Why Project Management Is Important In a Non-Profit Organization?

Why Project Management Is Important In a NonProfit Organization?

What Exactly Is Project Management?

Saving Children In Poverty

Why Project Management Is Important In a NonProfit Organization?

Project management is extremely important in a non-profit organization to keep the functions of the organization running. Non-profit projects have predetermined timelines and a fixed budget. Some examples of non-profit projects are fundraising, advertising campaign, IT upgrade, etc. It is essential to manage the project from conception to implementation to ensure its success. In non-profit staffers have to do multiple tasks, these different tasks often require collaboration among different group of people who are not used to work together. That’s why non-profits can gain so much from proper project management.

What Exactly Is Project Management?

PMI defines project management as the application of skills, knowledge, techniques, and tools to project activities for the completion of the project. It takes a steadfast commitment of all the people involved to execute the techniques within budget and on time.

What Challenges Do Non-Profits Face?

Dependence on Volunteers Non-profits depend on volunteers which pose new challenges to project management. Around the festive season, it is easier to raise funds but in remaining months it is fairly difficult to get a continuous donation to run the organization.

Less Structured Hierarchy The hierarchy of a non-profit organization is less structured. A single person wears many hats, which tend to delay results.

Finance Management Finance management and budget are less predictable in the non-profit sector.

Legal regulations and restricted budgets add to the complexity of project management.

Shift in Priorities Many times it is seen that non-profits shift their priorities from one project to another, due to which many projects get abandoned without completion.

Stages of Project Management There are five stages of project management, which result in the successful completion of the project. Non-profits should adopt these stages to complete the project on time and within budget.

Project Initiation Project initiation is the first stage of project management. In this stage, you decide how to go about the project work, what human and financial resources are needed for the project.

Planning Planning is an important part of any project. The actual project plan is created in the second stage. Campaign, time, budget, and people who will work on the project are chosen.

In this phase, the project in charge specifies the tasks to the team members and a scheduled is developed for the execution of the project.

Project Execution The project comes to life in the project execution stage. To keep everyone abreast with project updates, and reports, regular meetings are conducted.

Project Monitoring and Control Monitoring is essential to know if the project is going in the right direction.

Project monitoring and control help in getting the key performance indicators and key metrics and also help to analyze if the project is progressing as per original goals.

Project Closure In the final stage, make sure that all the tasks are complete and there is no outstanding task.

Conclusion Like any other project, non-profit projects require proper management. Proper management not only helps in execution but also ensures that the project is completed in the required time frame and budget.

Source Link: http://bit.ly/Non-profit-projects