Nonprofits meet to lay out new plans

Spurred on by a struggling economy, organizations seek ways to streamline

By Owen Boss

FITCHBURG — In an attempt to weather funding shortages stemming from the recent downturn in the local and national economies, five area nonprofits culminated a six-month business planning program by presenting new business plans aimed at generating new sources of sustainable revenue Wednesday. The program, which was sponsored by United Way of North Central Massachusetts and Mount Wachusett Community College, was made possible through a three-year federal Compassion Capital Fund grant awarded to the community college’s Institute for Nonprofit Development. The grant, which provides the college with $200,000 each year, is being used to provide social service agencies in north central Massachusetts with intensive, collaborative strategic and financial planning, including participation in this workshop series in partnership with the United Way. The nonprofits that participated in the workshop series included Cornerstone Performing Arts Center, House of Peace and Education, Inc., Multi-Service Center, Inc., The Bridge of Central Massachusetts Inc., and Young Entrepreneur’s Society Inc. The workshop series provided monthly peer learning sessions and one-on-one consulting for the nonprofit management teams, in addition to asking them to present and defend their business plan before a panel of business executives. Now is the time for nonprofits to review their management programs to see how they can streamline and find alternative revenue sources, according to Phil Grzewinski, president of United Way of North Central Massachusetts. “In today’s competitive environment, every high-performing nonprofit organization needs to diversify their revenue base and we know this process achieved that goal,” said Mr. Grzewinski. “The possibilities are limitless, when you consider that Community Wealth Ventures in 2006 helped 20 ventures generate nearly $8 million in new revenues.” Throughout the various presentations, several nonprofit directors described their struggle to remain afloat in the current rough economic climate, including Christie Iannacone, who was focused on expanding her existing Summer Scene and Winter Scene youth theater programs. “We would like to expand our theater program because we are seeing less and less money being given to the arts in schools,” said Ms. Iannacone. “There are 100,000 residents in the Montachusett area and 20 percent of them are under the age of 18, so we are going to be dealing with a large number of youth participants.” Outlined in her plan for expansion, Ms. Iannacone told a panel of business executives that she wanted to boost revenues 33 percent by increasing the number of children using her program. “We want to increase our participant yield by 50 percent in the first year of our plan and 30 percent in year two and three,” said Ms. Iannacone. Similarly, Gardner’s House of Peace and Education wants to expand its Pals program, according to Executive Director Joanne Foster. oboss@thegardnernews.com

Appeared on Page 1 on 9/18/2008 (Vol. 206 No. 221)