Community organization

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Community organizations are civil society non-profits that operate within a single local community. They are essentially a subset of the wider group of nonprofits. Like other nonprofits they are run on a voluntary basis and are self funding. Even within community organizations there are many variations in terms of size and the way they are organized. Some are formally incorporated, with a written constitution and a board of directors (also known as a committee), while others are much smaller and are more informal.

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[edit] Examples

Amateur sports clubs, school groups, church groups, youth groups and community support groups are all examples of community organizations. Typically community organizations such as sports clubs are run on a fairly formal basis with full scale accounting procedures in place, whereas the local cheerleader group will be less formal.

[edit] Fundraising

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Fundraising for community organizations is very different from that of charities and the larger nonprofits. Charities typically receive the bulk of their money from donations. Donations such as these rarely account for much more than 5% of a typical community organization's annual total.[citation needed]

There are many reasons why community organization fundraisers have it a little harder than their charity counter-parts. Obviously community organizations have a lot less resources at their disposal than the bigger nonprofits and charities, but the main reason is that the benefits of charities are much more obvious than those of the typical community organization.

Community fundraisers can overcome this disadvantage by taking a people-focused approach to their fundraising. Relationship building is a key part of the people-focused approach. Relationship-building communicates the benefits that the organization offers to the local community. Open days and other such events are very valuable relationship-building events.

[edit] See also

[edit] External links

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