Colleagues,

It is obvious that the economic environment is and will continue to have a
financial drain on our resources as not for profits.  Our investments are
not delivering, our corporate partners are having lay-offs and cost cutting
measures that will impact on their giving, our government needs for military
and anti-terrorist actions could start to erode government support even more
than they have over the years.  What can we do?  Here are some thoughts?  I
thought they might be helpful.

1)  Leverage non-financial support from corporate partners.

    a)  ask to allow your employees to attend training programs in
marketing, cost reduction, etc.
    b)  become part of their buying power (travel, office supplies, power,
recruitment, etc) -- I have tried this to great success.
    c)  ask corporations for targeted volunteering events or months.  How
about asking a corporation to work on your floors (w/training) on weekend
for a particular month and call it ?????? Volunteer month.
    d)  tag onto their existing advertising
    e)  ask their experts to volunteer their time to work with your
professionals to help cut costs or leverage marketing or whatever

2)  Take existing programs and explore new audiences that might pay for what
you already have.
    a) provide training for corporate partners in areas that your team are
experts in -- like computer training or design
    b) provide creative and product development support to your corporate
partners for a fee -- the creativity in our organizations is amazing and we
should talk with our partners about leveraging that talent in their product
development, R&D, professional development etc
    c) in addition to you pounding the pavement to sell building rentals,
provide some incentive to meeting planners and caterers to sell your
building
    d) can you place your collections out in corporate or government offices
in place of them purchasing their own art-work or office displays -- we
certainly can be an less expensive alternative

What else can we do during these times to spark innovative thinking and
actions within our teams and boards to keep us vibrant?

Just some initial thoughts.

Stephen




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Stephen Brand
President and Chief Imagination Officer
The New Enterprise Factory
1799 Akron Peninsula Road
Akron, OH 44313
330-864-1518
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