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Wednesday Nov 13, 2019 #
Note
We had a board meeting last night. Over the last couple of weeks I did financial analysis of how much it costs us to put on our programs and created a 5-year financial plan that we discussed at the meeting. We are at a turning point, and here are some of the takeaways for me right now:
* Until now, I've pursued every opportunity to provide orienteering. Many of those programs were free for the recipients and others were at a loss to us. Only a few paid enough that it covered our staff salaries and expenses. Going forward, we need to focus and bring in program income.
* I believe that our best area to focus on is school programs. This is not the most lucrative (that would be corporate team-building), but it is where we can reach the most kids - ALL kids - and can enable others (teachers) to deliver the education. We have solid experience that it can work. Orienteering is now in the Cambridge PE curriculum, and other school districts are interested. WIOL is great proof that a high school competitive league is possible to maintain. It can be done.
* Things that we will need to cut out: after-school teaching (we get income, but spend more than we get because of preparation and double-staffing), free World Orienteering Day events (maybe we can get a grant for this? It reaches so many kids! Hard to let go...), public events (we get some income but few people come and we always lose money), teams (this is really hard - but the amount that the school pays coaches is so little, and it takes so much time; maybe we could do this with more IOF volunteers that Dave and I house).
* We are crafting a strategy of going into a school initially at a discount, doing demonstration courses, meeting with curricula directors, and doing professional development workshops for teachers. The second year, we'd co-teach, as we do in Cambridge. Over the next month, we'll have a go at attracting new business at the MA-HPERD conference and through direct outreach to curriculum coordinators and school administrators.
* I do not want to continue indefinitely as the volunteer ED and sole driver of NG. I need to hand it over to other people, and continue as one member of a larger team. While our pricing will allow us to pay for program delivering staff, program fees alone will not cover an ED or other administrative functions. That means that we need to find grant money or large donors. Moreover, our existing main source of funding (private foundations) will end in mid-2020, so to continue with our program-delivery and teacher-enablement path, we need to find new sources of income. We will apply for several grants over the next few months.
* If we do not get new sources of funding and new clients in the next few months, then we will shift into a new direction. We will focus on documenting the lesson plans that we have developed and get them out into the world for others to use and build on. I'm proud of what we've achieved in these 4 years - our initial goal was to get every kid in Cambridge to orienteer, and we'll have come remarkably close to that with the PE program. And as a bonus we won Nationals with the high school team. And created awesome lesson plans that teachers and students really love. Whether we continue and grow our staff, or become a lesson plan website, we have accomplished a lot.
On a very positive note, we just this week received a $4000 grant from a family foundation; we'll use that to help get our curricula published this winter. Ethan and I met two of the people from the foundation on Monday. They both lived on Thompson Island and taught with Outward Bound in the past, so they had an appreciation for orienteering.
You all are welcome to contribute to Navigation Games! We're happy to talk about taking donations for specific programs, and we're happy to share our financials and annual reports.
* Until now, I've pursued every opportunity to provide orienteering. Many of those programs were free for the recipients and others were at a loss to us. Only a few paid enough that it covered our staff salaries and expenses. Going forward, we need to focus and bring in program income.
* I believe that our best area to focus on is school programs. This is not the most lucrative (that would be corporate team-building), but it is where we can reach the most kids - ALL kids - and can enable others (teachers) to deliver the education. We have solid experience that it can work. Orienteering is now in the Cambridge PE curriculum, and other school districts are interested. WIOL is great proof that a high school competitive league is possible to maintain. It can be done.
* Things that we will need to cut out: after-school teaching (we get income, but spend more than we get because of preparation and double-staffing), free World Orienteering Day events (maybe we can get a grant for this? It reaches so many kids! Hard to let go...), public events (we get some income but few people come and we always lose money), teams (this is really hard - but the amount that the school pays coaches is so little, and it takes so much time; maybe we could do this with more IOF volunteers that Dave and I house).
* We are crafting a strategy of going into a school initially at a discount, doing demonstration courses, meeting with curricula directors, and doing professional development workshops for teachers. The second year, we'd co-teach, as we do in Cambridge. Over the next month, we'll have a go at attracting new business at the MA-HPERD conference and through direct outreach to curriculum coordinators and school administrators.
* I do not want to continue indefinitely as the volunteer ED and sole driver of NG. I need to hand it over to other people, and continue as one member of a larger team. While our pricing will allow us to pay for program delivering staff, program fees alone will not cover an ED or other administrative functions. That means that we need to find grant money or large donors. Moreover, our existing main source of funding (private foundations) will end in mid-2020, so to continue with our program-delivery and teacher-enablement path, we need to find new sources of income. We will apply for several grants over the next few months.
* If we do not get new sources of funding and new clients in the next few months, then we will shift into a new direction. We will focus on documenting the lesson plans that we have developed and get them out into the world for others to use and build on. I'm proud of what we've achieved in these 4 years - our initial goal was to get every kid in Cambridge to orienteer, and we'll have come remarkably close to that with the PE program. And as a bonus we won Nationals with the high school team. And created awesome lesson plans that teachers and students really love. Whether we continue and grow our staff, or become a lesson plan website, we have accomplished a lot.
On a very positive note, we just this week received a $4000 grant from a family foundation; we'll use that to help get our curricula published this winter. Ethan and I met two of the people from the foundation on Monday. They both lived on Thompson Island and taught with Outward Bound in the past, so they had an appreciation for orienteering.
You all are welcome to contribute to Navigation Games! We're happy to talk about taking donations for specific programs, and we're happy to share our financials and annual reports.