Saturday, June 2, 2012

Business Planning Helps Nonprofit Grow Margin and Mission - No ...


The Recovery Store

NO MARGIN, NO MISSION? CLIENT SPOTLIGHT:

Hartford-Based CCAR Launches?The Recovery Store??to Sell Products and Services Online

Phil Valentine

Phil Valentine, An Entrepreneurial Leader

We met?Phil Valentine,?Executive Director of?Connecticut Community for Addiction Recovery, at one of?No Margin, No Mission?s?Earned Income trainings last fall in Detroit. Phil was part of a group of esteemed leaders from the nationwide?Recovery?community who participated in our lively session to discuss entrepreneurial revenue generation for nonprofits.

Growing Margin and Mission With An Earned Income Business Plan

Phil was sufficiently impressed with our work helping nonprofits diversify revenue through entrepreneurial practices, that he decided to hire us. With the help of?CCAR?s?Director of Recovery Services,?Cheryle Pacapelli,?we quickly got to work developing an earned income business strategy for the organization.

It was clear from the beginning of our work with?CCAR?that they were?interested in?leveraging some of their?existing product and service offerings which were already generating margin and mission for the organization. The goal was to triple those contributions during the next two years through development of a business strategy.

Leveraging Market Need and Demand

Fortunately for?CCAR, there was substantial market need and demand for their popular and highly sought-after?Recovery Coach Academy,?an intensive 5-day training for those interested in becoming a recovery coach. Each week, the team would receive several telephone and email inquiries from prospects across the country who were interested in purchasing the offering.

With opportunities to expand their presence?far beyond Connecticut and the Northeastern region of the United States where the?RCA?was currently being sold, there was tremendous potential for margin and mission growth.

Creating A One-Stop Virtual Shopping Marketplace

As the business planning process got underway, it became apparent that with?CCAR?s?limited staff, the organization?would need to find a way to market and sell its trainings and other offerings as efficiently and effectively as possible. The idea of a virtual retail marketplace where clients could easily browse and shop for all the highly specialized and hard-to-find?Recovery?offerings in one place was exactly what was needed.?That?s when?The Recovery Store??was born,?CCAR?sonline retail emporium filled with inspiring books and videos, recovery resources, trainings, merchandise, event tickets, and registration for trainings.

Aggressively working to ?build??The Recovery Store?s?virtual structure, everything came together quickly, including the merchandise selection, pricing, Web site development, e-commerce platform, distribution and fulfillment strategy, promotion plan, and much more. With everything in place on time and on budget,?The Recovery Store?was officially launched in April 2012!

The Recovery Store???Opens its Doors? ?

With only 2 months since its ?grand opening?,?The Recovery Store?has been a huge success. Traffic to the Web site and product sales have far exceeded the team?s original projections, and it?appears the pattern will continue given the strong need and demand that exists for?The Recovery Store?s?wide range of exclusive offerings.?Already, orders have been taken and fulfilled for?CCAR?s?popularRecovery Coach Academy,?books, DVD?s, and merchandise from clients in fifteen states, including? NY,?WA,? CT,? MD,? MA,? TX,? VT,?OH,? CA,? AZ,? RI, AL, IL, NJ, and KY.

According to?CCAR?s leader?Phil Valentine, ?The Recovery Store?has given?CCARthe opportunity to?market and sell a wide array of offerings targeted to the Recovery community that extends far beyond Connecticut. By selling our products and services nationally, we?re extending our mission and generating a financial return at the same time.?

Said?CCAR?s?key staffer,?Cheryle Pacapelli,?about working with?No Margin, No Mission,??The experience has had a profound impact on?CCAR. The work we were able to accomplish in just four months would have taken us much longer to complete and would not have been as strategic or well planned.?No Margin, No Mission?is highly experienced with great insights on how to help move your margin and mission forward.?

ABOUT NO MARGIN, NO MISSION?

No Margin, No Mission Square Logo w/ ShadowNo Margin, No Mission??is?a social enterprise and national consulting practice that focuses largely on working with nonprofits (and the funders that support them) to identify opportunities to diversify revenue through earned income strategies, innovation, and entrepreneurial business practices. We help organizations all over the country with a social or environmental mission find ways to expand their margin so they?re better able to achieve their mission.

Our belief is that most nonprofits have created assets of value that can be sold to other stakeholders to help generate financial resources for their organization ? which could include anything from curriculum, trainings, keynote speaking engagements, consulting, and a whole host of other offerings.

In the end, our goal is to help nonprofits gain some financial stability and independence by reducing their dependence on grants and donations, particularly as the challenging economic environment of recent years has left so many organizations unable to expand, grow, thrive, or even survive.

To learn more about how?No Margin, No Mission?works with clients to?plan,?train,?speak, and?implement,?visit us at??www.NoMarginNoMission.org?or?check us out on?Facebook.

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