Nonprofit organizations have clear-cut missions. They are required to put any earnings back into the organization after deducting their operational expenses. Nonprofits can engage in different functions. Some of them represent scientific or educational organizations. Others are more focused on professional or trade groups. Often they deal with multilingual communities in different countries, thus they need global translation services to properly disseminate written nonprofit information in different languages.
The energies of most nonprofit organizations are far-reaching and are often solely for the purpose of serving and working for the good of the public.
What comes to your mind when asked what a nonprofit organization is? Many people would quickly think that it is about social welfare and charity. Maybe it’s because many of the nonprofits provide shelter, counseling and healthcare. They often provide assistance and relief.
Such organizations as the American Red Cross are exempted from tax because they provide the public with shelter and relief assistance when there is a disaster. The existence of many nonprofit organizations helps the government save money.
Related Post: What Is Medical Translation? Top Tips for Doctors
Main Functions of Nonprofit Organizations
It is true that many nonprofits provide charity and social welfare, such as medical clinics that provide either low-cost or free medical care to people who cannot afford to seek medical help. Victims of abuse can seek protection and housing from women’s shelters. Other nonprofits aim to help the unemployed, the hungry and the homeless.
Aside from charity and social welfare, some religious organizations are nonprofits and therefore exempted from paying taxes. The condition to avail of tax exemption is that the organization must promote a religion; therefore temples, synagogues and churches fall under this category.
Besides fostering a religion, many religious organizations offer charitable services directly or by establishing a separate nonprofit to serve the needs of its community. However, religious organizations must not raise funds for political purposes.
Some professional groups establish nonprofits to represent them and move their goals forward. Examples are nonprofit organizations representing teachers, accountants, librarians and engineers. They often lobby on behalf of the profession they represent. They may offer networking and training opportunities to their members.
Other nonprofits are also engaged in research. For example, SRI International does research and creates innovative solutions to make people more productive, healthier and safer. It also does client-sponsored development and research for private foundations, commercial businesses and government agencies.
Improving education is also a sector that several nonprofit organizations espouse. Some of them help recruit teachers for rural and urban school districts where educators are badly needed. One such example is Teach for America.
Working with Diverse Communities
Many large nonprofit organizations have chapters in many regions around the world. That being said, they serve international communities that speak different languages. To promote proper communication and understanding, they often require global translation services.
Many of them analyze and cross-reference country and community data in order to serve the public better. When they engage in community services, they engage the help of many volunteers who may or may not speak the same language. For their training and instructions, they should have information translated into their own language, which makes global translation services essential.
Many nonprofits focus their expertise and skills to serve communities in less developed countries, where they can provide training, information, education and funds to push for sustainable development. Most nonprofit organizations that are involved in such missions undertake inter-governmental negotiations.
Most of them have become large and powerful organizations with huge influence and resources. They utilize the advances in communications and information technology. They are able to focus their attention on environmental and social issues. They have the capability to pressure governments and corporations on human rights, environmental, social welfare, labor and other issues.
Related Post: Why Understanding Culture Is Key to Unlocking Language
Community Service
Whatever type of nonprofit organization you are engaged in, the one thing that’s constant is your mission to serve a deserving community. In a country where multilingual communities exist, nonprofits often deal with language diversity. It is difficult to properly engage with and reach out to the members of the population who do not speak your language without the help of global translation services.
It is a dilemma faced by many organizations that aim to help the public, many of whom struggle with the English language, for example. In the United States alone, about 20 percent of the population speaks a different language as their main means of communication. About half (or 25 million people) out of the 20 percent cannot speak or barely understand English.
The language gap is present in many countries including the United States, which makes it harder for nonprofits to empower these multilingual communities without global translation services.
They need to have access to important information, avail of education, employment and housing opportunities, and in most cases, get much needed medical care.
Bridging the Linguistic Divide
The usual problem of linguistic divide can be prevented with global translation services. Translation agencies are willing to collaborate with nonprofits throughout the United States, and they have the expertise and experience in all forms of translation requirements.
Services a translation agency can handle range from:
- Legal documents
- Disclaimers
- Educational and instructional materials
- Consent forms
- Informational brochures, pamphlets and handouts
However, global translation services are not solely for the usual documents, since there are other forms of communication that are used to reach audiences today.
A nonprofit organization produces a variety of materials, where global translation services can help provide language support. This is to make sure that the literature produced can be read and understood by every member of the community – meaning the printed materials should be in the languages the entire community understands.
Therefore, to increase your reach and send your message across the entire community, global translation services are also used for other platforms, such as:
- Mobile apps and message platforms
- Recordings
- Podcasts
- Videos
- Websites
Despite the language barrier, many multilingual members of the community use modern communication devices such as computers, mobile phones, and tablets. They are able to access the Internet and visit various websites. Hence it is important for nonprofits to have their websites localized, as visitors to their websites are not entirely English speakers only. Localization is today one of the most in-demand of all global translation services.
Providing information on websites in different languages extends your service to the community, allowing them to fully understand the information you are providing and the messages you are trying to convey.
It is to your advantage to have text service available in other languages, which would be of great help during emergencies. You empower the community and at the same time, they place their trust in you because you showed that you care for their welfare, because you are able to speak their language.
Understanding Diverse Cultures
Language barrier is not just about the difference between languages. It is also about culture. Hence, it is important that nonprofit organizations and global translation services providers join hands to translate and localize nonprofit information and communications.
Cultural awareness when serving a diverse community means that you take into consideration the overall message presentation, the sound, sights, colors, and movement. Websites should consider the overall layout, images, fonts and the use of appropriate colors.
Web content and even all information should factor in the use of idioms. Care should be given to the choice of words because their meanings could vary from culture to culture. Professional translators look into these things, which is not available from online translation tools.
Your message should be delivered according to its intended message. It should be worded according to your target audience, while preserving the original message across cultures and languages.
Do Not Get ”Lost” in the Translation
The sensibilities of your diverse target audiences should always be considered. A wrong choice of words can shatter the purpose of your message because of mistranslation. You do not want the communities you serve to suffer from miscommunication, which you may not become aware of. Allow the professional global translation services provider to help you carry out your mission by connecting you to all the people that you want to serve.
Professional Global Translation Services
Day Translations, Inc. works with a variety of clients. We have a network of certified and highly skilled and experienced translators located around the world. We have offices in major cities in the United States, Europe, the Middle East and Asia, ready to serve your translation requirements any time.