I had a wonderful conversation recently with Lorraine Larson who is the Director of Marketing & Communications for the Council on Aging Silicon Valley.
Lorraine is an expert on aging and is doing some incredibly valuable work at the Council on Aging Silicon Valley.
Lorraine also gets the fact that the answer to many of problems our nation is dealing with when it relates to caring for the aging population can be addressed by existing community based not-for-profits.
But it REQUIRES A DIFFERENT MINDSET whereby non profits abandon their sole reliance on public funds, grants and fund raising (all of which are drying up) and begin to create a mindset of revenue "generation". Specifically:
1. Looking to "market" (think product marketing) your services to paying customers in exchange for revenue. This does not mean abandoning your mission statements and ceasing to help those in need. It means marketing your valuable services and selling them to individuals and companies who can afford to pay and find value in them. In other words, becoming less reliant on other people/organizations for your survival.
An example is what the Council on Aging Silicon Valley is doing with their Generational Resource Center. This brilliant idea (see picture on this page) allows the Council on Aging Silicon Valley to generate revenue (e.g., a company can pay for this service) by bringing the GRC to a company as an elder care employee benefit to help employees with their elder care needs. Companies can also contract with Council on Aging Silicon Valley to allow employees access to valuable elder care resources via call centers - think EAP, work-life or elder care resource and referral with the added benefit of face-to-face assistance. The point is they are marketing their services to build a steady revenue stream.
2. Establishing relationships with companies who provide senior care or elder care products, and act as a distributor of these products in exchange for revenue sharing. Again, this does not mean abandoning your mission. You only choose to work with companies who are reputable and share your organization's values. In other words, most reverse mortgage lenders need not apply.
By productizing their services and building revenue streams, non profits become more financially stable and as a result can help more people in need.
Kudos to the Council on Aging Silicon Valley - I think they see the future and are building a model that other non profits can learn from.
