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Home > Nonprofit management consulting > Project experience > Social enterprise
Our social enterprise clients
Milestone wanted to create new sources of unrestricted revenue as well as serve their mission. Olszak helped them assess the feasibility of building a greenhouse that would employ their customers on a piece of land they were leasing in Allegheny County. Olszak conducted extensive market research into greenhouse structures, farming methods, product demand, and industry competitors. Olszak helped Milestone make contacts with potential customers and produce distributors in the Pittsburgh area, which lead to forecasts of the market potential for various agricultural products. As a final product, Olszak produced a comprehensive business plan for Milestone, outlining five years of financial projections and the capital needs for the project.
Next, Olszak worked with Milestone to create a business plan to increase revenue-generating capacity for their EveryOne An Artist program, which encompasses both art therapy and an art gallery in Lawrenceville. Olszak conducted research into market size, pricing, and business models for the gallery. In addition, we researched additional payment sources for art therapy services, potential partners, and created pro forma income statements and a staffing and management plan. The final product was a business plan to build the gallery presence and sales, and a plan for the art therapy services to generate outside referrals.
Blueroof was a start-up nonprofit engaged in building accessible housing for the elderly and disabled based on “smart home” technology that they developed. Olszak worked with Blueroof to create a logical chart of accounts and viable accounting policies and procedures. We then conducted surveys with real estate and development professionals to assess the market for smart homes, and conducted focus groups with both professionals and seniors to gauge level of interest. Olszak created five year financial statements for Blueroof Technologies and its sister company, Blueroof Solutions, detailing level of housing sales, needed program funding, and impact on the balance sheet. The final product was a business plan detailing Blueroof’s plans to achieve growth and stability.
The Boys and Girls Club was looking for earned income opportunities that would also provide job-training skills to the disadvantaged youth that they served. Olszak facilitated the selection of the best possible venture for Boys and Girls Club, a for-profit retail sales outlet that was established a few blocks from the Club’s administrative and program center. We also developed the business plan that would help launch the venture as a sustainable source of revenue for the organization.
Olszak and the Duquesne team designed a customized six-week course to assist nonprofit organizations how to launch business and other types of ventures. This course was expanded to include more intensive hands-on assistance in market research, financial analysis, and business planning, and has been offered at the Center for Nonprofit Services in Erie, PA as well as the University of Baltimore in Maryland.
Olszak conducted a study of social entrepreneurship activities in the Pittsburgh region that involved identifying national best practices and the application of those practices on a local level. We also facilitated a number of planning meetings with an Advisory Committee to inform and develop consensus on various issues throughout the duration of the study. In 2007, Olszak followed up the initial study with a “temperature check” of Pittsburgh area nonprofits regarding the topic of social enterprise. Fifty telephone interviews with CEOs and Executive Directors of nonprofit organizations in the Pittsburgh area were completed. These interviews addressed financial strategies and perspectives on social enterprise. The information gathered from the interviews was used to conduct five separate focus groups. Focus group participants included 43 CEOs, Executive Directors, and other nonprofit leaders from organizations in the Pittsburgh Area. All information was gathered into a comprehensive report for the Pittsburgh Social Enterprise Committee’s review.
The Good Grief Center (GGC) developed a special bereavement Care Package as a thoughtful alternative to flowers or food baskets. This social enterprise supports GGC’s mission by providing the grieving individual with tools to cope with grief and helps generate revenue. GGC needed to test this product to see what the best target markets were and if the product itself would provide sufficient revenue to sustain a care package line. Olszak researched the sympathy gift industry and developed benchmarks for the Care Package. Olszak and GGC worked jointly to survey companies regarding their policies for acknowledging death among their employees, using this information to further pinpoint GGC’s target markets and market strategy. From this research and data collection, Olszak created a comprehensive business plan detailing GGC’s plans to grow this social enterprise.
Other clients include:
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