The deeper my dealings with the nonprofit sector become, the more completely I have come to understand, and appreciate the need for leaders in this field to possess outstanding business management skills. In addition to management skills, not-for-profit leadership must also become adept at understanding financial reports, developing and administering a budget, and it is greatly desirable to have a strong understanding of computers and the ways in which they can be used to increase productivity while reducing costs. Many nonprofit directors and board members have a background that is firmly rooted in the humanities and therefore it is to be expected that their education would have focused primarily on human service issues rather than business classes. This however leaves a gap in the knowledge base of the primary leaders in many nonprofits. This is particularly true in the case of the nonprofit that I am affiliated with. In The Non-Profit Management Handbook: Operating Policies and Procedures, Connors (1992) points out that leaders in the nonprofit sector are just as much in need of "the 4Ms" as those managers and directors who work in the world of for profit business. The M's of which Ms. Connors speaks are "Mission", "Marketing", "Money", and "Management" principles based on the premise that a well-educated nonprofit leader will have had a fusion of both human service and business education in their background. It is a decided advantage for the not-for-profit leaders of today to be thoroughly versed in computer usage as well as having a good exposure to business principles.
The primary reason behind the existence of every for profit business is to earn a profit which will then be distributed to shareholders, owners, and/or employees to their benefit. Some profit will of course be reinvested into the company in most cases, but the primary goal is to make money for the benefit and use of the above-mentioned persons.
