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Sustainability in Local Programs

Sustainability in Local Programs. Beth Meeks. What does it mean?. Sustainability – avoidance of depletion of natural resources; to maintain at a certain level Sustain – to strengthen or support someone or something Why does it matter? You can’t do the work unless you do the business.

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Sustainability in Local Programs

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  1. Sustainability in Local Programs Beth Meeks

  2. What does it mean? • Sustainability – avoidance of depletion of natural resources; to maintain at a certain level • Sustain – to strengthen or support someone or something • Why does it matter? • You can’t do the work unless you do the business

  3. Sustainability is more than $ • Financial – SAVE SOME MONEY • Leadership Ability – succession planning • Adaptability- do you have the will, ability & thought leaders to move with a changing world • Strategic Planning – stagnation leads to demise – nothing ever stays the same

  4. Start with a Good Foundation • Understand the community/service area. • Had there been community buy in during planning? • What capacity does the community have to support the program? • What start up funds are dedicated? • Is the type or scale of program appropriate for the service area? • Who is the board? • What is the strategic plan? • Does it include sustainability?

  5. $ • Start with a savings plan. • It is not a sin to save money! • Create fundraising opportunities that are for all programming. • Let allies fundraise for directed activities. • Funds should be diversified – to the extent possible. • How much money would you have to have in reserves for an agency with a $700,000 budget to be self–sustaining?

  6. $17,500,000 • $17.5 million dollars • If saving $50,000/yr = 350 yrs • Full sustainability unlikely, barring major donations • Those type of major donations are abnormal in DV agencies apart from capital campaigns. • Grants will always be necessary. • Does not mean you should stop trying. • But what if we eradicate DV? • Provisions for transfer of assets

  7. Leadership that Sustains • Very difficult to find EDs for domestic violence agencies • Do a broad search • Make sure the pay is competitive • Look for a broad array of experience/skill • Personnel • Finances – read, write grants, fundraise • Domestic violence dynamics • Media • Relationship building • Can create a structure to balance his or her weaknesses

  8. Leadership Pitfalls • Over focused on finance or have a business background only • No experience in the field • Experience in a field that does not translate • Over reliant on accounting personnel – can’t read financial statements themselves • MIA • No external community presence • Lack of professional boundaries

  9. Strategic Planning • Have a plan in place from the beginning • Plan must include fundraising • Plan must include salary reviews and benchmarks • Plan must include savings • Plan should include program evaluation • Plan should include cost-benefit analysis • Ideally would include community feedback – • Do they know about you? • Are they willing to support you?

  10. Your role • Think carefully about where and when you change funding patterns. • Competitive or not? • Time limited or not? • Understand the role of grant funding in providing consistency and quality services. • Advocate for appropriate wages. • Advocate for growing reserves. • Offer grant writing workshop tailored to your grant. • Provide feedback to improve grant writing.

  11. Supporting small &/or rural programs • Often have extra challenges • Guard against service provision being based only on economics. • Cost of serving a single person in a rural area is much higher, urban areas have much larger volume • Guard against funding plans that only take population into account or are primarily driven by service numbers. • Encourage appropriate program structure. • Consider mentoring/financial oversight by partner programs with more infrastructure.

  12. Sustainability Challenges • Too small to recruit talent • Pay too low to recruit appropriate talent • Lack of finance knowledge or skill • Budget not big enough to sustain 24 hour shelter • Unable to raise funds • Lack of local industry and business – lack of donors and grant access • Lack of structure to write & manage federal grants • Overleveraged on one revolving grant/source vs sustaining grants/sources

  13. When are Programs Not Sustainable? • No magic point, consider if more than one of these is happening • Payables exceed receivables by 20% or more, depending on program’s ability to raise money and size of the program budget. • Major financial misdealing – payroll taxes not paid, lien on property, employees/board making personal loans, unpaid bills, crimes • Unable to retain staff and reasonable number of board members. • Major programmatic violations. • Repeated civil rights violations • Closing for long periods of time intermittently • Dangerous practices – couples counseling, confidentiality violations • Exceedingly low client numbers • Failing to turn in grant reports

  14. Beth Meeks • Tonia Moultry bmeeks@nnedv.org tmoultry@nnedv.org

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