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| photo courtesy of www.sxc.hu |
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Tuesday, May 22, 2012
Stakeholders - It takes a village to support a community-based organization
Your creative reuse center exists within a community. Having strong relationships with your community members is invaluable. The staff, volunteers, neighbors, sister reuse organizations, funders, participants in your programs, users of your services, retail shoppers, early adopters, environmental fans, arts fans, educators, and government officials all make up your village. They are otherwise known as stakeholders. They all have a stake in what you do: They help facilitate your development, are affected by your activities, and/or share the mission.
So, who specifically are your stakeholders? What are their needs and expectations? One of the first activities you and your advisory board will do is brainstorm an inventory of your stakeholders. You'll make a list of all the people who are invested in the success of your venture. Next, you'll prioritize your stakeholders. Who on the list has the biggest stake in the development of your creative reuse center? Who has influence over its success? Staff, board, and volunteers are likely to be at the top of your priority list. So are funders and investors.
Tuesday, May 8, 2012
Facing the Inevitable – The Business Plan
We’re often asked if a business plan is absolutely necessary to get a new creative reuse center off the ground. The unfortunate answer is absolutely yes. It’s unfortunate because if your passion is to start a creative reuse center, you're likely to be more tapped into your right brain and taking on a structured business plan may not be your cup of tea. You may feel more comfortable with creative, free-form, intuitive, non-linear thinking. A business plan is about as left brained as a process gets. Think of it as your road map to success. For now, you’ll need to put on your analytical, fact-based, sequential hat. -- at least for much of the work
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| photo courtesy of sxc.hu |
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Wednesday, May 2, 2012
Mobile? Brick and Mortar? Online Exchange?
Now that you’ve created your Mission Statement, what type of
venue will you need to fulfill your mission?
There are 3 main venue types we typically see in the world of creative
reuse: Mobile units, brick-and-mortar locations, and online material
exchanges. Most creative reuse
organizations typically utilize some combination of the three. Choosing the right type of venue will help
you to stay true to your mission.
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Wednesday, April 25, 2012
Creating your Mission Statement
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| photo courtesy of sxc.hu |
"If you don't
know where you're going, it doesn't matter which way
you go."
Cheshire Cat, Alice in Wonderland
Cheshire Cat, Alice in Wonderland
The all important mission statement is the most foundational business planning you will do for your budding creative reuse center. It will encapsulate your purpose and identity. It will justify your raison d'etre. It will inform all of your activities and programming. Having a carefully crafted mission statement will have a significant pay-off for the life of your organization. And, at the end of this process, you will know where you're going.
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Tuesday, April 17, 2012
Building Your Advisory Board
When you decide to move forward to open a creative reuse center, one of your best assets will be your group of trusted advisors. An advisory board is a collection of individuals that you choose based on the strengths they bring to your project. They may be friends, professional colleagues, people you admire in your community or even those you seek out through referrals or on boardnetUSA.
There is a difference between a board of directors and an advisory board. At this point, unless you already have acquired 501(c)(3) status through the IRS, yours will be an advisory board. Unlike a nonprofit board of directors, they do not have governance or legal responsibility for your project. They are assembled to help you achieve your vision and act as your wise guides.
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Tuesday, April 10, 2012
Gameplan for Readiness
Okay, okay. You’ve thought long and hard about it and you’ve concluded that you’re right for creative reuse and creative reuse is right for you. You know that you’re passionate about starting a creative reuse center in your town, you have found some supporters and advocates, and you’ve decided what business model might work best for you. So, you’re ready to dive in, right? Well, almost…
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| photo courtesy of sxc.hu |
Take a few deep breaths and visualize where you are and where you want to go. How are you going to communicate this vision to your community members? You should already have experience with this since you just completed your feasibility study. Think back to when you were talking with potential supporters. Were you able to develop an elevator pitch? That is, a clear and concise but genuine description of what you’re working so hard for? Were there certain phrases or words you used that really caught people’s attention?
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Monday, April 2, 2012
Is Your Community Ready? Your Personal Feasibility Study
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| photo courtesy of sxc.hu |
What would be more mortifying than throwing a party and no one came? All the excellent planning and preparation falls flat if no one is interested in showing up. Generally we have good instincts and imagine that if we find something exciting and compelling, others do too. The problem with that logic is what psychologists call “confirmation bias”. People tend to hear or interpret information that supports their own beliefs. If I believe that creative reuse is the greatest thing ever, I may tend toward interpreting ambivalence as a positive response and even subconsciously screen out conflicting information. While creative reuse is the best thing ever, you need to find out if other people in your community agree.
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