What are the right and wrong reasons to start a non-profit?
Starting a nonprofit must come from the head and the heart. It’s a true balance. Most people think you need to have strong passion and loyalty to a cause, and you do. But one must also have a strong desire for effective business planning and operations in order to ensure you deliver your product, in this case service to the community, effectively. At the same time, you can’t be ‘all business’ but we are compassionately serving others in very dire circumstances; in the case of UniversalGiving (http://www.universalgiving.org), we are helping people who live on $800 annually, which is 70% of the world. This balanced viewpoint of head and heart is often more identified along the lines of social entrepreneurship. It’s also often tied into revenue (see answer to the other questions below.) The wrong reason to start a nonprofit is because you think it’s a ‘cush’ job or comes with less demands. Your responsibility increases. Fundraising is tough. And, if you fail to deliver, you are dealing wi
