2. Building Organizational Capacity in a Challenging Economy Lee Friedman CEO College Now Greater Cleveland

3. Steps to Building Organizational Capacity in a Challenging Economy 1) Evaluate Your Mission 2) Evaluate Your Board 3) Evaluate Your Business Plan 4) Explore Collaborations

4. Evaluate Your Mission Does it clearly and accurately describe what you do? Does it resonate with the top civic priorities?

5. Evaluate Your Board Do you have a board that can support the organization by spreading the message to the people who need to hear it? Can the Board raise money? Is the Board structured to function well?

6. Evaluate Your Business Plan Have you priced your services so they are sustainable? Do you have dependable funding sources to cover programs that lose money?

7. Explore Collaborations Where it makes sense strategically, combine programs and services. In an increasingly competitive funding climate, strategic collaborations create innovative new programs and can shore up revenue streams.