A month ago I wrote an article on the four methods for developing project budgets which I’ve seen non-profit organizations use in South Africa. I believe its best to be adaptable and have all these methods in your project budgeting ‘toolkit’.

This 1-page Strategy Brief summaries these four methods. There is a link to the full article at the bottom of this Brief.

Twice in the past week I was asked to suggest the slides to include in a “pitch deck” – a handful of slides that are used to “pitch” an organization, its programmes or products. Pitch decks tend to be fairly standardized, have a high level of design work, and make selective use of text.

I recommend 10 slides @ 2 minutes to discuss = 20 minute presentation. Here are the slides that I would include for a presentation to a customer or donor. Please adapt as necessary.

Thanks to Guy Kawasaki’s Art of the Start for inspiring my thinking on this topic many years ago.

This 1-page Strategy Brief shows the areas we typically assess when asked to design a Revenue Strategy for a non-profit organization in South Africa.

The findings from this assessment create the foundation we need to design a suitable strategy. This framework is based upon a recent proposal I developed for a client.

Note that we “revenue” as the money that an organization earns through the sale of goods and services (i.e. trading activities). A subset of income.

This 1-page Strategy Brief shows the areas we typically assess when asked to design an Income-Generation Strategy for a non-profit organization in South Africa.

We try to establish what is going on, working or not working, and what should change or be improved. The answers create the foundation we need to design a suitable strategy. This framework is based upon a recent proposal I developed for a client.

Note that we define “income” as the money coming into an organization, which has been earned or given. Income includes donations, grants, dividends, fees for the sale of goods and services etc. Income includes the donation of non-monetary things (e.g. time, goods and services). Income includes revenue.

This 1-page Strategy Brief shows the difference between Income Sources and Income Types.

Social Enterprises and Non-Profit Organizations are able to access a broad range of customers and income sources, which they can contract in different ways. It is unwise to think in very narrow channels based on one’s legal form. Here are some ideas.

This 1-page Strategy Brief illustrates the Journey to Social Enterprise, which I’ve unpacked in detail in a previous presentation.

I believe that social enterprise is more of a direction than an end state. In South Africa, thousands of organizations are heading in this direction. Social enterprise is still in its infancy. This brief provides a simple overview of the journey and the transition points that need to managed.

This 1-page Strategy Brief shares 8 strategies that businesses can use to integrate elements of a social enterprise into their thinking and operations. This also shows how it is possible to adapt one’s legal form to introduce social enterprise elements.

This one-page Strategy Brief identifies 10 characteristics of successful social enterprises, and demonstrates how all non-profit organizations and businesses can learn how to behave and think in this way. This brief also differentiates between the mindset and business model of a social enterprise.

This one-page Strategy Brief explains how versatile the legal forms of social enterprises in South Africa can be. It shows 6 tactics for generating income that all social enterprises can use, regardless of whether that form is for-profit or non-profit.

This one-page Strategy Brief clears up 10 common confusions about legal forms for social enterprises in South Africa. These make it difficult for social enterprises and non-profit organizations to unlock the potential in their legal forms.