Futures and Options Inc
New York, NY | Competitor/Collaborator Analysis

Mission: Through career development, college guidance and paid, mentored internships, Futures and Options enables underserved youth to gain much needed access to the economic mainstream, work readiness training and support from caring adults. We reach out to teens at a formative time in their lives, guiding and motivating them to further their education.

Project: Nonprofit organizations exist within a constantly evolving landscape that includes a range of potential competitors and collaborators. In that shifting landscape, staying informed about other organizations proves a continual challenge. An uninformed nonprofit, however, risks missing out on valuable opportunities. This project will help the nonprofit understand their current positioning within their competitive landscape and the strengths and weaknesses of similar organizations, and define an initial set of organizational profiles that they can leverage for more in-depth analysis. At project close, the organization is armed with the information they need to make strong decisions about competitive threats or prime collaborative opportunities.

The volunteer team working on this type of project delivers:

• Discovery interviews with a range of the nonprofit's staff
• Preliminary Competitor/Collaborator Landscape analysis
• Strategic interviews with external stakeholders or peer organizations
• In-Depth Competitor/Collaborator profiles based on additional research and analysis
• Overall view of potential Threats & Opportunities within the competitive landscape

Good Old Lower East Side, Inc (GOLES)
New York, NY | Basic Website

Mission: Good Old Lower East Side is a neighborhood housing and preservation organization serving the Lower East Side of Manhattan since 1977, and is dedicated to homelessness prevention, economic development and community revitalization. GOLES accomplishes our mission by working with community residents to advocate and organize.

Project: An organization needs an effective website to improve its ability to reach a variety of audiences, invite users into a productive, ongoing relationship, and enable users to interact with the organization in ways that lower the organization's costs.

The volunteer team working on this type of project delivers:

• Discovery interviews with a range of the nonprofit's staff
• A creative or requirements brief that details their needs and the suggested approach
• A live website of 10-15 static html pages and integration of online donation functionality
• A website architecture to guide the website's growth, if appropriate
• Training on how to update the site

Harlem RBI
New York, NY | Human Resources (HR) Capacity Build

Mission: Harlem RBI uses baseball and softball and the power of teams to provide inner city youth with opportunities to Play, to Learn, and to Grow, inspiring them to recognize their potential and realize their dreams.

Project: An unbiased evaluation of an organization's strengths and challenges is the essential starting point for making disciplined decisions around further investments in the organization's infrastructure.

The volunteer team working on this type of project delivers:

• Comprehensive assessment of organizational effectiveness in areas such as: governance, staff leadership, finance, administrative systems, staffing, products and services, marketing
• Analysis of how your situation affects your capabilities
• Investigation of different ways to improve capacity in critical areas, given available resources

Mayor's Alliance for NYC's Animals, Inc.
New York, NY | Donor Database

Mission: We are working with 160+ rescue groups and shelters toward the day when no NYC dog or cat of reasonable health and temperament is killed merely because he or she does not have a home. Our goal is to transform NYC into a "no-kill" community by 2015.

Project: It is critical for an organization's fundraising to find the right donor management system and tailor it to meet their specific fundraising strategies, technical capabilities and financial resources.

The volunteer team working on this type of project delivers:

• Interviews with the nonprofit's development and technical staff members
• A requirements brief that details their needs for a donor database
• Vendor recommendation
• Implementation and configuration of the new database system
• Documentation and training on the customized aspects of the new database.

Mercy Center
Bronx, NY | Naming & Visual Identity

Mission: Mercy Center empowers women and their families in the South Bronx to liberate themselves from poverty. We promote their right to an improved quality of life by addressing the needs of the whole person, developing skills for healthy family living and economic advancement, and building a community of respect, hospitality, and non-violence.

Project: An organization's name and visual identity can help communicate with key constituencies and the community, or be a burden of confusion and obsolescence. This project revaluates an ineffective name and provides the organization with a name and visual representation that more strongly resonate with its core audiences and the community.

The volunteer team working on this type of project delivers:

• A creative or requirements brief that details key attributes of a new name and visual identity, and suggested approach
• A new name and visual identity
• Instructions for printing and use of the selected name and visual identity
• Guidance on how to legally register the new identity
• Extension of the selected name and visual identity to business papers (e.g. stationary & business cards), with guidelines for printing and use of the visual identity

Visual Understanding in Education
New York, NY | Strategic Planning Prep

Mission: VUE works directly in schools and museums, leading professional development events for educators while conducting ongoing research and development of VTS programs. VUE�s mission is to revolutionize teaching in classrooms and museums that implement VTS throughout NYC and nationally, facilitating systemic change in how students learn and develop.

Project: Many nonprofit organizations can't find the time or resources to collect the full range of internal and external inputs that can ensure the right decisions.

The volunteer team working on this type of project creates an in-depth, unbiased situational report, including:

• External analysis (using focus groups, interviews, surveys, etc.) that identifies trends, competition, and other influences in the nonprofit's operating environment
• Opportunity map that takes an objective view of organizational strengths and weaknesses, then maps them to external factors to rate specific opportunities and threats (SWOT analysis)