The Challenge

Long Island-based Life’s WORC provides comprehensive support for individuals with developmental disabilities, including mental retardation and autism. Founded in 1971, the agency manages 32 homes and 11 community-based programs throughout Long Island and Queens.
The organization has a very effective IT operation. So much so that it has succeeded in making IT an important part of Life’s WORC’s corporate culture. It also has sufficient capacity to enable it to provide its IT services to other nonprofits, particularly on Long Island.
As a result, Life’s WORC asked NESC to develop a business plan for selling its IT services. This would represent a “social enterprise” or “earned income” opportunity, a subject of major importance to nonprofits in the present economic environment. Life’s WORC’s objective was to obtain a reasonable return with a predictable income stream that would contribute to the funding of its primary mission — helping the developmentally challenged.

The NESC Solution

The business plan that NESC developed fully supports the proposition that this can be an income-producing venture with relatively low risk. Projected financial outcomes show a positive contribution to overhead in the first year of operation. Additionally, the plan provides Life’s WORC with a road map for achieving its bottom-line objectives that include: value proposition, pricing parameters, target markets, sales/marketing strategy and the organizational structure needed to support the effort.