Spent the last two days with some great groups in Houston. One pair, both social service providers is wrestling with what is, to my reading, an unsustainable situation in how they price and charge for counseling services.
We looked at their costs, their charges, their volume, their capacity. In both agency's case, their average charge is lower than their average cost, and that cost is already heavily subsidized by a small number of large grants and donations that are tenuous at best. This is, after all the town where Enron, with all of its largesse, vanished in a heartbeat.
Which brings up the issue of sustainable business models. Look at your largest area of work. Is the model sustainable if certain key funders cut or eliminate their funding to you? What can you do now to develop more sustainable models.
One good resource that I've noted before: the Center for Civic Partnerships has a workbook on just this issue. Go to www.civicpartnerships.org
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