Different types of NGO business plans may be needed depending on the organization’s goals and audience, including for fundraising, expansion, and internal management. Plans should outline the organization’s capabilities, target market, and methods for achieving its goals. Growth plans should detail funding needs and expected outcomes. Internal plans may focus on financial projections or long-term strategy.
Depending on the goals of each plan and the people it is prepared for, different NGO business plans may be needed. An NGO or non-governmental organization starting out needs to prepare a business plan for the people who will be providing funds or lending money, including the public, businesses, banks, or possibly the government. An already established NGO may need to prepare another type of business plan if it intends to broaden the scope of its work, show potential lenders and investors how their money will be spent. NGO business plans may need to be developed for internal purposes, to allow management to plan ahead, focusing mainly on financial projections and forecasts. Another type of internal business plan would be a strategic plan, which emphasizes medium- and long-term goals and expansion plans rather than financial forecasts.
The business plan of a start-up NGO will need to provide some insight into the goals and objectives of the organization. This section of the plan should normally describe the nature of the organisation, its capabilities and specialisation. It should also describe the problem the NGO intends to solve and the methods by which it will provide the solution to the problem. The plan should describe its customers and target market, how these people are to be reached and why the organization can do the job better than other organisations. Depending on the type of NGO, this section may describe the cost of the services offered and how the NGO will earn money or raise funds.
NGO business plans may be needed as an organization prepares for growth. The NGO may be keen to expand its services. For example, if you are providing microfinance in rural areas, you may have plans to reach more businesses and operate across a wider geographic area. An NGO providing services to a particular group may aim to improve the quality of its services rather than the quantity of people it is serving. The growth plan should show how much extra money is required, what it will be spent on and what will be achieved.
NGO business plans may also be requested for internal management purposes. This could be a plan that projects income and expenses into the future and how to raise funds. This should show management when extra funds will be needed and include some plans for how to raise the money. If an NGO is reviewing its future strategy, a different kind of internal plan will be needed, outlining the new goals and proposing the strategy that can achieve the goals.
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