Generating revenue through strategic planning.As we all know too well, the park and recreation profession in this country is in a critical position. The loss of funding is serious, but the loss of identity for parks and recreation is a strike against an individual's basic human needs. To fight that loss of identity and the difficult financial situation, we park and recreation professionals need to take a proactive role. If public park and recreation agencies have ever needed a good reason to look at private sector involvement and the use and development of corporate America, now is the time. The Summer Olympic Games The Summer Olympic Games or the Games of the Olympiad are an international multi-sport event held every four years, organised by the International Olympic Committee. , since 1984 in Los Angeles Los Angeles (lôs ăn`jələs, lŏs, ăn`jəlēz'), city (1990 pop. 3,485,398), seat of Los Angeles co., S Calif.; inc. 1850. , have basically been operated and financed by the private sector and are an excellent example of the private and public sector working together for a common cause. There are many other examples in this country, where the private sector can, and has, helped local park and recreation agencies narrow the gap between funding shortfalls and the increasing demand for more and better services. There are several internal steps we can take to meet the challenge head-on. * Step 1: Reorganize re·or·gan·ize v. re·or·gan·ized, re·or·gan·iz·ing, re·or·gan·iz·es v.tr. To organize again or anew. v.intr. To undergo or effect changes in organization. our thinking! Step back and take a long, hard look at what we are really trying to accomplish in our respective departments. We must change our philosophy to fit the tenor of the times in terms of the financial and other resources available to us. Such an approach means developing a department policy statement of general concepts and should include the following elements: preamble, primary functions, secondary functions, internal organization, budgeting and finance, planning responsibilities - both short-and long-term, external organization (which would include the relationships with other departments and other local units of government as well as the role in regional, state, and federal governments, and the private sector) and a functional organizational chart An organizational chart is a chart which represents the structure of an organization in terms of rank. The chart usually shows the managers and sub-workers who make up an organization. . * Step 2: Develop general goals that are realistic and attainable and which reflect the department policy statement in rather concise words. These goals should be adopted by your governing body Noun 1. governing body - the persons (or committees or departments etc.) who make up a body for the purpose of administering something; "he claims that the present administration is corrupt"; "the governance of an association is responsible to its members"; "he or at least by your park and recreation board or commission. Following the development and approval of goals, it would then seem logical to develop some aims and objectives (targeted results), again, which are realistic and are related directly to your reduced budget. In other words Adv. 1. in other words - otherwise stated; "in other words, we are broke" put differently , management by objectives would now come into play. These objectives must be quantitative as well as qualitative, and be written in such a form that employee performance evaluations Performance evaluation The assessment of a manager's results, which involves, first, determining whether the money manager added value by outperforming the established benchmark (performance measurement) and, second, determining how the money manager achieved the calculated return can be based upon accomplishing them within a given year. * Step 3: Reaffirm each policy and procedure that currently exists within your agency to update them. Also, continuously develop new policies so that your policies and procedures Policies and Procedures are a set of documents that describe an organization's policies for operation and the procedures necessary to fulfill the policies. They are often initiated because of some external requirement, such as environmental compliance or other governmental truly represent the operation as it currently exists. If a previous policy no longer works, revise it or delete it! * Step 4: Combine the department policy statement, goals, aims and objectives, and the new and revised policies and procedures into one manual that now becomes the foundation for your operations. These targeted results should become part of your manual of policies and procedures, and should change year to year, predicated upon the financial resources of the department after you have adopted the budget. If you do nothing more than reorganize your thinking over the next several months, you will be on the right track and ahead of the game, and will then be ready to reorganize your agency. The ABC's of reorganizing your agency are to use the basic administrative process elements that should be present in any system or organization regardless of size, and include such areas as planning, organizing, staffing, directing, coordinating, controlling and evaluating. Keep in mind the various functional units in reorganizing so that you work from the bottom up and vice versa VICE VERSA. On the contrary; on opposite sides. , taking into consideration chain of command and unity of command regarding your functional units of operation. You also should consider the possibility of making generalists out of many of your specialized staff; this will generate more flexibility in the services offered and increase your productivity considerably with less personnel. You also might consider establishing district operations which would couple both park and recreation functions confined to geographical areas of your jurisdiction. Generally, most of us establish districts for either recreation or park purposes, but do not combine both entities under one administrator within a given district. This concept will hold one individual accountable and responsible to administer both park and recreation services in a predefined geographical area, at the doorstep of the citizens, who are the employers whom we serve. You should also consider the establishment of major working committees within the department to help with specialized areas such as revenue production, insurance and risk management, in-service training, energy conservation, public information and marketing, employee recreation and awards (recognition) committee. After rethinking and reorganizing your agency, it is now time to take a look at your financial future and develop a number of steps that you could take to help yourself over the next several years. Generally speaking, there are six standard areas in classifying funding sources that we all use in dealing with money: * Tax revenues allocated by federal, state or local governmental bodies. * Income produced from bond issues. * Income derived from fees and charges. * Trust funds, bequests and gifts. * Grants or loans. * In-kind contributions of labor through the use of volunteer help. Clearly, the first area to examine is what you can do with what you now have. Existing Tax Revenue and Income Produced From Bond Issues The following suggestions will help you get more from your current revenues and income: * Examine zero-base budgeting Zero-base budgeting (ZBB) Budgeting method that disregards the previous year's budget in setting a new budget, since circumstances may have changed. Each and every expense must be justified in this system. or at least modified-zero-base budgeting. Objectives are established by top management, functional units are then described, each unit manager analyzes alternatives, the manager develops budget requests into decision packages or program levels, decision packages are then ranked in priority and the final budget is usually some variation of the traditional line-item format. * Invest temporarily idle funds Idle Funds Money that is not invested and, therefore, earning no income. For example, funds in a checking account. Notes: If you want to increase your income, try to place your idle funds into a money market account (or some other interest bearing account). at the highest going rate of interest. * Use outside contractors where private operators can do a better job and with less costs. * Utilize qualified outside specialists to augment staff rather than hire additional staff on certain projects. * Lease idle open space lands for farming or grazing grazing, n See irregular feeding. grazing 1. actions of herbivorous animals eating growing pasture or cereal crop. 2. area of pasture or cereal crop to be used as standing feed. See also pasture. . * Develop more passive parks rather than the traditional active parks. * Design effective park maintenance classification systems and standards. * Use all available tools to acquire or at least preserve land for both active and passive uses including natural areas. Some suggested tools include charitable deductions, savings on capital gains tax, bargain sale, scenic easements EASEMENTS, estates. An easement is defined to be a liberty privilege or advantage, which one man may have in the lands of another, without profit; it may arise by deed or prescription. Vide 1 Serg. & Rawle 298; 5 Barn. & Cr. 221; 3 Barn. & Cr. 339; 3 Bing. R. 118; 3 McCord, R. , reserved life estate, tax advantages over will, natural areas assessment program, natural resource protection zoning, interim development regulations (zoning), flood plain protection laws, land swaps (modified transfer of development rights) and creation of a foundation of trust - IRS An abbreviation for the Internal Revenue Service, a federal agency charged with the responsibility of administering and enforcing internal revenue laws. 501 C-3. * Reclaim land for park use, i.e., landfills, rights-of-way, water rights, borrow pits and so forth. * Develop joint powers agreements joint powers agreement n. a contract between a city, a county, and/or a special district in which the city or county agrees to perform services, cooperate with, or lend its powers to, the special district. with other agencies and schools (school-park concept, community schools, community-use of schools and leases). * Look at possible consolidation of services such as mergers or transfer of functions. * Improve our public visibility. We need to devise better methods of telling our story. Most citizens take our agencies for granted and public relations public relations, activities and policies used to create public interest in a person, idea, product, institution, or business establishment. By its nature, public relations is devoted to serving particular interests by presenting them to the public in the most is last on our list of priorities because it takes time. Develop a good working relationship with the press. * Consider the following legislation at local, state and federal levels: subdivision dedication, dwelling unit construction fees, landscape maintenance assessment program, state bond bills, state recreation assistance program - Delaware (the only state to have such a program) and mobile recreation units, transfer of facilities, Land and Water Conservation Funds The United States' Land and Water Conservation Fund (LWCF) is a Federal program that was established by Act of Congress in 1965. The Act designated that a portion of receipts from offshore oil and gas leases[1] , Housing and Community Development Act Housing and Community Development Act, the name of several United States federal laws, may refer to:
* Look for possible cost-saving areas within your department. Have you considered examining your department in terms of the funds expended ex·pend tr.v. ex·pend·ed, ex·pend·ing, ex·pends 1. To lay out; spend: expending tax revenues on government operations. See Synonyms at spend. 2. for material and supplies or commodities? During the course of the year, we all spend a great deal of budgeted funds for various materials and supplies that should be investigated in terms of holding the line, eliminating waste or procuring items in a better manner. Such things as lumber, concrete, wire, grass, trash containers, liners, custodial supplies, paper, office supplies Office supplies is the generic term that refers to all supplies regularly used in offices by businesses and other organizations, from private citizens to governments, who works with the collection, refinement, and output of information (colloquially referred to as "paper work"). , telephones, data processing data processing or information processing, operations (e.g., handling, merging, sorting, and computing) performed upon data in accordance with strictly defined procedures, such as recording and summarizing the financial transactions of a , gas and oil are all items that are expensive and should be reviewed thoroughly. Income From Fees and Charges To generate added income from fees and charges: * Develop a listing of possible fees and charges: entrance fees, admission fees, rental fees, user fees, sales revenue, license and permit fees, and special-service fees. * Reexamine re·ex·am·ine also re-ex·am·ine tr.v. re·ex·am·ined, re·ex·am·in·ing, re·ex·am·ines 1. To examine again or anew; review. 2. Law To question (a witness) again after cross-examination. existing fees and charges. * Implement cross charges of activities with other agencies. * Develop self-sustaining recreational programs. * Institute revenue producing facility-use fees (charitable vs. noncharitable). * Develop better concessionaire contracts. * Contract services (privatization privatization: see nationalization. privatization Transfer of government services or assets to the private sector. State-owned assets may be sold to private owners, or statutory restrictions on competition between privately and publicly owned ). * Sell and/or lease lands. * Seek subvention funds from other governmental agencies. * Use revolving funds A revolving fund is a fund or account whose income remains available to finance its continuing operations without any fiscal year limitation. Within federal and state governments, law establishes revolving funds. or internal trust funds. * Begin plant-a-tree, feed-a-friend, adopt-a-park programs. * Develop gift catalogues. Income from Trust Funds, Bequests and Gift These income sources include: * City or county trust fund or park foundation. * Small bank trusts. * Application for grants-in-aids from corporate foundations. * Corporate involvement in supporting park and recreation services including: Shared expertise, services, and talents (i.e., loaned executives, volunteer labor, volunteer ambassador program, training, personnel exchange, efficiency analysis, energy conservation, professional services (job) professional services - A department of a supplier providing consultancy and programming manpower for the supplier's products. , public relations/marketing and surveys/data management). Shared equipment, facilities and supplies (i.e., loaned equipment, loaned space, recycled supplies and equipment, computer time, joint purchasing, corporate demonstration of product, parking areas, transportation, employee recreation and fitness, and communications). Donations and dollars (i.e., funding, land, sponsorships, endowments and foundation, gift catalogues, auction, team challenges, insurance coverage, scholarships and paid advertising). Name, image and prestige, (i.e., endorsement by association, direct endorsement, corporate publications, and adoption of areas and facilities.) Income Derived from Grants or Loans Grant and loan income can be increased through: * Mixing and matching state and federal funds Federal Funds Funds deposited to regional Federal Reserve Banks by commercial banks, including funds in excess of reserve requirements. Notes: These non-interest bearing deposits are lent out at the Fed funds rate to other banks unable to meet overnight reserve . * Seeking government loans, i.e., farmers small home loans. * Soliciting private foundations. * Creation of an internal grantsmanship grants·man·ship n. The art of obtaining grants-in-aid. [grant + (game)smanship.] unit. * Establishing a technical library. Consider researching the various federal and state grant agencies and loan institutions that still have available programs. You can then categorize cat·e·go·rize tr.v. cat·e·go·rized, cat·e·go·riz·ing, cat·e·go·riz·es To put into a category or categories; classify. cat them into your own catalog for use within your agency, which will identify specifically just those programs that will produce the desired results. These programs include: matching fund grants, project grants, contracts, direct loans, guarantee or insured loans, specialized services, use of property, facilities and equipment, and advisory services advisory services advisory services provided to the public, in their capacity as owners and managers of animals, are an important part of veterinary science. They may be provided by government bureaux, by commercial companies who deal in pharmaceuticals or animals or animal that provide counseling and technical assistance. Aside from the above, there are several publications that might be worth purchasing, one of which is entitled, The Art of Winning Foundation Grants by Howard Hillman Hillman was a famous British automobile marque, manufactured by the Rootes Group. It was based in Ryton-on-Dunsmore, near Coventry, England, from 1907 to 1976. Before 1907 the company had built bicycles. and Karin Abarbanel published by the Van Guard Press, Inc., New York New York, state, United States New York, Middle Atlantic state of the United States. It is bordered by Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and the Atlantic Ocean (E), New Jersey and Pennsylvania (S), Lakes Erie and Ontario and the Canadian province of . The National Park Service, through the old HCRS HCRS Headway Controller Rear Sensor , published a handbook that may still be available which is entitled, Foundations (The Whys, Wherefores, and How to use 501 C3 Organizations). Properly conducted, a program to tap private/corporate foundations and government grant sources can be a key component in a successful fundraising program. Grantsmanship requires specific expertise in the field of philanthropy, tax law and proposal writing. If your agency decides to undertake such a program, budget adequate time to prepare and familiarize yourself with it. Again, hiring a professional fundraiser, or training a full-time staff person as a fundraiser may be the most efficient course of action. Good grant proposals share these important features - the well conceived, well documented and concise proposal itself; a carefully researched and evaluated list of foundations and/or public agencies to be approached; and an appropriate solicitation strategy for each service. The basic format for most proposals is fairly standard and includes: I. Proposal Summary - Describe the applicant, project scope, project cost. Introduction - Provide more information about the applicant - significant accomplishments, goals, other outside financial support. The goal of the introduction is to build credibility. III. Problem Statement - Define the problem the grant will address. Make a logical connection between your agency and the solution, and highlight your agency's ability to address the problem. The urgency of the problem should be highlighted. For example, if a lack of public funding Public funding is money given from tax revenue or other governmental sources to an individual, organization, or entity. See also
v. dwin·dled, dwin·dling, dwin·dles v.intr. To become gradually less until little remains. v.tr. To cause to dwindle. See Synonyms at decrease. open lands which have been nearly consumed by development, emphasize that fact. IV. Program Objectives - List measurable products of the program. Methods - State specific actions to be undertaken, why they were selected, and why alternative methods were discarded. VI. Evaluation - Describe how you will measure effectiveness. VII. Budget - Itemize To individually state each item or article. Frequently used in tax accounting, an itemized account or claim separately lists amounts that add up to the final sum of the total account on claim. expenditures leading to the request. VIII. Future Funding - Indicate how you will sustain the program. In-Kind Contributions Can Be Developed in These Ways * Establish an agency volunteer program and phone hotline. * Better utilize boards and commissions. * Build a support foundation - a non-governmental public nonprofit corporation nonprofit corporation n. an organization incorporated under state laws and approved by both the state's Secretary of State and its taxing authority as operating for educational, charitable, social, religious, civic or humanitarian purposes. organized and operated for the benefit of the general public. The purpose of such a foundation may be narrowly or broadly defined, depending on the special recreational/historic/open space objectives in a particular community. Foundation formation consists of: Purpose, goals, aims and objectives; Articles of incorporation The document that must be filed with an appropriate government agency, commonly the office of the Secretary of State, if the owners of a business want it to be given legal recognition as a corporation. and by-laws; State and federal tax-exempt status (IRS Publication 557 - "How to Apply for Recognition of Exemption for an Organization," 501 (c) (3) Section of the IRS Code, IRS Form 1023, filed with the district director and state tax franchise board or secretary of state). * Encourage community involvement through: advisory councils - local and regional parks, friends organizations - nature centers and museums, special interest groups - recreation programs and activities, citizen action councils - bond issues and legislations and audit programs (productivity improvements and cutback cut·back n. 1. A decrease; a curtailment: "The political effects of food cutbacks could be devastating" New York Times. 2. management programs). * Develop cosponsorship of recreational programs by the private sector. * Create volunteer leadership positions to handle recreational programs and special events. * Use volunteers to conduct research and legislative activities. * Begin fundraising - a systematic approach to obtaining supplemental money for special projects or programs. Some techniques of fundraising, such as involvement in special events, are flexible and governed largely by imagination. Others, such as foundation grantsmanship, are refined and systematic. Fundraising is an important and distinct component of an overall private sector involvement program. You can raise funds in a number of ways. Simply asking for money (direct solicitation) is the most straight-forward. Applying to private and corporate foundations requires more sophisticated approaches. Bake sales, raffles and carnivals are examples of fundraising that require planning and coordination for a "one-shot event." Another less common, ongoing approach to fundraising is use of "ad books," in which you sell advertising space to businesses interested in sponsorship programs. Establishing a fundraising program requires: a statement of objectives and needs, a list of potential donors, publicity and recognition and a selected approach. Fundraising events may include: tournaments, trips and tours, carnivals and fairs, benefit concerts, auctions and flea markets, and barbecues and cook-offs. I hope that this information will go a long way in easing the financial burden that we all have felt during the past several years and better prepare the park and recreation professional for additional financial difficulties that still remain on the horizon. Effective use of these approaches requires a commitment of time and effort based upon a clear understanding that our future success depends on that commitment. |
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