Before you start your non-profit, you need to make sure there will be a significant demand for the services you provide. This is similar to researching the demand and market for your product or service if you are starting a small business. Finding a unique niche and being able to demonstrate a significant demand for your services will be key to attracting donations when you begin fundraising and drumming up support for your non-profit.
You may need to conduct surveys among the people you want to help to determine if some other organization in your community is providing similar services. To be sustainable, you must be able to demonstrate to potential donors that your organization will make a significant impact in the community and on people’s lives.
For example, a group of undergraduate students at the University of California, Santa Barbara started Environmental Education for the Next Generation in 2009. EENG brings free environmental education programs to California’s cash-strapped public schools. Since its inception, the non-profit has grown from a single classroom to an organization with four regional chapters and 220 volunteers that serve more than 3,000 children.
