If your organisation's reason for existence - it's objects - are attained, what would happen? Would you contemplate advocating to disband or would you push to tweak the cause and pursue an alternative objective?

An inability to maintain focus, mission drift, or funding shortages could be the early warning signs that your time is up!

Speaking funding, this Thursday the NfP Revolution will arrive in Sydney. Make sure you register and attend this 1-day workshop that will enable you to create new and stronger revenue streams for your non-profit organisation.

"Many businesses and organisations are now preferring to send invitations via email instead of via post. Email invitations can save time, money and can be easily measured to determine responses.

While email invitations have definite benefits they are several factors that need to be considered to ensure that you are able to maximise your response rate.

The following is some advice to consider when sending email based invitations."

Read Alex's full article...

Debit Success have joined our network recently and having learnt about how they can help keep an organisation's cash flow flowing, we can see that their services would be a welcome addition to any non-profit's bottom line.

I'd ask you to visit their websites and contact Helen from APT or Karen from Debitsuccess if you want to learn more about how they might be able to add value to your work.

Read the full article.

As a bonus to NFPN Members (but you must be a member!) you can attend one of his (always sold out) workshops at a reduced rate. The details of each are below.

Essential Sales & Business Development Skills

How to Attract and Retain Sponsors

Some extracts from the joint media release No. 143 are included below:

"The Government is seeking the views of charities and other stakeholders on a definition of charity and charitable purposes. The consultation builds on a range of previous inquiries including the 2001 Report of the Inquiry into the Definition of Charities and Related Organisations, the Charities Bill 2003 and recent court decisions including the High Court's decision in Aid/Watch Incorporated v the Commissioner of Taxation."

"As this is the first round of consultation on this issue, the Government is seeking important feedback from the community. The Government wants to hear from the sector about how a single definition can best serve the needs of not-for-profits and their clients, as well as encourage charitable giving."

If you think that your non-profit might be affected by changes to the definition of charity then you should really consider having your say and putting in a submission.

Full details on how to comment on the consultation paper, and to view the paper can be found at - A definition of charity on the Treasury website.

The closing date for submissions is Friday 9 December 2011.

We heartliy advise that if you are a director (or person advising those on the Board) of a non-profit organisation you should have a read of this and make sure you are up to date with your obligations.

Read all about it here.

If so, we have been made aware of a number of large areas (which can be divided up into smaller ones!) that will be available in Sydney shortly. This could be the opportunity you have been waiting for to move into new or larger premises and really ramp up your organisational productivity.

You may also be looking to move in with other organisations on similar missions to share overheads and maximise your resources?

Simply fill in this very short Expression of Interest Form to find out more.

It's hard to believe but we turned 7 two weeks ago. Happy Birthday to us!  Head over to our Facebook page and tell us how we should celebrate.

We are excited to have achieved this milestone and having helped thousands of non-profits and are looking forward to the next seven with bigger and better services for our members.

The benefits are that members get the things they want when they want them and the nonprofit management team know and learn what members want.

Does your organisation have its fingers on the pulse of your membership? When was the last time you conducted a membership system audit? NFPN has helped a number of organisations last year with these issues. Contact us if it's time to overhaul how you communicate and engage with your members to keep your nonprofit heart beating strong.

Our articles are written by recognised industry leaders with case studies from organisations representing the breadth of the NFP sector and examples of industry best-practice.

We hope you enjoy it!