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Washington, DC – The first thing a solution provider should know about targeting the ever growing non-profit sector is that it is actually all about profit.

According to Frank McGee, the president of Goodwill Industries International of Omaha, Neb., the sector actively looks for ways through technology to increase profitability.

“Just because you're a non-profit doesn't mean you don't make a profit,” he said.

Goodwill is one of the world's largest non-profit organization. It generates approximately $3 billion through a network of more than 180 independent managed, community organizations in Canada, the U.S. and other countries. Goodwill, mainly through donations, provides education, training, and career services for people with disadvantages.

At Goodwill Omaha, McGee operates 11 retail stores and last year processed 19 million pounds of donations. “We need more dollars available to us to replace old equipment and develop new product revenue streams. Sage helps us to generate reports on our profitability,” he said.

Sage Software has products such as Fund Accounting inside its Non-Profit Solutions area that provided Goodwill with accurate, year-end and other financial information which McGee could present to the his board.

Krista Endsely, senior vice-president and GM of Sage's Non-profit solutions category, added that Goodwill's accounting and profit goals would not have been possible without the assistance of channel partners.

”Without a partner being the face of Sage for that customer it would not be possible,” she said.

However, while charitable foundations such as Goodwill have found success, the overall non-profit vertical is going though a rough set of challenges brought on by a more knowledgeable base of donors and the recent spell of accounting fraud scandals that have hit the industry.

Heather Burton, Sage's senior vice-president of marketing for the non-profit division, said the sad state of the economy (mainly in the U.S.) is also having an impact on non-profits.

Meanwhile, other data from Sage shows that issues with the economy are not slowing-down donations. According to Burton's research, non-profit donations have grown in the past 20 years to reach $200 billion.

There are 1.5 million non-profit organizations, which is a 36 per cent increase from just ten years ago. More than 90,000 of these organizations have a budget a million dollars or more, Burton said.

The non-profit sector is a large and somewhat untapped market for channel partners. The top five categories in non-profits are: human services, philanthropy, volunteerism, grant marketing, and general health and rehabilitation. The largest is human services with a 16.1 per cent market presence. The next three are at a combined 16.1 per cent, according to Burton's research.

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