BUCOT, MARIA ALIZAH L.

BSA 3A – VIDEO QUIZ 01: REACTION PAPER

The video by Ms. Amber Melanie Smith which talked about the things that must be done first when starting
a nonprofit organization has really made good and helpful points to effectively organize and operate such
organization. She enumerated three (3) things that a potential organizer must do before concretely establishing a
nonprofit organization. First, you must understand the need. This means that your idea of building a specific NPO in
mind must adequately address the need you are aiming to solve. Second is studying the landscape of other
organizations. This implies that an NPO must somehow avoid having essential competition with other NPO’s, hence,
a careful research regarding other existent NPO’s must be done in order to prevent conflicts among them. Last but
not the least, is creating a business strategy. One of the primary goals of an organization is to be financially stable.
And this financial stability aspect of the NPO should set as a mean for the business strategy to be focused on plans
of growing to ultimately solve the problem it aimed in the first place – the need it has established. By the end of the
video, she clearly stated that there is no one-size-fits-all solution for every need a nonprofit organization may take
into account. According to her, it is important to consider various approaches appropriate depending on the nature
of the need of the problem or issue you aim to solve with your NPO.

Among the three (3) things she pointed out, I think that the most important thing to be considered before
starting an NPO is the first one: Understanding the Need. However, there is something I want to add into that point:
Understanding the need and compassionately immersing into it. Thinking of lots of cool or fancy ideas may be a trend
nowadays, but in the aspect of a nonprofit organization, the substance of a genuine purpose must come first than
any other overrated nonsense stuff. With this, I can say that for someone, for example myself, to be able to truly
embody my idea in the starting of NPO, I must truly have the compassion and I must deeply know in my heart and
mind the essence of addressing the needs of such issue or problems I aim to solve with my NPO. Understanding such
need is a good thing, but being truly immersed and involved into it is another thing, and that makes a more
meaningful and purposely objective as to the establishment of the NPO. It is indeed helpful to do research, meetings
with the community, etc. that would enable me to widen my knowledge and understanding with regards to the
certain issue I am aiming to solve. This process could surely entail a lot of effort and time, and with that, the aspect
of genuine compassion must really be present to be able to effectively operate the organization towards its mission.

Studying the landscape of other organizations that might be or somehow similar with my aim must really be
done in order to avoid any competition especially in terms of fund raising or even with sponsors. This could also help
me look into possibilities where instead of building a new NPO, I might consider to just team or partner up with the
existing one and be an asset to that organization without compromising my goals regarding the need that I initially
wanted to solve. This concept has enlightened me to the true nature and value of NPO; it is the importance of unity
and cooperation rather than competition. This makes the NPO distinct from other forms of organizations. In NPO,
when you meet people in the same field of objective and mission, competition has no place in it. Instead, you aim to
work together or even fill in each other’s gaps and be of help of one another. This kind of mindset will definitely
result to a wider scope of coverage in solving the needs of the specific problem that both parties have been aiming
to ultimately solve. There could be a more extensive manpower, resources, and time to be given for a more effective
operation which will result to a faster resolution to the pioneer problem. Thus, a possible expansion may eventually
be considered in order to resolve more societal issues that need prompt attention. Still, the decision rests with a
potential organizer, just like me. If I have discovered a similar or identical organization with my potential one, I could
either join them or shift to a new one in terms of the need I want to solve, either way is still considered a contribution
to the solution of a certain material problem.

The last key point that was mentioned by Ms. Smith was to create a business strategy; a business strategy
that enables the organization to perform its operations towards growing to ultimately solve the problem intended
while maintaining financial sustainability. At first, I thought that NPO’s are fully reliant on grants or sponsorships, but
I learned now that an NPO must not fully commit its organization solely to grants, instead it must commit itself into
ways, actions, and effective activities, such as fund raising, services offered with reasonable charge, etc., that would
surely contribute to the organization to be able to solve their intended problem. But forming solutions does not stop
there, continuous monitoring must be properly observed in order to oversight the progress the NPO has been
maintaining. Thus, an effective NPO should focus both on the process and outcomes in order to accurately measure
the results, come up with feedback, and use those for the betterment and improvement of the organization.

With this, I could tangibly think of certain issue I would want to address if I were to establish an NPO. For
example, could be my passion into helping and educating street children. I must assess first as a whole, in terms of
geographic and demographic aspects, the need to such issue to be addressed. Since, I have witnessed a lot of children
by the streets deprived with minimum needs and education, I could say that I somehow possess the genuine passion
to fulfill my duty into solving that issue. Next would be researching other NPO’s with similar objectives to mine. This
is where I decide to either team up with them, fill their gaps, or pursue different problem. Afterwards is formulating
business strategy which involves actions, ways and activities. Fund raising, aside from grants, could be done in order
to accumulate funds for the children such as marathon or concerts for a cause. Immersed activities that I could think
right now for street children which would help the organization fulfill its goal are having volunteers educate them,
feeding and nourishing programs, making them do minimal works or products to earn, etc. These are just minimal
ideas and contributions, but if done collectively, these will surely serve a big help to the solution of the problem.

As a pursuant of accounting profession who mostly study about various operations of for-profit entities
whose primary goal is to generate profit, this video got me really fascinated to have been able to discover factual
points about nonprofit organizations. I have always thought before that money or capital is the most important thing
in all organizations, but with this, I realized that those are just supplementary. Being further enlightened with this
type of entity, I could say that for this form of organization to be able to fulfill its duty, it does not really have to be
as grand as those multi-million worth of companies, rather, it just have to find ways to contribute to the solution of
a certain societal issue that could actually be worth more than a multi-billion entity – something that could last even
for more than fifty (50) years.