CURRENT BUSINESS MODEL MATRIX

This exercise will result in an easy-to-understand sustainability matrix graphic of Tohono Chul Park s current business model. This exercise requires you to ascertain two things about each of your program areas: (1) You will rank each program for its mission impact, e.g. to enrich people's lives by providing them the opportunity to find peace and inspiration in a place of beauty, to experience the wonders of the Sonoran Desert, and to gain knowledge of the natural and cultural heritage of this region. 1 (2) Have your bookkeeper or accountant identify the full costs of each of your programs. (3) These two factors, mission impact and profitability (or lack thereof) will then be plotted on a matrix that has profitability as its horizontal axis and mission impact as its vertical axis.

By plotting each of your programs into this axis, you create an instantly educational visual that tells board and staff how productive each program is toward your twin goals of fiscal sustainability and mission impact, and immediately helps you prioritize. E.g., low impact, low profitability programs might need to be redesigned or pitched. The matrix on the next page illustrates.

This matrix tool is from the book, Masaoka, J., J. Bell, et al. (2010). Nonprofit Sustainability: Making Strategic Decisions for Financial Viability, Jossey-Bass. You will have to give some thought to how to rank your programs for mission impact, as I m sure all your programs are important. However, if you want ideas about how to do this, there are several excellent suggestions about how to do this in the Masaoka book. We are also happy to come help with this process. Gayle is the best person of my team to work on the financial picture, if you need any assistance. We can also help you with the prioritizing, if you want it. However, you may be able to do this pre-retreat work yourself.

Assuming this is still your mission statement. I found it on a website about outdoor museums. I could not find it on your own website.

High Mission Impact gardens Childrens program

Board retreat

Donor outreach

News letter Rent Park for events High Profitability

Low Profitability

Cafe

cafe

Tea room

Low Mission Imact

1. 2. 3. 4.

Keep/contain costs Invest & Grow Close or give away Water & harvest, increase impact

5. Use actual $$ measurements along the profitability axis, e.g. if the program bringing in the most revenues brings in $240,000 annually, then have $250,000 be the profitability end point of your matrix 6. Along the impact axis, use a scoring mechanism (see below) 7. Possible ways to rank impact: a. For a quick start: survey staff, board, members and ask them to rank each program against the mission statement, e.g. (1) not much impact, (2) some impact, (3) strong impact, (4) exceptional impact b. More rigorous ranking: rank each program for these seven criteria: (1) alignment with mission, (2) excellence in execution, (3) scale/volume/reach of program, (4) depth of impact, (5) fills an important gap, (6) community building, (7) leverage

Example of categorical ranking: Gardens 5 5 3 3 5 2 5 29 4.1 Children s Programs 5 3 2 3 4 4 2 23 3.3

1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7.

Mission alignment Execution excellence Scale/reach Depth of impact Fills a gap Community building leverage TOTALS Divide by 7 for SCORE