What are some non profit medical organizations?

Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs): What are good ways to make a living with a not for profit startup?

• I have been thinking of forming a start-up but my idea seems to solve problems o underprivileged and help the society, so a not for profit model probably suits it most. So how do people starting not for profilt organizations make a living or do they have other sources of income to aid not for profit ?

• Answer:

  A comment before answering. 'Make a living' is a highly subjective concept: no one can define it for someone else. At the end of the day, you MUST decide what is it that you need to say "Ok I am making a good living". Please note that I am not necessarily only talking about money though it is important. 'Living' could include other aspects like the kick of hanging out with some really cool people, contributing to society, getting a chance to see a facet of the world that one would not normally experience etc. Let me come back to the question and focus on the financial aspect (income) part of 'making a living'. It is NOT repeat NOT easy on you if you have high financial needs (student loans to pay off, responsibilities at home) / ambitions (buying home / car before getting married). you are going to compare what your peers are earning at some point in time in the future; chances are that you will fall behind at the start and will fall behind even further as the years pass by. You may scoff at this when you are 21 but when you get older and your needs increase, you may regret. So think this one carefully. All over the world, payments made to staff of non-profits are always questioned by the anti-aid lobby. Some times with reason, most other times out of hatred. See this piece for the most recent of the debates in the United Kingdom. http://www.oxfamblogs.org/fp2p/?p=15496 Most non-profits depend on individual / foundation / government / multilateral donors for their funds.  Raising funds is perhaps the most difficult aspects of work for a non-profit start up. This is primarily because you need to have credibility before someone trust you with their money. You cannot gain credibility unless you have done some work. Unless you get money, you cannot work. See the problem? There are three ways around this issue If you come from a rich family with contacts with other wealthy families, raise donations from the family and friends (look at it as angel investing); do some work in the field; communicate well and then go out to raise money. Work for a few years in an established non-profit; gain experience, sharpen your understanding of how the system works and then launch something of your own. Most of the times, it is worth the wait. Raise funds from Impact Investors; normally works only if you are going to be working in the livelihoods space - working with smallholder producers to engage with markets by value addition to produce. There is a growing volume of work in this area but your business planning needs to be spot on because the investment is often in form of loans. I do not mean to discourage you; hundreds of people have made a 'living' from start up non-profits. Some have done exceedingly well. If I were to make a list of people I have met and who I admire the most, a lot of non-profit leaders (start-ups once) would be on that list. I will end with one of my favourite quotes about life. This comes from a book called http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shibumi_(novel). It is the good life I have traveled, and I have turned the world over in my hand, like a stone with attractive veining, and this I have discovered: a man is happiest when there is a balance between his needs and his possessions. Now the question is: how to achieve this balance. One could seek to do this by increasing his goods to the level of his appetites, but that would be stupid. It would involve doing un-natural things - bargaining, haggling, scrimping, working. Ergo, the wise man achieves the balance by reducing his needs to the level of his possessions. And this is best done by learning to value the free things of life: the mountains, laughter, poetry, wine offered by a friend, older and fatter women. Hope useful. All the best.