Getting started

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Even with the clearest of motivations if you plan to set up a charity or other nonprofit enterprise you need to be clear about what you want to achieve and have a realistic view of what this will involve. This section will will help get you started.

The light bulb moment

You may have seen or experienced something that suddenly triggered a determination to do something to make a difference or it may have been a slower build up to reach this decision.

You could, for example, have felt outrage at seeing some form of social injustice on the news or been through some personal circumstances that have made you want to help others in the same situation. You may have reached a stage in your life where you no longer need to use all your available work time to earn money to support yourself and your family and now want to give some time and energy to make a difference in your community.

Any 'light bulb moment' is a good one and the passion and enthusiasm which follow are precious and deserve to be put to good use. At the same time, it's important to bear in mind that starting a new nonprofit organisation may not be the only way to achieve your goals.

Write down your objectives

From the outset, it helps to be very clear about your objectives for embarking on the project. You should be able to write them down, briefly and clearly so that your vision can be easily understood by others.

The process of writing objectives will help you check that your idea is worth taking forwards.

Mission and purpose

Your project needs to have a clear and communicative statement of purpose. This shouldn't be lengthy - two or three short lines is an ideal length. Refining your thoughts into a concise mission statement will be invaluable in helping others to understand your purpose and generating enthusiasm about your plans.

Writing your mission statement

A useful process for producing your statement of purpose is:

1. write down all of your ideas and plans, without editing or prioritising them
2. sort the ideas and plans that you wrote down into natural groupings - you can either do this on a fresh piece of paper or using different colour pens to circle items that go together
3. keep refining the groupings until you have three core ones
4. try to write one sentence that captures the key messages from each of these groupings, so that you end up with three sentences
5. work these sentences together into one paragraph.

Once you've got your mission statement, try it out on a few 'critical friends'. Ask them to say back to you, in their own words, what the mission statement says, so that you can ensure it gets across what you intended it to.

Your involvement

Answering the following questions will help you to be clear about your purpose, your motivation and what it is you are setting out to achieve. It is also a major first step towards making the case for why others should support your endeavour, whether that's with time, money or other resources.

Motivations

• Is my aim to benefit one individual or family or a wider group of people?
• Am I doing this in memory of someone who has died or to support someone who has suffered a bereavement?
• Do I need to do this more than it needs to be done?
• Am I filling a genuine gap or duplicating something which already exists?

Time and skills

• Do I have the necessary skills, expertise and experience?
• Do I have the time to do this?
• How will I fund myself whilst I devote time to making it happen?
• Can I make a long-term commitment to see it through?
• What are the gaps in my skills and experience and how will I fill them?
• Can my personal circumstances accommodate a major commitment to this activity?

It can be helpful at this very early stage to make an inventory of the skills and expertise that the project will need. Then, with the help of a trusted critical friend, list your own attributes and skills. This will highlight your strengths and weaknesses and identify what skills and expertise you need to bring into the project.

Think about the skills and other people you need.

The future

Success

To get commitment from other people and to secure funding it is crucial to be able to show what project success looks like. It also helps people to believe in the reality of the endeavour if you can identify, short, medium and long term goals.

Think about it in terms of training to run a marathon - your goal is to run the full 25 miles but you build up to it in measurable stages, each challenging but achievable, until you are ready for the event itself.

Key milestones

You will need to develop a detailed project plan to demonstrate that you know what needs to be done and how to go about it. The following questions provide a useful model for thinking about milestones over a three year period:

• What will the organisation look like three years from now? 
• To achieve this, what will it look like two years from now?
• To achieve this, what will it look like one year from now?
• To achieve this, what is my monthly action plan for year one? 

Developing these action plans will help to guide your efforts and activities and make your plans accessible to others that you bring on board.

Involving others

It's highly likely that you'll need to involve a range of people in your project, to bring in different skills and experience to complement your own.

Everyone involved in the project will need to share a common vision and passion for achieving that vision. Some will be volunteers and some will be paid. You'll need to decide early on the kinds of people you want to work with and how to recruit them.

Essential roles

As a general rule, at least three people will need to be formally involved as trustees or their equivalent. Amongst them they will need to carry out the responsibilities of chair, treasurer and company secretary.

The trust will need to appoint professional advisors - as a minimum you will need lawyers and auditors - and open a bank account with appointed signatories. Most law and auditing firms have individuals or teams specialising in nonprofit activities and all the major banks have accounts specifically for nonprofits.

Selecting advisors

It is always helpful to see who is working with other nonprofit organisations in your area and personal recommendations or introductions are useful.

These are key appointments and it is important that the firms chosen are both good and that you feel comfortable working with them. Ideally, you should identify three or four potential choices, talk to them about your needs and get them to pitch for your business.

You should expect to pay for the production of audited accounts. You may find that a local law practice is prepared to work with you on a pro-bono basis initially, receiving payment only for out-of-pocket expenses in return for a commitment from you to retain them for a minimum period on a fee paying basis later on. Banks will have standard rates, terms and conditions.

People who have done this

• Stuff4Sam
• MyBnk

Useful links

• Charity Commission - things to think about before setting up a new charity