3 Reasons Community Projects Can Be Tough to Manage

Since its foundation in 1976, Habitat for Humanity is said to have helped more than 39 million people build a home. The venture has faced many challenges over the years, including managing the costs and sustainability of its activities. Indeed, building houses come at a cost; and in order to support further families, organizations such as Habitat for Humanity must find ways to secure their business activities and costs in the long term. The United States counts over 1.5 million charitable organizations; however, more than one-third of nonprofit organizations have recently been at risk of closure. As the need for giving back to the community keeps growing, it appears necessary for small organizations to consider asset management strategies.

Protecting Your Assets

Small charity organizations that rely on individual workers volunteering on site, such as Habitat for Humanity, must be in a position to provide protection. You can turn to a professional small business insurance broker network to find the relevant protection for your team of volunteers and your work tools and equipment. It is also essential to consider adhoc insurance additions to tackle unexpected projects such as cross-state projects or renting out specialist equipment.

Introducing Security Protocols

An organization such as Habitat for Humanity must face a lot of theft risks when they build new houses; thus, securing these new-built houses is advantageous. Building materials and tools are valuable and can be stolen by opportunist criminals and sold back on the black market. Unfortunately, many nonprofit organizations are unwilling to display security strategies, as they are concerned it may affect their charitable reputation. In reality, if you are in the process of using expensive equipment and materials, you want to have a strict security plan, including protective doors that can sustain criminal attempts to break-in, CCTV cameras, a manned security teamm, or staff ID and authorized access only. Nonprofits could reach out to security professionals to come up with arrangements regarding site control.

Tough Recruitment Strategies

Should everyone who wants to help be allowed to join charitable projects? The heart says yes. However, nonprofit organizations must be careful about following their hearts when they seek volunteers. While you may not need to introduce a long interview process, you must ensure you can trust your team. For instance, put yourself in the shoes of a project manager at Habitat for Humanity. The last thing you want is to realize that one of the volunteer workers is not qualified to work on a building site or is stealing tools from the site. Therefore, it is essential to evaluate each volunteer and select only people you can trust with the task at hand.

Charity organizations face a delicate challenge; as while they are not designed to drive profits, they must be strict about costs. Reducing loss through insurance, security, and volunteer recruitment is a no-brainer. It can be difficult to set up the right management techniques to protect nonprofit assets when working on a shoestring budget. Nevertheless, the survival of nonprofits depends entirely as much on their donation calls as on their loss management strategies. If you can't keep losses under control, you can't give back to the community.