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Community Consulting

1999-2000 Projects


Ann Arbor Art Center

#1 - Market Analysis and Strategic Plan

#2 - Financial Analysis and Management

Corner Health Center

#3 - Marketing to the Parents of Teens in Adolescent Health Services

#4 - Strategy/Change Management

#5 - Finance/Marketing

HelpSource

#6 - Marketing

Community Dental Center

#7 - Marketing/Strategy/Finance

Ann Arbor Red Cross

#8 - Finance

#9 - Marketing

Ann Arbor YMCA

#10 - Marketing

#11 - Marketing

 

Click here for details on 1998-99 projects.


 

Ann Arbor Art Center

Organization Background

The Ann Arbor Art Center is a non-profit with a 90-year history in Ann Arbor.  Over twenty years the operating budget has grown from eighty thousand to just under one million dollars.  The management of multi-faceted programs is challenging.

 

#1)  Project: Market Analysis and Strategic Plan

Project Description:  The Ann Arbor Art Center is interested in exploring alternatives to implement its mission to be a dynamic organization engaging the community in education, exhibition, and exploration of the visual arts.  Current research conducted for the Art Center has queried existing users (the Education program, Art Ventures and Feat of Clay). The purpose of this research is to expand the focus of inquiry and conduct market research.  The scope of the research would include.

 1) Design and field market research instruments to assess opinions and facts related to:

a) Art/ leisure/extracurricular-oriented activities and needs (as defined by respondents) that are being met elsewhere, or not at all.

b) Degree of satisfaction with product and services offerings; to include non-users/non-participants, and current Art Center users in all sectors (retail, educational, exhibitions, and exploration programs); vendors, employees (including teachers and volunteers).

c) Art Center brand and image among non-users/non-participants, and current Art Center users in all sectors.

d) Reasons for use/non-use of the Art Center and its various programs/services.

 2) Compile a competitive intelligence report. Review the Art Center business model in comparison to other community based art centers, and for-profit competitors. Critique the traditional marketing approach vs. the customer needs-centered approach.

 The goal of the research is to enable leadership to gain better insight into the needs and desires of the community, and thus provide more meaningful information upon which leadership can base future programmatic decisions. The research needs to aid decision-making concerning expanded, specific, working definitions of the mission critical terms education, exhibition, and exploration. Further, it needs to provide leadership with reasonable certainty of success as it develops and implements new programs.

 

 #2) Project:  Financial analysis and management

 Project Description: 4 people, each taking a separate area of programming: Education Course program ($250,000 annual revenue), Gallery Shop, a retail art business ($500,000 annual revenue), Feat of Clay, a glaze your own bisqueware business, $70,000 annual revenue and an "under producer"),ArtVentures, an art instruction program for groups ($60,000 annual revenue).

The President and program directors need a more substantial understanding of the economics of programs to maximize the net revenues of each program and the Art Center.  The analysis of programs and the development of reports to help the program directors understand the economics of their programs and ways in which they can enhance the net revenue is an important component of bringing the organization into financial strength.

The major responsibility for financial analysis has been vested in the operations staff that is experiencing substantial change-over both because of the retirement of the Operations Director and because other staff are relatively new.  A substantial amount of data is regularly collected, but the ability to analyze is currently limited.

The students work with the President of the Center, the Operations Director and the program directors and associate directors.   Students will have access to program staff and program data. 

 

 

Corner Health Center

 

Organization Background

The Corner Health Center began as a non-profit school-based health clinic located in Ypsilanti High School. They were given one unused classroom and had three staff, a doctor, nurse and director.  Today, almost twenty years later, we are located in our own building in downtown Ypsilanti, 47 North Huron. We offer health care services for adolescents; our only criteria for who we can serve is age, from 12 through 21. In addition, we can care for our patients' children if they are teen parents. We have on staff family practice physicians, pediatricians, nurse practitioners, nurse midwives. In addition to medical services, we offer a great many support services which are particularly important to teens from an under-served community including a Women, Infant and Children Nutrition Support Program, a Maternal Infant Support Services Program, short-term crisis counseling, a food bank, a 'store' of donated baby items, staff trained to assist patients to apply to Medicaid programs and other health care plans.

We saw over 2000 patients last year with over 13,000 visits. For many years, we have working relationships with UM Medical School, Public Health Program, and other academic programs.

 

#3) Project: Marketing.  Reaching, Serving and Marketing to the Parents of Teens in an Adolescent Health Service.

 Project Description:   The Corner Health Center is a nonprofit health center located in downtown Ypsilanti. Our practice is defined by the age of our patients. We see adolescents from the age of twelve through twenty-one. We also offer pediatric care for their children if they are parents. Our population is generally an under-served one: over one half do not have health insurance coverage.

Legally we can offer care to adolescents without parental consent in areas of reproductive health and mental health/drug and alcohol related care. Many adolescents, however, come to their appointments with their parents. We have never developed marketing strategies aimed at the parent. Now, with greatly increased competition, we know we could do well to learn more about the health concerns and provider preferences of parents for their teens and how TCHC could meet their needs. The team is expected to provide a strategy for reaching this target market.

 

#4) Project: Strategy/Change Management.  One Year After: From Strategic Planning into Change for the New Millennium

 Project Description: Years 1997–1998 at The Corner Health Center saw a focused strategic planning process followed, system–wide. Monies from The Kellogg Foundation and Michigan Women’s Initiative helped fund the extensive organizational process. The outcomes were written as action plans. Now, one year into implementation, we need to know how extensively the plan has been implemented and how business trends may have already called on us to rethink strategies such as marketing, service changes, procedural changes and technology.

 The team will have two major research paths. First, the team should review the research used to generate the current strategy, note areas where significant change has occurred and propose revisions to the strategy. Second, the team should identify those efforts of the firm which have or have not adopted the strategy and made effective changes.

 

#5) Project:  Finance/Marketing.  The Corner is not a free clinic: Admission and payment policy issues and implications for marketing a nonprofit adolescent health service

 Project Description:   The Corner Health Center has always served an under-served population. From its inception almost twenty years ago, it was evident that there were adolescents whose health care needs were complex but did not have access to care elsewhere. Over fifty percent of our current patients come without health insurance. We must address the financial and service issues, which put considerable drain on our resources. We want to develop a fee structure that can reduce that drain and navigate the reimbursement issues, which the patient or we may have overlooked.  Historically, a rather inconsistent sliding scale system has been used at the Corner, but many similar organizations are currently using a “staggered” pricing structure.

 The team is expected make recommendations on pricing structures, patient acceptance criteria (financial only), and a rollout procedure for implementing the new price structure.

 

 

HelpSource

 Organization Background

HelpSource protects and supports the development of children, counsels and builds the life skills of individuals, and provides care to dependent seniors.  HelpSource’s youth programming includes outreach programs such as Big Brothers/Big Sisters and a teen parent center, as well as treatment programs for abused and neglected youth, such as foster care and adoptions.  Individual and family programs include substance abuse treatment, counseling, family crisis intervention and Soundings: A Center for Women.  Frail seniors can receive home support services or be a part of the on-site adult day care.  We have an employment program for able bodied seniors.  We also offer subsidized transportation.  It is the largest social service agency in Washtenaw County serving more than 4,000 individuals annually.  The annual operating budget is $9 million.

 

#6) Project:  Marketing

 Project Description:  HelpSource has identified four programs for priority marketing strategies:

 (1)    CLEAR House: Outpatient substance abuse treatment program.

(2)   Adult Day Care

(3)   Student Parent

(4)   Soundings: A Center for Women

The organization would like the team to pick one (two) of these programs and make specific recommendations as to where to spend their limited promotional/advertising budget.  Also, they will be printing new brochures and need to know where they should be sending their direct mail marketing.  They need a review and expansion of their marketing contacts.

 

 

Community Dental Center

 

#7) Project:  Strategy/Marketing/Finance

 Project Description:  The Dental Center would like assistance with formulating a business plan.  Their goal is to become profitable.  All profits will be turned back into the business to help it grow.

 

Ann Arbor Red Cross

 

Organization Background

The Ann Arbor Red Cross provides a variety of services to the Ann Arbor community including offering courses in Health & Safety, providing Community Emergency Services and sponsoring Blood Drives. 

 

#8) Project: Finance

 Project Description:   The Red Cross offers a wide variety of instructional courses for people in the community.  These courses cover areas such as lifeguarding, CPR, nutrition, etc.  The organization currently does not have any understanding of how much its costs to sponsor and run these courses. 

 They would like a student team to perform a cost benefit analysis on this area of the organization.  The team would need to identify all costs related to their course offerings (teacher salary, building space, transportation needs, overhead, etc.) and match this with the revenue (fees) charged for the each course.  This will give management a sense of the profitability of the course offerings and help in making decision the future direction of these offerings. 

 Ultimately, the organization is looking to see if they should be offering different courses, more courses, or fewer courses, charging more, charging less, etc.  The next step for the team would be to do a similar analysis for the other areas and offerings of the Red Cross.

 

#9) Project: Marketing

 Project Description: The Red Cross would like a broad marketing plan created for all aspects of the organization.  Many people know what the Red Cross is and have a vague understanding of the services it offers.  However, management is aware that many people in the community who would use and could benefit from the Red Cross do not know enough about the organization.  Management needs help in getting their message out to the community.

 

 

Ann Arbor YMCA

 Organization Background

The YMCA offers a variety of programs for both children and adults in the Ann Arbor community.  The programs currently run include:

 YOUTH:  swimming, gymnastics, soccer, basketball, martial arts (choi kwang do, karate, judo, aikido) and dance (ballet, tap, jazz).

 ADULT:  swimming (beginning, aqua aerobics, dance(line, ballet, tap, ballroom, jazz, beledi), aerobics, strength training, fencing, martial arts (same as children plus tai chi), yoga, martial arts.

 

#10) Project:  Marketing

 Project Description:  Researching the Dexter / Silver Lake area to determine what areas of camping, family services, recreation and high adventure programming needs are being met.  After assessing the above programs and determining the YMCA’s strengths and weaknesses in this area, the next step will be develop a marketing plan to better target the program offerings of the Y with the needs of the community.

 

 

#11) Project: Marketing

 Project Description:  Performing market research in the Ann Arbor / Ypsilanti area to determine what programs offer competition with the YMCA’s and why.  The Y needs to know where they are competitive in the area for programs and activities.  What is successful, what is not.