Pondering

On Friday, I met with my in-school advisor, Ms. McConaghy, to talk about business plan structure and the direction of my project. We discussed different components of a business plan, especially the financial projection section. This involves projecting all foundation costs and profits for the next 3-5 years while accounting for reasonable growth and taking into account factors such as marketing, travel, and operational costs. Because I don't have a building or anyone on payroll, this should hopefully be more simple than the daunting spreadsheets in Anatomy of a Business Plan. However, it's important to have realistic estimates that are logical to potential donors to GFGF and other readers of a business plan.

In accordance with my book, I'm trying to conduct some "strategic planning" to help draft the business summary in the beginning of the plan. This involves "SWOT" Analysis, or strengths-weaknesses-opportunities-threats planning. Business books certainly have some fancy terms for brainstorming! This targeted approach will aid in articulating to donors why GFGF is unique and why it should be supported.

The hardest part, of course, is figuring out what direction to take Give for Good in. For example, the Marketing section of a business plan requires one to state who the target audience I am trying to reach would be. Do I want to market to the general public, or just corporations? It's certainly something to ponder; I anticipate that going through each of the detailed sections of this business plan will take a lot of thought and ultimately aid tremendously in shaping this foundation.

I found this lecture from Stanford Business School very informative as it pointed out some of the common flaws in standard business plans. Even though they aren't specifically the plans of nonprofits, I still found Mr. Ellis's points useful:

More on the order and structure of a business plan coming soon!
~Priya