I have found that the most important part of creating a non-profit is to give the people who work for the non-profit structure and specific roles/job duties. I have found that since job roles have been created and implemented in our non-profit, all of our events/fundraisers/meetings have run much more smoothly than they did before. For this blog I wanted to discuss what types of job duties that are essential for a new non-profit to thrive. I also have created a structured schedule of job duties for when we are running a fundraiser. Please leave me a comment on if this was helpful or not or maybe some other ideas that you may have on creating a new non-profit.
Job Roles For a New Non-Profit:
For the job roles, I created a simple Google spreadsheets that was accessible to all of our employees. In this form I outlined the job title, duties, time needed for this role, and the person taking responsibility of the role. These are roles that are specific to our sports camp for children with visual impairments, but many of these roles could also prove essential for starting any new non-profit organization. I have broken down the types of tasks needed and have laid out the format/job descriptions we use for our own camp.
Administration:
Administrator roles for a new non-profit are essential to get off the ground. The two roles that our non-profit have are an Executive Director and an Assistant Executive Director. The way our non-profit's administration works, is these are the people who are delegating roles and job assignments to others, supervising the on goings of the camp, and helping out to fill up whatever holes may appear along the way. Our administration also takes care of a lot of the writings for by-laws/tax exempt forms and other government/corporation forms needed for non-profits.
Public Relations:
Our on-site coordinator is the "face" of our organization. She is designated to run meetings for our board of directors and to speak to other organizations that would help benefit our non-profit. This is another extremely helpful role that specifically identifies someone for their charisma and ability to speak to others.
Organization:
These are the positions which I do not have much of a talent. Our roles that fulfill the organization of our paper work, activities, inventory and budgets is the Treasurer, Activity Coordinator, Equipment Manager, Volunteer/Participant Coordinator and our Project Coordinator. These are five of the most involved job roles that we have.
The Treasurer keeps our budget up and makes monthly reports on our finances. The Project Coordinator keeps records of all our files and creates new templates for our schedules and other miscellaneous materials. The Activity Coordinator sets up our schedule and designates who will be handling what events during our camp. The Volunteer/Participant Coordinator contacts parents, creates participant/volunteer forms and makes sure that everything is in their forms that is needed. Our Equipment Manager creates an excel sheet that outlines our needs for materials and also outlines our inventory.
Miscellaneous:
For any non-profit you will have unique needs that will need to be addressed. For our group we have two specialist roles. We have a Braille specialist who is in charge of creating documents in Braille. We also have someone in charge of the arts and crafts department, this person chooses t-shirts, decorations and what arts and crafts activities we will be providing at camp.
| Job Title | Description | Expected amount of time needed | Person Taking Role |
| Assistant Director | Helps out with supervising and makes sure everything is going according to plan. Goes to Public Relations outings and works with other roles to make sure that they are accomplishing what they set out to accomplish. | Medium to high | |
| On Site Coordinator | The face of the non-profit. Goes to PR Meetings and speaks on behalf of the non-profit, contacts outside organizations. Contacts camps. | Medium to high | |
| Treasurer | Takes care of financial situations, helps with grants, lets us know what our budget is and gives details about fundraisers. | Medium | |
| Activity Coordinator | Creates the schedule for the activities that are going to be taking place. Also figures out who will be coaching/overseeing which activities. | Medium | |
| Food Prep | Looks at the amount of food that is needed and creates schedules/menus for food. | Medium | |
| Volunteer/Participant Coordinator | Contacts schools and organizations to get volunteers and participants to sign up. Sends out registration forms and such. | Medium | |
| Braille Specialist | Brailles objects and events that are taking place. | Medium | |
| Arts and Crafts | Creates logo, banners, and other misc. | Medium | |
| Website | Creates, updates and maintains camp abilities website | Low to Medium | |
| Equipment Manager | Takes care of all the equipment and makes sure that we have the resources that we need for activities and for camp. | Low to Medium | |
| Project Administrator | Takes notes at meetings, record keeper, creates dates for meetings. | Medium to High | |
| Executive Director | Supervises, helps out other roles to accomplish tasks, etc. | Medium to High |
Fundraiser Roles:
These roles are quite similar to the roles that we created for the non-profit as a whole. There are roles that fill the need for administration, organization and public relations. The only role that I believe is essential to have a strong fundraiser event is having a "floater". This is a role that is easily overlooked but should be given to someone. This is the person who goes and helps to fill whatever may occur throughout the course of fundraiser event. I believe strongly that creating these lists and giving out specific duties to the individuals associated to your non-profit will help direct others and increase efficiency in a small non-profit.
Name
|
Role
|
Job
|
Facilitator
|
Public speaking, problem solve issues that arise, go around and see if the rest of the group needs an extra hand at any time. Talk to business owners about anything that is needed as well. Creates flyer for event.
| |
Host/Facilitator
|
Greet people and help our Scott with going around and solving problems as they arise. Help with planning people’s specific roles for the events. Public speaking
| |
Food
|
Is in charge of bringing food and making sure that patrons are fed and happy
| |
Registration
|
Takes care of keeping track of registrations. Email anyone who you think will attend to her. She will set up the way that people register and
| |
Raffles/Baskets
|
Manages how many gift baskets we are getting and how much they will cost. Manages 50/50 raffles as well. Designates people that will help her with this, Jen?
| |
Tresurer
|
Takes care of money at the end and pays the management at the end and makes the deposit to our account.
| |
Art
|
Brings in posters for CAM, brings brochures for CAM brings flyers for CAM. Any extra arts and crafts needed for fundraiser as well.
| |
Floater
|
Will go around with whatever group needs them the most @ whatever time. Flexible role
|
Quote of the Day:
“Don’t worry when you are not recognized, but strive to be
worthy of recognition.”
- Abraham Lincoln
