Non-profit organizations have many of the significant benefits of for-profit companies and for the right reasons. Non-profits have funding access to many grants, fundraising, donations, and multiple types of exemptions. But perhaps the best benefit is from the feeling one gets from supporting a cause they truly care about.
Not everybody has the benefit of working downtown or traveling all over for their business. With all the hustle and bustle of today, it can be difficult to start a business from home. With the advent of virtual technology, managing services online is beginning to have huge impact on the capabilities of the modern business models.
If you have ever thought about starting a non-profit business, Jonah Engler is here to give you five of the best ‘work from home’ ideas to help facilitate your charitable spirit.
Online educational services
Online teaching and tutoring services are a booming industry in today’s market. Virtual technologies are becoming much more cost-effective and of better quality. Online educational services can be a beneficial service both monetarily and whole-heartedly. But before you can consider this type of work, there are additional requirements needed.
Besides the requirements to create a non-profit, teaching or tutoring typically involves certifications, degrees (usually a master’s or doctorate), and experience. If you can meet all the necessary requirements, running an educational service can be very rewarding.
With an educational non-profit model, you can give back to the community and reach any audience you want without worrying about profits, payment, etc.
Lending
Offering a lending service to those who could not gain loans through traditional routes can be invaluable to a community. Non-profit lenders typically offer ‘microloans’ to startups or small businesses that have positive impacts in their communities.
The idea of being a non-profit lender can be taken further to offer funding all over the world to many types of businesses. A first concern one would have about starting a lending nonprofit would be “where would our funds come from to give funds to others?”
Many startups or owners are more focused on their products or services to shift focus on funding right away. As a nonprofit lender, you can focus solely on raising funds for others that have positive impacts. In addition, nonprofit lenders can offer very low interest rates or even none at all. As a lender, you are in control of how the money comes back to you.
Publishing
Publishing plays a major role for non-profits because every non-profit wants to tell their story, get the word out, show progress, and so on. But publishing can take many different forms when it comes to whom or what stories to publish.
Perhaps your vision is to only publish pieces involving human trafficking to bring awareness and support to the issue. As a non-profit publisher, you can do that without the worries of for-profit publishers. The best part about non-profit publishing is not being restricted to which publications will sell the most.
As a non-profit publisher, your hands are not tied and you are able to present any publications that match your mission. Becoming a publisher does not require much capital upfront and in today’s environment most of what is published can be done so digitally.
Counseling
The realm of counseling can assume many forms from adolescent counseling to psychological therapy services. Counseling is an area for someone that has already achieved the proper certifications and/or experience necessary.
A counseling non-profit platform will likely be specialized in nature and be specific to a demographic. Although options be may limited to a certain group, the groups to pick from number in the hundreds. Established non-profits in the realm include suicide prevention, alcoholism, cancer, separation support, and many more.
Counseling services have been shifting to a virtual platform recently in order to reach wider audiences. Filling a niche in the many areas of counseling can be a rewarding career and valuable venture.
Sales
When it comes to sales and non-profits, most do not think the two can be associated with one another. However, the two have been intimately involved for over a hundred years. The oldest of non-profits involve donations and sales to support their cause(s).
In today’s market, the word ‘ecommerce’ is used often. Creating an ecommerce non-profit business is straightforward, especially when larger distributors are willing to front partial efforts in making the items and shipping them. One can easily design and create items in which they do not have to manufacture. Just sell, collect, and repeat.
With an ecommerce centered non-profit, you can focus on mission goals without the overarching burden of quotas. Ecommerce can be used in conjunction with other non-profits to create fundraising campaigns and spread cause awareness.
