By Brenda W Hargroves
Providing social services becomes more challenging with each passing day. The instability of financial resources from both current and potential grantors is a constant issue. Misappropriation of funds and other scandals have undermined the public’s faith in charitable organizations; therefore, donors have begun to doubt how much of their contributions actually go to providing service. The pandemic, along with other instability factors, have complicated people’s lives, often leaving them with less inclination to dedicate their time to causes. As a result, volunteerism, the core of many nonprofits’ existence, has declined.
These circumstances have forced nonprofit organizations to explore sustainability opportunities that will allow them to continue offering services. At the same time, selected options must fit the organization’s mission and offer an approach that benefits their target audience and/or the surrounding community. Pursuing a social entrepreneurship venture has the ability to deliver sustainable funding and meet the above criteria. Implemented and managed properly, it can offer a nonprofit the ability to provide social value and practice sound business applications.
How can an organization determine the viability of a social entrepreneurship venture?
1) Review services currently offered by the nonprofit. Does the organization’s programs demonstrate solid experience and skills in any particular area? Research whether a viable market exists for those services. For example, one of your programs may offer life skills training to your target audience. The seminars and workshops the program has developed might be marketable to the public or other not-for-profit agencies.
2) Perform a needs analysis to identify a service or product that meets a specific need or potential ongoing opportunity. Needs assessments can be performed several ways including:
Distributing surveys to collect and evaluate assessment data
Facilitating focus groups that interview a preselected audience
Hosting community meetings where the target audience resides to determine social venture viability
3) Research the pros and cons of starting a business that can offer employment opportunities for members of your target audience. Perhaps your mission involves empowering disadvantaged individuals and your organization is located in a hurricane zone. Offering construction training courses and job placement assistance for entry-level positions in the construction industry might be a viable consideration. Providing this training would benefit the individuals your organization serves as well as the surrounding community.
Once your organization has decided on the type of social entrepreneurship venture it wishes to pursue, it must now 1) determine and gather the required resources and 2) commit to and remain focused on contributing to the venture’s success.
Embarking on this undertaking can be difficult for several reasons. First of all, the organization must recognize that along with pursuing a new venture, staff must continue to effectively manage day-to-day activities. Second, while the organization may have decided to add a social entrepreneurship venture to their strategic plan, board members and/or staff may not have an actual plan to turn the project into reality.
Developing and following an action plan is critical to successfully moving a project from implementation to full operation. The plan should include:
GOAL – What does your organization plan to accomplish?
OBJECTIVE (S) – How will the goal be accomplished? What activities will take place?
TIMEFRAME – What are anticipated activities’ start and end dates?
MEASURABLE– How will benchmarks be determined? How will success be measured?
My last, and most important, piece of advice is your action plan is not written in stone. It should reflect a continuously developing and flowing process. Make changes as necessary. Tweaking will increase its usefulness and make it one of the organization’s most valuable resources.
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