Product Description

A Practical Guide to Business Planning for Enduring Social Impact

Business Planning for Enduring Social Impact applies the strategic rigor and financial savvy of traditional private-sector business planning to social problem solving. This practical guide provides an introduction to business planning for enduring social impact and leads readers through a four-step process for creating an actionable business plan.

The guide is an essential tool for organizations seeking to:

* Define organizational focus and strategy and establish a clear road map
* Build a financially sustainable model by creating a plan to establish reliable streams of philanthropic support, earned income, and/or in-kind resources
* Establish rigorous methods of measuring impact for the organization and its stakeholders
* Make data-driven decisions that lead to improvements to the organization and its activities
* Build partnerships with stakeholders in all three sectors public, private, and nonprofit

Key features include a glossary of business planning terms, plus an outline, sample workplan, and sample business plan for enduring social impact.

Business Planning for Enduring Social Impact draws on Root Cause's unique business planning methodology, developed through consulting engagements with dozens of organizations, and through the organization's experience with the Root Cause social enterprises that it has started and grown. The guide is the first in a series of Root Cause How-to Guides, which provide practical advice for organizations in the public, private, and nonprofit sectors dedicated to solving social problems.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #59988 in Books
• Published on: 2008-03-21
• Binding: Paperback
• 184 pages

Review
Business Planning for Enduring Social Impact: A Social-Entrepreneurship Approach to Solving Social Problems, by Andrew M. Wolk and Kelley Kreitz, offers a guide for charities interested in business ventures, and for businesses whose main goal is to benefit society. This book defines social entrepreneurship as "the practice of responding to market failures with transformative, financially sustainable innovations aimed at solving social problems." Four sections describe how to undertake a business venture, from the initial preparations to putting the business plan into action. The appendices include sample documents, like a business-plan outline, a work plan, and project schedules, as well as a glossary of terms. Additionally, boxed items describe how to find investors, determine what legal advice is needed, and decide whether to hire a consultant to help create the business plan. The book offers checklists at the end of each chapter to help keep readers on track with their preparations. --The Chronicle of Philanthropy

The gold standard in business planning for organizations addressing social problems. --Edward B. Roberts, David Sarnoff Professor, Management of Technology, MIT Sloan School of Management; Founder and Chair, MIT Entrepreneurship

About the Author
Andrew Wolk

Widely recognized as a leading social innovator and a pioneering teacher of social entrepreneurship, Andrew Wolk founded Root Cause in 2004 and now leads its overall strategic direction. He has consulted to dozens of organizations in fields as diverse as economic development, education, youth development, the environment, aging, and more. As part of Root Cause's knowledge sharing initiative, Andrew also authored the chapter "Social Entrepreneurship & Government: A New Breed of Entrepreneurs Developing Solutions to Social Problems" in The Small Business Economy: A Report to the President, Small Business Administration (SBA), Office of Advocacy. Andrew is also a senior lecturer in social entrepreneurship at the Sloan School of Management and the Department of Urban Studies and Planning at MIT. He designed and taught one of the first courses on social entrepreneurship in the country for Boston University s School of Management, who recently awarded him the first ever Rising Star Award. Andrew began his career as a private-sector entrepreneur, having built and sold a multi-restaurant delivery business in the 1990s. He holds an M.B.A. in Entrepreneurship and Nonprofit Management from Boston University and a B.A. from Lehigh University.

Kelley Kreitz

Kelley Kreitz developed and launched Root Cause's knowledge sharing department in 2006. Kelley is senior editor on the forthcoming publication "Advancing Social Entrepreneurship: Recommendations for Addressing Social Problems with Innovative, Results-Oriented Solutions," co-published by Root Cause and the Aspen Institute. Previously, Kelley worked for New Profit Inc. on initiatives aimed at building the field of social entrepreneurship. She has also advised nonprofits throughout the United States on messaging and media strategy, with a national news service for nonprofits. As a writer and journalist, Kelley has served as the senior writer for GreenBiz.com and reported for WRNI, Rhode Island s NPR news station, and KPFA in Berkeley, California.

Root Cause

Root Cause is a nonprofit organization that advances enduring solutions to social and economic problems by building social innovators and educating social impact investors. We do this through business planning and implementation consulting, leadership development, publishing of practical resources, and the creation of professional and funding networks that unite the public, private, and nonprofit sectors.

Customer Reviews

A nice try to help nonprofits with their writing of business plans. But falls short!

This book was OK. But it had many problems as far as I was concerned. Business planning is a pretty straightforward activity in my humble opinion. And there really is just one way to do it efficiently and effectively. Unfortunately, the way to do it promoted in the instant book doesn't quite coincide with the way I have concretely planted in my mind. My way is as follows:

Step 1. Have an idea for a new nonprofit organization
Step 2. Investigate and research the leading nonprofits that offer what you want to form or something close or complimentary to what you want to create
Step 3. Document your findings for each organization in a simple Financial & Operations Plan. See the following outline:

OUTLINE OF A "FINANCIAL & OPERATIONS PLAN"
1. Executive Summary
2. Nonprofit Description
3. Description of Products &/or Services
4. Description of Management Team (inlcuding Board members)
5. Operations Manual
6. Industry Analysis
7. Marketing Plan
8. Fundraising Plan
9. Sales Projections
10. Donation Projections
11. Financial Statements

Step 4. Prepare a detailed Financial & Operations Plan for the nonprofit you want to start.
>> Use as much of the content from the plans you wrote in Step 3 to fill in your plan.
>> Pay particular attention to Section 4 (management team and board of directors). You are going to use your plan to attract both. And before your plan is done, you may have some of these people help you finish the plan.
Step 5. Finalize your plan and put it into action

The instant book being reviewed has 5 chapters. And I have articulated 5 steps herein above. The fifth step coincides with the fifth chapter in the book. So we agree on something. But that seems to be the only similarity. The Bonnie CLAC plan starting at page 69 of the book is supposed to be a roadmap to success for its nonprofit. But as I read it I didn't get the feeling that it was really FORCING the user to be successful. If it had been organized like the Financial & Operations Plan I outline herein above, then things would be different.

The Executive Summary is supposed to summarize the plan, not the organization. All the sections in the plan should interrelate. But they should not overlap. I found the sections in the Bonnie CLAC plan to overlap. Not good.

Business plans for a nonprofit are generally referred to as "Financial & Operations Plans." The authors left this fact out of the book. But I like to refer to them as business plans also because it is easier for me to type when writing. A business plan for a nonprofit can help the nonprofit get financing much as one does for a for-profit. However, instead of using the business plan to get funds from a bank or capital from investors, a nonprofit's business plan can be used to capture board of director members, their contributions, and contributions from their friends. It will also help get other donations because it will have a Section 8 (Fundraising Plan).

And nonprofits can get lots of help writing a business plan by consulting the myriad of business plan books available. The difference between the two is for-profits focus on revenues generated from customers and nonprofits focus on donations and grant awards. Therefore, the nonprofit founder writing a business plan must also consult books on fundraising tactics and techniques. Why didn't the authors of this book cover in much detail fundraising tactics and techniques?

This book had so much potential. There is a need for a business planning book aimed at nonprofits that explains the difference between a for-profit business plan and a nonprofit business plan. That book will basically re-write an existing business plan book from a nonprofit perspective. It will expand on the Marketing Plan section of the business plan so it will include the following: (1) marketing, (2) board development, (3) public relations, (4) government relations, (5) annual fundraising program, (6) special events fundraising, (6) other fundraising. But that book has not been written yet.

What the instant book being reviewed is good for is samples. It provides an explanation of the business plan its authors like to write. And it provides a sample business plan (quite lengthy) starting at page 69. If you want to write a business plan for your nonprofit, then consider getting this book to get an idea of at least an existing plan. You can read it and determine for yourself whether it acts as a roadmap to success or not. And if it doesn't, then you can make notes to yourself where the shortfalls are and not make those same mistakes yourself. 3 stars!

Handy, concise guide to business planning for nonprofit managers and board members.
This concise, handy guide to business planning for nonprofit managers fills a critical niche. While there are a number of widely-used guides to strategic communications planning for nonprofits, this book addresses a need for practical advice on strategic financial planning. The book offers field-tested advice on how public interest organizations can measurably increase their social impact through a more disciplined, entrepreneurial approach. The book summarizes the how's and why's of business planning and offers examples of business plans used by successful nonprofit organizations. Recommended for nonprofit managers, board members, and foundation program officers.

Great Buy
This book is a great primer and invaluable tool in introducing the use of business planning for nonprofits. This type of thinking differs from traditional strategic planning and I hope to see more books emerge that are geared towards nonprofits using business practices. It's an easy-to-read manual that provides a clear process that lets even beginners successfully engage in a planning process. The book is definitely concise, but I think it's a really useful tool for any nonprofit's library (and DEFINITELY worth the $20 bucks)