Historic Cemetery
A nationally-renowned historic cemetery began a transformative process to reposition itself as a cultural destination combining the best elements of a public park, an art and history museum and a botanical garden. The transformation was driven in part by financial necessity: as the number of burials decreases each year, so does the operating income that comes with each service performed. To build revenue from new sources, the cemetery needed to enhance its public function. The board and staff developed plans for a museum-like visitor center and a dramatic new entrance landscape to make the entire site more welcoming and to increase visitation.
University Business School
One of the nation’s top-ranked undergraduate business schools piloted a summer-long program in Israel employing that country’s burgeoning tech industry as a giant classroom to teach entrepreneurship and to build international connections for students. Its founder quickly realized the potential to grow the program exponentially with other top-tier business schools; a major funder conditionally offered to back a plan to scale up.
Regional Human Service Agencies
Two urban community centers had evolved, along with the communities they served, as major providers of human services in geographically adjacent communities. While their operating budgets had grown dramatically (combined $25M+), their governing boards and leadership structures hadn’t evolved in ways that gave them (and their funders) confidence that they could sustain themselves. The boards decided to merge in order to achieve greater scale that would allow both for efficiencies and investments to ensure their long-term viability.
Suburban Community Center
A suburban community center acquired an adjacent building to grow its operations from 17,000 square feet to 75,000 square feet adding a full-service gym, two swimming pools, and other new and expanded facilities to serve a sizable projected increase in membership and usage. With construction underway, the board commissioned a detailed Operating Plan to prepare the agency and its leadership for exponential growth.
Regional Public Library
The board of a regional public library commissioned architectural plans a modest renovation but the scope of quickly blossomed along with its estimated costs. Before embarking on a fundraising campaign, the board wanted reassurance that private philanthropy would likely be forthcoming to underwrite its ambitious plans.
Urban Business Improvement District
Special tax districts, called “business improvement districts” or “BIDs,” are nonprofits that provide complementary municipal services. They can function with a degree of independence from government but must respond to public need to maintain broad support. A major New York BID, proud to be amongst the largest, wanted to ensure it remained among the most responsive, particularly in a changing part of the city.
Academic Association
The leadership of a major national academic association realized that it needed to take a hard look at its annual conference in terms relevance and revenue. It also wanted to consider new revenue sources. The group’s board and management hired Plan A Advisors to facilitate a one-day retreat that aimed to generate consensus around the association’s envisioned future.
Regional Counseling Center
A regional human services agency engaged Plan A Advisors to lead a pivotal one-day board retreat. Each year, the agency helps thousands of area clients overcome psychological, social and cultural barriers as they strive to develop brighter futures, both at home and in the workplace.
Regional Hospice & Palliative Care Provider
An agency that provides comprehensive hospice and palliative care in a metropolitan region had to prepare for its financial future against strong headwinds: surging costs for care delivery, reduced federal reimbursement, and aggressive competition. The agency’s high quality service, which allows terminally ill patients to die with dignity, was underutilized and under-recognized within its market.
Art and Design College
A Midwestern college of art and design hired a new president to reinvigorate its mission, which includes preparing students for successful futures in the fine and applied arts. The president’s arrival occurred while the school’s strategic planning process was already under way.
Advocacy Organization
As it approached its 40th anniversary, this national advocacy organization continued to serve as the central clearinghouse for information and support for individuals and families affected by a debilitating genetic disorder. It also has partnered successfully with the pharmaceutical industry, had won government and private support for vital medical research and facilitated drug trials that resulted in mitigating the effects of the disease.
Historic Park and a Museum
A large historic park and a regional history museum recognized that their combined physical property, collections, archives, and intellectual assets could be jointly leveraged to strengthen their programs and build audience in a rapidly revitalizing urban center.
Museum & Cultural Destination
This major museum and cultural destination has experienced a surge in annual visitors thanks to new exhibits and a robust tourism industry. It has also built strong educational programs to serve school children, and some popular public programs to encourage local audiences to visit. New, experienced senior managers have been recruited over several years. Now the institution wants to solidify its gains and grow again, given its capacity to reach an even wider public.
Girls’ Boarding School
What students and alumnae love about this elite New England girls’ boarding school is also its Achilles heel: its small size. The intimacy of its campus and individualized attention to each student serve as hallmarks, while the diverse student body and range of academic offerings are comparable to larger schools. A top concern for the board and administration was how to maintain these qualities in a competitive marketplace where single-sex boarding schools face unique challenges.
Independent K-8 School
This school reached a promising juncture: With a dynamic new head, community interest peaked and enrollment in lower grades grew along with the school’s reputation. An earlier three-year strategic plan was successfully implemented. Construction of a new science and art wing wrapped up swiftly. Yet middle-school enrollment was uncertain, with some families opting for placement at competitive, neighboring schools well in advance of high school.
Community-Based Non Profit
After ten years running a large, successful, community-wide conference, this small start-up realized that it needed a long-term sustainability plan to continue its work. It imagined that the most viable route would be to merge with a larger, more established organization with sophisticated infrastructure.
Suburban Public Library
This public library, a defining institution in its well-to-do suburban community, has experienced a surge in visits and circulation despite the popularity of Amazon and e-readers. But a community-wide strategic planning process reinforced what libraries across the nation have recognized: Their primary use has shifted from transactional to social, from informational to intellectual. T this public library’s outdated facilities did not address these changing patterns of use.
Academic Library
For several decades, the design school’s main library – housed in a landmark building on a beautiful campus – had been marginalized administratively and academically. A barren plaza, gloomy entrance and dated furnishings were immediately apparent, while a smaller branch on an adjunct campus seemed disconnected. In addition, a change in library leadership during a recent institution-wide planning process left it on the sidelines.
Yet inspiring collections, an eager professional staff, and generous spaces offered untapped possibilities.
Large Regional University
This multi-campus university, respected regionally for its strong programs in the sciences, recently experienced a steep decline in its graduation rate and financial position. A complicated union structure, fractious faculty-administration relationships, and significant differences in the composition of students and faculty on its suburban and rural campuses added further complications.
Regional Jewish Federation
We have little time to waste in addressing the growing affiliation gap between Jews and Jewish communal life, thought-leaders say, especially in the wake of the 2013 Pew Research Center study on American Jews. In response to this concern, a major urban Jewish federation imagined a community-wide initiative that would target teens, while a major national foundation offered matching funds for a promising initiative.
Community-Based Non Profits
Three community centers recognized that escalating costs and increased competition were beginning to impact their popular day camp programs – historically important sources of operating revenue for the agencies each year. An earlier business plan convinced the three executive directors and board leadership that a larger, merged day camp would enable all three agencies to provide a superior program while preserving affordability for families and generating more revenue for year-round programs and reserves.
Multi-Campus Regional College
A regional college with multiple campuses has myriad strengths: a positive reversal in fiscal health; strong programs in health sciences and education; and national recognition for serving its diverse students, which include first-generation, Latino and military veteran learners. Its leadership, however, needed help implementing a recently adopted strategic plan, crafted by the board and administration.
Large Jewish Community Center
Responding to the growth of the Jewish population in this racially diverse central city neighborhood, a historic Jewish community center received a sizable, multi-year grant to develop a Jewish culture track within its popular afterschool program. It needed to assess interest among families; develop a responsive program; identify the right staffing model, budget, and educational partners; and implement an evaluation regimen to measure success.
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