Nonprofit Builder: seed funding received, we can start learning & building!

With the Nonprofit Builder we plan to transform the way the nonprofit sector learns, making it simple, efficient, affordable, continuous and collaborative, with a marketplace and learning network that brings together nonprofits leaders, capacity builders and foundations — in short all those who have a close interest in nonprofits that are successful and sustainable.

Well, we got seed funding from Oak Foundation for 3–4 months of to prepare, essentially by testing our assumptions by interviewing nonprofits, capacity builders, and donors.

The assumptions we need to test:

1. Investing in organisational capacity building will lead a nonprofit to much higher levels of impact — it really it worth it.
2. It is possible to define a simple and scalable methodology to determine the impact and ROI of organisational development activities.
3. We will be able to find a group of “early adopter” members who will take part in a community of interest and help us design and promote the Nonprofit Builder.
4. If we make it easier and more efficient for nonprofits to find trustworthy and high quality consultants and trainings, then these nonprofits will invest more in their organisational development.
5. If we make consultants and trainings more affordable for nonprofits, then these nonprofits will make more use of their services and opt for better quality providers.
6. Most high quality consultants will not mind being ranked and rated in a common database, because they are confident about their performance and see it as an opportunity to reach new clients, meet peers, and deepen their knowledge.
7. Foundations will appreciate the Nonprofit Builder as it will offer their grantees a strong, diverse and community-curated pool of organisational development expertise.
8. Foundations will appreciate the Nonprofit Builder as they will have a comprehensive and real-time overview of how and their grantees are learning, and be able to better measure the impact of their investment in organisational development.

As part of the project with Oak we also need to:

• Develop a business plan which includes a sustainable business model.
• Build a first prototype of the Nonprofit Builder