The nonprofit organization is susceptible to changes in its environment and lacks the flexibility to influence them. Most of them lack internal resources as they largely depend on the generosity of donors every time they wish to undertake an activity outside the scope of their approved projects. If the donor does not agree with the organization's needs or priorities, or if it simply lacks the ability to achieve due to time constraints or financial restrictions imposed on it, the institution will not be able to influence the required changes.

Let us imagine that a nonprofit organization receives a call today from the Ministry of Tourism in its country, requesting a consultant for three months to modify the law governing national parks to include economic programs for non-governmental organizations. It's a great opportunity for an organization that has been talking to the ministry about this very issue for a long time.

The problem is that the consulting services need to start next week, and the entire organization must begin utilizing staff time on ongoing projects. Where can it find the funds to hire someone to advise the ministry within a week?

The answer to this question usually involves some kind of sacrifice: declining the opportunity and reassigning technical staff working on other projects at the expense of those projects, or simply working on weekends and "as much as necessary" at the cost of employee well-being.

In general, our organizations lack the ability to respond to projects due to their financial incapacity. But why is the name of the nonprofit organization associated with financial deficit? After considering the situations outlined above, we concluded that we must add a new component to our initial definition of financial sustainability, which is: generating surplus.

You might wonder if you read this correctly: does generating surplus equate to the term "profit" in for-profit companies?

Isn't it true that we consider ourselves lucky when we achieve a "0" balance and avoid a deficit?

Isn't it true that we are nonprofit organizations and are not allowed to retain more funds than we can spend?

Well, that’s not true.

What nonprofit organizations cannot do is spend funds for purposes unrelated to their mission or distribute profits for personal gain. Generating surplus is not prohibited for organizations and is an urgent need for them, not a luxury, and this is the duty of organizations to achieve!

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