When the Foundation determines that an organization has a promising model for helping youth and the willingness and capacity to serve more young people with high-quality programs, it frequently makes an initial investment to underwrite business planning costs. The Foundation usually contracts with management consultants and evaluation experts to help the organization develop a three- to five-year plan that outlines the steps it will take to expand while maintaining or improving program quality and achieving sustainability.

The plan, which is normally developed over six to 12 months, covers every aspect of the work that needs to be done, from strengthening programs and internal operations to enhancing information systems to boosting fundraising capabilities and other essential activities. Business planning introduces the organization to concepts more familiar to a for-profit business but just as relevant to nonprofit work: how to forecast costs and revenues under different assumptions, identify strengths and weaknesses in current operations, gauge and adapt to trends in the external environment, and achieve productivity gains while maintaining quality. Business planning also incorporates lessons from high-performing nonprofits, such as how to create a solid theory of change that defines an agency’s target population and intended outcomes, and how to make the programmatic, organizational and financial changes required to produce those outcomes. The discipline of this process can have a transformative effect on an organization, helping it to determine its priorities (nothing is imposed on it), formulate how to achieve its goals, and measure performance on an ongoing basis.

Organizations with potential for growth that are not yet prepared to undertake business planning and expansion may receive EMCF support for capacity building that will bring them to this stage of organizational development and readiness. 

EMCF frequently engages the Bridgespan Group, a nonprofit consulting firm, to assist grantees with business planning. A strategic collaborator with the Foundation in the Social Innovation Fund (SIF), Bridgespan is helping the nine initial recipients of EMCF’s SIF awards develop scenario-based growth plans.

To learn more about business planning, please consult the following Bridgespan publications:

• Business Planning for Nonprofits: The Organizational and Leadership Benefits describes the key components of the business-planning process and provides guidance to organizations seeking to develop a business plan.
• The Bridgespan Group's Resources on Business Planning 
• Learning to Grow with Purpose, a case study of the business-planning process at Harlem Children's Zone