As the owner of a Miami based SEO and digital marketing agency, I've helped hundreds of businesses solve complicated marketing problems. I can honestly say that the most challenging clients have been non-profit organizations. The combination of low funding, manpower and resources make it extremely difficult to complete your mission statement and make a positive change in the world.

When your organization is working with this many moving pieces, a lot of important tasks tend to get de-emphasized. In my tenure the most common task that falls by the wayside is having a concrete marketing plan. A marketing plan is easily overlooked in a non-profit organization because it gets lost behind the goals, ideals, values and mission statement. What most non-profits fail to realize is that a marketing plan should go hand in hand with your mission statement and will ultimately maximize your impact on the world.

Creating a solid marketing plan is vital for your success, and actually, simple to do. Sometimes it’s just as simple as getting your team in a room and having a brainstorming session is all that it takes. The following is a high level plan that has worked for my clients:

1. Identify the goals of your organization (increase donors, spread awareness, etc)
2. Identify quantifiable goals for the next 1 year…

Early each semester I graph five years-worth of the number of Arizona nonprofits that gained status as income-tax-exempt under §501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code. The graph and the data I used to create it is material for one of my graduate seminars at ASU called The Nonprofit Sector, and students always seem interested in thinking about why exemptions might bounce around from year to year. The (great) data is readily downloadable from the exempt organization section of the IRS Business Master File.

This fall I got a pretty good surprise from the spike in number of exemptions that the IRS okayed earlier this summer.  In a normal month, 40 to 50 Arizona nonprofits will gain ‘public charity’ status from the IRS.  You can see this reflected in the chart, with a low-point coming in the average for November and December 2012: 31 new Arizona charities.  That’s actually 41 in November and only 20 that December (2012).  The earlier high point had come in September 2011, with 84 exemptions approved.

Then came the summer of 2014.  In May it was a whopping 97 approvals.  June broke all records with 182 approvals.  July maintained the spike with 144 more.  That is where the data file leaves off, but I…

The origin of the word “intern” goes back to the Latin and French meaning: to restrict or confine within prescribed limits, as prisoners of war, enemy aliens, or combat troops who take refuge in a neutral country. Currently an intern is thought to be an individual gaining practical supervised training in a hospital or an assistant or trainee working to gain practical experience in an occupation, generally an internship is a temporary and supervised position where on-the-job training is learned. The current narrative includes a person of little status, conducting menial tasks in hopes of gaining experience, letters of recommendations and potentially a permanent position with the organization.

Much like the term “community service” once thought to be voluntary, altruistic service to others in the community has changed and is now used as a term for forced service hours for breaking a law in lieu of or in combination with fines. Over time, the term “community service” has evolved to mean the individual did something wrong. The term “intern” has changed over time as well with horror stories of long meaningless hours doing grunt work, being taken advantage of and then turned away with no job in sight.

Legally the abused intern is gaining status by winning law suits and human resource departments are taking note. Although the laws may give rules and guidelines to follow, government entities and nonprofits are exempt.…

Question: I am starting a nonprofit organization and need to apply for 501c3 status.  Can I fill out the new 1023-EZ form?  

The Internal Revenue Service recently released Form 1023-EZ, the streamlined application for recognition of exemption of 501c3 status. This form is significantly shorter and easier to complete than the regular application, which is a welcome change for aspiring small nonprofit organizations. In order to utilize the streamlined applications, organizations must meet eligibility requirements and complete the Form 1023-EZ Eligibility Worksheet. There are 21 questions on the worksheet and an affirmative answer to any of the questions makes your organization ineligible to utilize the streamlined application.

Organizations with Budgets and Previous Expenses Less than $50,000 per year
The streamlined application is intended for small organizations, so only those with projected budgets of less than $50,000 per year are eligible. If the organization has been operating already, gross receipts from each of the last three years also must be less than $50,000 per year and total assets cannot exceed $250,000.

Only Certain Types of Organizations Qualify
Organizations that have been formed asa successor to a for…