“Let us put your company in the spotlight”
Cheyenne YMCA
Ways to increase Donations
Executive Summary
Current Situation:
As it stands now the Cheyenne YMCA is in a period of rebuilding. They are making improvements to their facilities as money allow. The top people appear to be holly committed to the principles and ideas of the organization. However, there is a problem from top to bottom with turnover and burnout due to both overworking and lack of benefits. Their top issues at the moment are lack of donations and membership units. On top of that they are in a heavily competitive environment.
Competitive Environment:
The population of density is small and there are numerous organizations vying for money. They are in direct competition with any businesses that offer one or more of their services. These include gyms, daycares, and wellness centers. They are also in competition for donations with the other non-profits in the area that may provide the same services or those that do not but have a wider community support.
Short Term Recommendations: 0-3 monthsThe first short term recommendation is to either get a PayPal account created for the organization or fix the button on their website. At the current moment it just goes to PayPal’s homepage. The cost of this is in the beginning is just time. There is no monthly fee associated with this account1 in fact they also offer discounted rates for certified non-profits. The rest are setup for future activities. The first is to assess what type of commercial they want to create and the associated budget. At the moment again the cost is time spent setting up. The second idea is to provide a free membership if a person donates a certain amount. The goal here is to ensure that no one in charge has an issue with this and set the donation amount. Again the cost here is the time to set it up. The final idea is to create a date night and silent auction for members and donors. This again requires time to create. The biggest priority is to set a date, after that decide the people and business to solicit donations for the silent auction from, finally talk to employees and see if they are willing to donate time to help.
Middle Term Recommendations: 3-6 months
This is where the setup for the commercial should begin. The cost will be dependent on how involved they want to get. They could use members, a film student, and their facilities and the costs would be minimal or they could spend themselves broke and bring in professionals. At this point the membership for donation amount should be set. The key here is to maintain the idea till they reach their donation drive when it will be most effective. The cost would be what they would lose if the donator had paid for a month. This is hard to estimate because there is no guarantee that a donor would actually pay for a month if they did not get it for free. By this stage they should have the general information for the dinner and also have the date set. They should be making preparations to receive the auction donations and have a designated storage location along with starting the creation of volunteer schedules. Again the only cost would be time and depending on venue perhaps the deposit cost to hold their date.
Long Term Recommendations: 6 months and on
At this time the commercial should be completed and discussions with local stations about donating air time should be fully underway. The cost depends on whether they could and are willing to pay for a spot. The costs for the membership for donating should have already been accounted for and the evaluation of the success of it should be completed. Final preparations for the dinner should be completed. The cost here is time to finish setting up and collecting the money from the people who are participating.
Appendix A: SWOT Analysis
Appendix B: Price Breakdown
Annotated Bibliography:
1. Merchant Fees. (2014, 11). Retrieved from PayPal:https://www.paypal.com/webapps/mpp/merchant-fees
This is a link to the fees that PayPal Charges nonprofits. It also has a button on the top that allows you to sign up. PayPal’s setup is very well supported. Once you sign up you they have a setup list that includes a button creator that allows a direct link to your account. They provided email and phone support to make the process as easy as possible.
