Meet Author and Expert on Nonprofits, Rebecca Reynolds

Although passion for a cause is where nonprofit work begins, that alone is not enough. To achieve greatness, the individuals in the organization must develop the know-how and institute the operational systems that make for an efficient and effective nonprofit business.

While there are many parallels to the for profit and public sectors, there are also core differences that define the nonprofit world. Understanding these differences and putting into practice methods that work for the particular nonprofit organization is the purpose of Nonprofit-KnowHow.

- Rebecca Reynolds


Rebecca's Story
 
From childhood, Rebecca was drawn to people and places in the business of bettering the world: A center for teens with mental disability where she volunteered in junior high, a children's clinic where she worked part-time in high school, and the yearly 25-mile walk-a-thon for the homeless that Rebecca began doing in elementary school. 

But her professional start in the nonprofit world began right out of college as an intern. That three-month internship led to a position in development, where Rebecca worked side-by-side with the development director. Within 18 months, Rebecca was offered the director position, and two years later was recruited by another nonprofit for the executive director position. She realized that something about nonprofits just made sense to her.

In these positions, Rebecca's work focused on institution building based on highly successful and innovative fundraising, board development, planning and financial management. She learned quickly that to achieve mission results requires effective systems and processes, continually adapted to change, just like any other business.  

From these early successes in the mid '80s, demand increased for Rebecca's knowledge, and she began to speak and train on nonprofit topics such as what defines the nonprofit sector, how NPO board differ from for profit boards, and what that means for board governance and recruitment, strategic planning geared to the social advancement agenda, fundraising and capital campaigns to leverage the 501(c)3, and financial management in the nonprofit environment. These topics evolved into the popular Nonprofit Know-How Series, which was presented regularly by United Way, the Association of Fundraising Professionals, Chambers of Commerce, Arts Councils, and other technical assistance providers in Colorado and beyond. ​

In 1991, Rebecca saw that she could make a much bigger contribution to helping all kinds of nonprofits if she worked on her own, and founded her consulting firm devoted to effective nonprofit leadership and management for BIGGER results. 

Twenty years and hundreds of organizations later, Rebecca again had the dream of broadening the reach of her contribution to the important work of the nonprofit world. Instead of working a few organizations at a time, the know-how and tools developed over a career could be put into a practical, easy-to-use format, giving desktop access to this valuable information to any nonprofit anywhere in the world! This dream has now been realized with Nonprofit-KnowHow, the two-volume set of The Guide and The Workbook.

May Nonprofit-KnowHow serve you well!

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Professional Bio

Rebecca Reynolds has been working with organizations developing leadership, institutional capacity and effectiveness for 20 years. She wrote Nonprofit-KnowHow from her experiences with hundreds of nonprofit organizations under the auspices of her consulting firm, Rebecca Reynolds Consulting. Each part of The Guide and The Workbook was developed to successfully address real issues in real organizations.

Hundreds of nonprofits in the arts, education, environment, health and human services have benefitted from the Nonprofit-KnowHow materials. See a partial list here.

Rebecca speaks on and teaches nonprofit management subjects including board development, strategic planning, fundraising, capital campaigns and financial management. Nonprofit-KnowHow brings her practical and easy-to-implement methods, not only to her students and clients, but now to all nonprofit organizations.

See Rebecca Reynolds' author page on Amazon.

Interview with Rebecca

What is your book about?

Nonprofit-KnowHow is a two-volume manual for running the business side of an effective nonprofit organization. The companion volumes, The Guide and The Workbook, work together to give nonprofits the most essential knowledge of the nonprofit sector, as well as the templates and examples to put this know-how into practice. 

Great for start-ups, transitioning and even seasoned nonprofits, Nonprofit-KnowHow connects theory and practice, and key subjects like strategic planning and grant writing, the board of directors and fundraising. It’s the understanding of how the different parts of nonprofit management work together that makes the difference between pieces of machinery on the garage floor and a vehicle zipping down the road.    

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