistic team that could cover all the responsibilities of the director and the three companies they’d hired. This change resulted in an immediate – and recurring – annual savings of 50 percent compared to what they’d been spending previously.
Take a hard look at your nonprofit and where the time, money and efforts are going. Are these resources being allocated in the best way possible? Are there any areas that could be handled more efficiently or effectively? Outsourcing is a powerful tool that can free up time, cut down on costs and reinvigorate your organization. How will you put outsourcing to good use?
