6 Ways a LMS Can Remedy Common Non-Profit Problems

Like any other organization, non-profits are faced with numerous challenges. However, non-profits are uniquely precarious position in that they often rely on donors and goodwill.

Non-profits must be able to display their value to their donors and the most effective way achieving this is demonstrating progress towards their mission statement.

A learning management system (LMS) can help your non-profit show its value or earn value elsewhere in some unexpected ways.

What are the problems and how can a LMS solve them?

Finding, getting, and retaining money

This was briefly mentioned earlier but the primary source of income for non-profit organizations are donors. According to the National Center on Charitable Statistics around 30% of non-profits die within 10 years. Among the reasons why: lack of donors or donor retention.

Lack of Media Training

The need for donors often forces non-profits into a public talent show of who can make the most noise. However, noise is not enough, you need to push your mission statement.

A simple task, right? Wrong.

In an age where most of the internet gets their information through sub-minute clips, it is increasingly difficult for non-media trained people to condense their organizations value into their five-seconds-of-fame.

Your representatives need to be able train their media skills to an ever-evolving digital landscape. A LMS can deliver updated courses at any time and place while providing a platform for representatives to practice on. All of this ensures that your organization can go viral whenever the opportunity arises, resulting in more donors.

Preventing Mission Creep

Mission creep is the boogey-man for non-profit organizations and for good reason—more mission statements mean a dividing of resources leading to lower quality. Lower quality inevitably leads to less donations.

The best way to stop mission creep is to have an established authority while having clear lines of communication. A LMS, like CoreAchieve, should have multiple options for this. For example, you could publish a newsletter or send mass emails. Alternatively, you could make or update a course specifically for a mission statement. This way provides opportunities to test your representatives on said statement or teak it if it’s particularly hard to understand.

Offers Different Revenue Sources

Some LMSs, CoreAchieve being one, have course builders and an online marketplace. Meaning, if your organization specializes in something like consulting, that you could potentially make an extra stream of revenue by selling your specialized knowledge.

Lacking Flexibility

This has been, and will continue to be, the death of many an organization, whether non-profit or for-profit.

Makes Implementing New Technology Easier

Everyone knows that time is money, even in the non-profit world. Time spent on updating technology could be planning and executing goals further establishing mission values. While not necessarily wrong, not updating technology is a lot like looking at a bending pillar and not doing anything about it because, hey, it’s still holding the ceiling.

Eventually everything will come down, usually all at once, with minor problems in the old technology rearing their heads in unison. Now, every system will need to be replaced.

Using a LMS won’t alleviate all problems with new technology, but by having one, the training needed for said technology will be much more efficient than by trail and error. Furthermore, a course can reflect any update with the technology.

Gathers Useful Information

Sometimes it is difficult to be flexible especially whenever you don’t know what to react to. The lack of data will steer non-profits into the wrong direction and, often, it is only noticed whenever it’s too late.

A LMS cannot gather all the information you need, but some can give automatic reporting. Allowing you to see what representatives are having trouble with understanding. CoreAchieve even includes a survey feature, allowing you to ask any representative their options. Since the surveys are made by you, they could question anything.

Acquiring Talent Isn’t as Easy

It should be no surprise that many people go on to work for for-profit organizations, leaving the non-profit with a smaller pool to choose from. This happens for several reasons, but the biggest one is the lack of resources that non-profits have compared to their for-profit counterparts.

The smaller pool is only a fatal flaw if you allow it to be. People are remarkably adaptable and can develop into talented members of any team if given proper training. With a LMS, an organization can cut these costs dramatically allow the cultivation of their own talent.

LMS: A Remarkably Adaptable Tool

Many problems faced by non-profit organizations have roots in a limited amount of training or training resources. While a LMS cannot fix everything, it makes treating the problematic roots much easier and cost-effective—helpful to stop spiraling.

LMS don’t have to be expensive either, for example, CoreAchieve has a free version that has all the features of the paid version. Get started with CoreAchieve for free.