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(St. Paul, MN)- Tree Trust has created a fee-for-service, landscape services division to provide earned income to help support the operational costs of its other programs. Projects provide training opportunities for unemployed young adults to learn skills that help them become independent and self-sufficient.
Category: Management Practices, Social Enterprise
This program is an excellent example of a social enterprise where an organization markets its services to help fund its mission. BACKGROUND Tree Trust was founded in 1976 to help reforest the Minnesota Twin Cities' metropolitan area following the destruction caused by Dutch Elm disease. Using federal and state job training funds, Tree Trust employed and trained low-income and special-needs youth to assist with tree planting. As the Dutch Elm crisis abated, Tree Trust expanded its job training programs to include other work to improve community parks and public areas. This included services such as landscaping and construction of retaining walls, bridges, staircases and playgrounds. Tree Trust now operates a variety of training programs for youth and adults with special needs, including summer youth employment training, a young adult conservation corps and an adult community support program. In 1992, Tree Trust added a community forestry outreach division to educate the public about the uses, care and benefits of community trees and the urban natural environment. The division emphasizes hands-on projects that involve community residents, local government officials and planners, natural resource professionals, landowners, businesses and developers. In the early 2000s, a "perfect storm" of economic conditions threatened the financial backing of the organization. Stock market decline adversely affected private donations. Job training grants at both the state and federal level became smaller and increasingly restrictive about the types of job training they would support. Moreover, the state dramatically cut funding for job training for youth. The combination of these factors required Tree Trust to rethink its funding base and to re-examine its mission and how to finance it.
Services and staffing * Carpentry (decks, overlooks, bridges, and handicapped access ramps) Each crew has two to three members plus a crew leader. Crew members are young adults aged 18 to 24 who are out of school and are still lacking some of the skills needed to obtain or maintain employment in the private sector. Tree Trust recruits eligible young adults through advertisements and contacts with social service agencies. Crew members are paid approximately $7.50 per hour and work 40 hours a week for six months. At the end of the six-month period, Tree Trust helps place the trainees in private-sector jobs. Currently, landscape services employs four full-time crew leaders and a manager, and utilizes two-thirds of the time of Tree Trust's director of operations. These positions are paid through income earned from the projects. Young adult participants' wages are partially reimbursed by job training program funds, as is the staff support to recruit and place them in outside jobs. Marketing Currently, Landscape Services works mainly on public property, although it does provide services to a few private residential customers. In the future, Tree Trust plans to approach schools and civic-minded corporations in the area about using Landscape Services. Pricing of services and program funding In addition, Landscape Services has needed to acquire additional equipment and tools to provide new services and to give trainees the most useful "real-life" experiences in landscaping services. To pay for this equipment, Tree Trust approached existing supporters from a different angle and reached out to potential new backers. The approach focuses on how the initiative will eventually pay its own way and asks for one-time seed money. Toro Corporation Foundation was one of the first organizations to fund the new venture, providing both cash and needed equipment.
In its first 18 months of operation, donations of equipment and seed money, along with earned income, have allowed Landscape Services to support itself and a portion of the operational expenses of Tree Trust. Approximately 30 young adults have been trained through the division. About 60 percent of these trainees have been placed in private-sector jobs.
1. Starting up an earned income division takes a HUGE investment of time. You can very quickly find yourself on a treadmill working at a feverish pitch. Plan up-front to hire additional staff to assist with the start-up process and raise or borrow funds accordingly. 2. Be careful about overextending yourself at the beginning. There is a tremendous amount to learn and do as you launch a new effort, e.g., marketing, sales, acquisition of new equipment. At the same time, you need to keep your existing programs on track. There is pressure to move quickly, but, if you can, take things at a slower pace. 3. Stay in your area of expertise and within your established market. 4. Move cautiously into new areas. Be sure you can do the job right. Tree Trust was careful in selecting what services it could provide based on prior experience and equipment requirements. 5. Build on your previous relationships with supporters and customers. Let them know how this initiative is different and how it can help support the long-term financial health of your organization. 6. Realize that a new initiative can put a strain on the existing programs in your organization as staff time and focus becomes stretched. Acknowledge this is a difficult challenge and explore how you can best address it. 7. Be aware that there can be conflict between for-profit and non-profit mindsets within the organization itself. Keep communication lines open on this topic to avoid misunderstandings and resentments. Social enterprise should fit with the mission of the organization. 8. Be sure your Board is "on board" with the whole concept of social enterprise before you venture out. Develop a sub-committee of the board to work with directly. 9. Carefully select top-notch staff who understand both your mission and the new initiative. You will only be as successful as the crew leader in the field! 10. Be willing to take some risk. The unknown can be incredibly rewarding and re-invigorating to the whole organization!
(c) 2005 Alliance for Community Trees |
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