Non-profit Organization: Reintegrate Psychotherapy

Executive Summary

Nobody would argue with the fact that contemporary society is facing numerous problems in relation to its sustainability and diversity. One of such problems is increasing the number of post-military service members, who are unable to integrate back to a normal social life. The experience of military services, especially the participation in combat operations, often results in post-traumatic stress disorder among veterans. It adversely reflects on their social integration, since many veterans start avoiding social life, having relationships, employment, and education. Moreover, this evidence is often observed in combination with substance abuse, depressive, and suicidal states. Such a trend can be clearly observed within the state of Virginia, where the dense population of veterans, especially retired NAVY officers, is present.

A need for addressing this problem throughout the rising public awareness is quite important. This paper presents a proposal outline for the Reintegrate Consultation Firm, which is a nonprofit organization of counseling and consultancy services for post-military service members within the state of Virginia. The following proposal outlines the central focus of an initiative, its projective planning and management, organizational issues, management, and financial modeling. The paper provides a rationale for its decision-making and settlement of strategic objectives on the basis of empirical literature. It is provided as an objective support for the proposal’s statement. On a separate note, the research outlines approximate projections of the initiative in order to scope the project towards more attainable and measurable goals. Besides, outlining financial projections implies a call for a public participation for fundraising and any other form of support, as long as the Reintegrate Consultation Firm expects to heavily rely on multiple sources of funding identified within the community. Likewise, the rest of projections and strategic decisions are outlined for attracting public attention and initial scoping of the project.

Reintegrate Psychotherapy

Reintegrate Psychotherapy is a non-profit organization that provides counseling consultancy for post-military service members via telephone, online, and group sessions. The initiative is mainly caused by the evidence of many veterans being in a need for active counseling assistance for their reintegration to a normal social life. The organization is expected to address the issue within the state of Virginia, especially in the regions of Norfolk, Virginia Beach, Chesapeake, and Hampton. The firm is expected to raise public awareness concerning the problem. This issue is initially a result of public neglect. The following proposal outlines a detailed discussion of organizational and strategic problems related to the initiative of Reintegrated Psychotherapy and provides a rationale for such initiative within the area.

Proposal Statement and Case for Change

The proposal suggests an establishment of non-profit psychotherapy consulting service via phone, online, and group discussions for post military service members in the state of Virginia. Veterans are reported to experience a strong inability for social integration owing to post-trauma stress disorders caused by military service experience and surviving combats. In particular, as Braswell and Kushner (2010) admitted such evidence is explained with a phenomenon of the so-called fatalism of social integration. To be more precise, 26% of post military service members commit suicides; 11. 7% of them are not employed, 20% experience a post-traumatic stress disorder, 7.1% are observed to have a regular alcohol and substance abuse, and only 40% of them refer to counseling help and mental health recovery (American Psychological Association, 2016). The articles described below provide a rationale for such a wide public concern.

Braswell, H., & Kushner, H.I. (2010). Suicide, social integration, and masculinity in the U.S. military. Social Science & Medicine. Retrieved from doi:10.1016/j.socscimed. 2010.07.031.

The authors suggested that an increasing rate of suicide and absence of social integration among the US military veterans is caused with the so-called phenomenon of fatalism, which reflects internal depressive and aggressive states of veterans on their self-destructing behaviors. The experience of military service and surviving combat operations causes a trauma, which results in aggression. Veterans cannot direct this aggressive behavior towards society, as they also value its moral and ethical standards and keep their negative emotions to their internal perceptions. The article rendered the fundamental information to the proposal, as it analyzes the most profound implication on this social issue thereby providing the rationale for the proposed initiative. Hence, the research is applicable to the proposal owing to its meaningful theoretical underpinning of the problem.

Gewirtz, A. H., Polusny, M. A., DeGarmo, D. S., Khaylis, A., & Erbes, C. R. (2010). Posttraumatic stress symptoms among National Guard soldiers deployed to Iraq: Associations with parenting behaviors and couple adjustment. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology 78(5), 599-610.

The authors provided a meaningful account of adverse consequences of the veterans’ post-trauma stress disorder: depression, substance abuse, suicidal behaviors, and asocial lifestyle. It is peer reviewed and presents a significant value for rationalizing the proposal outline.

Proposal Goals and SMART Objectives

It is difficult to ignore the fact that the first goal of the proposal is a factual startup of a non-profit agency. The research suggests that non-profit psychotherapy consulting service for veterans should be established within 6 months by raising the minimal budget of $500, 000, public relations campaign, and assisting first post military service members within the local community. It is due to the fact that such goal is easily measurable and attainable. Consequently, raise of funds equal to $500, 000 within first 3 months of Reintegrate Psychotherapy is also a specific and feasible aim. These funds will be allocated for startup initiatives and on an advertising campaign, which is also expected to attract first 1, 000 customers within 2 months. Eventually, Reintegrate Psychotherapy is supposed to implement a network of information technologies for customer inflow forecasting, customer retention, data storage, and analytics within 2 years. The justification of IT implementation to the segment of non-profit business is provided by Lawler, Moller, and Salloum (2014). These scholars argued that tailoring customer/patient data to information network provides better practices of assisting customers thereby increasing quality of services and sales of counseling.

Lawler, J., Moller, H., & Salloum, R. (2014). A case study on empowering a non-profit organization to be better help people with disabilities through m-Health. New York, NY: Pace University.

The study revolves around the discussion of using m-Health application for facilitating care of mental health patients and boosting the performance of mental health assistance agencies. The highly scalable, transparent, and effective data are able to process more customers at a shorter period. Moreover, the article promotes the view that patient attracting and retention (if needed) is more likely to obtain a digitalized form. Therefore, mental health agencies are recommended to follow the trend. The article is peer reviewed. Its reliability can be confirmed. The article provides justification for the use of IT in non-profit counseling. That is why the proposal relies on its findings as an objective rationale for IT prospects of Reintegration Therapy.

Grant, R. M. (2016). Contemporary strategy analysis: Text and cases (3rd ed.).Chichester: John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

The book justifies an increase of public awareness for its extensive funding from the perspective of a substantial funding of marketing operations. The authors provided insight on business strategic planning. Therefore, it is sufficiently credible and relevant to the proposal.

It is becoming abundantly clear that all goals are measurable, specific, attainable, realistic, and time-bound. Perhaps, they are not extremely competitive and ambitious in a sense of business excellence. However, the main aim of Reintegrate Psychotherapy is to sustain itself as a reliable and effective non-profit organization for addressing a psychological trauma of post military service members within the local community. Consequently, the organization is expected to address basic pillars of strategic planning: context sensitivity, built commitment, measurability, and balancing. Michael Allison and Jude Kaye (2015) admitted that these constraints are the foundation of strategic planning for non-profit organizations.

Alison, M., & Kaye (2015). Strategic planning for nonprofit organizations: A practical guide for dynamic times. (3rd edn.). Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

The book is devoted to the essentials of nonprofit strategic planning with consideration of various perspectives of organizational and financial management. However, it is also relevant to the initiative owing to its clear definition and conceptualization of strategic planning. According to Alison and Kaye, strategic planning has a strong context and environmentally sensitive, building commitment, measuring performance, and allocating present resources. These pillars divide the book into respective logical parts, as long as the information contained in the book has the connection to these aspects in direct or implicit way. Hence, the book is valuable for the initiatives of plan development, which are the following:

1. Environmental assessment and data collection

2. Raising funds

3. Establishment of institutional presence

4. Collection of funds for liquidity and working capital

5. Resource allocation

6. Evaluation and revision (if needed).

Provided that some of the stages are failed, the initiative should make a step backwards and revise it. Non-profit succession planning is reported to be the strongest challenge for non-profit initiatives, since the board executives usually neglect such pattern of planning. For instance, Froelich, McKee, Rathge argued that nonprofit organizations with a well-controlled planning succession may increase their sustainability potential to the effective level.

Froelich, K., McKee, R., & Rathge, R. (2011). Succession planning in nonprofit organizations. Baruch College.

The authors conducted a research, which suggested about a lack of executive leadership and succession planning. Many nonprofit companies do not plan a succession of their strategic activities, as they consider heavy dependance on donations and external funding to be a signal for a particular, usually a short-run action. The authors refuted that statement with the assumption that succession planning can improve sustainability of non-profit business. Therefore, this paper is useful for Reintegrate Psychotherapy startup.

Summary of Key Elements of Proposal Achievement

Any business startup should involve a careful environmental analysis for allocation of costs, strategic positioning, and identification of other implications. It may pose an obstacle to sustaining of recently started business. The same rule is applicable to a non-profit segment. Thus Reintegrate Psychotherapy has to initially assess the environment, in which it will perform. The environmental analysis and further sustaining of non-profit business are clearly described by James and Rose-Ackerman (2013), who claimed that it should involve the market research, industry scanning, identification of social trends, and measuring legal requirements.

The organization is supposed to hire and formulate respective teams of board members, managers, counselors, psychologists, and support staff. Moreover, such party as funders should be also appropriately managed, as decision-making of this entity determines a subsequent planning of the organization (Puyvelde et al., 2012). Customers should be also addressed throughout a proactive advertising campaign and further retention program, if needed. Beyond a doubt, the startup may face strong challenges, especially in the very beginning of the initiative. The organization is likely to lack funds, deploy an ineffective organizational structure, and low attendance by the target audience.

Niven, P.R. (2008). Balanced scorecard: Step-by-step for government and nonprofit agencies. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

The author described various aspects of addressing issues of implementing a nonprofit project. Therefore, the work advises that the lack of working capital can be resolved with adjusting of the proposal’s goals to more adequate results. Meanwhile the market research consultancy can identify a trend missed by the company. An inappropriate organizational structure, however, is a more complex process. These circumstances make evaluation and assessment of all workflows; HR management and reconsideration of a strategic alignment become the primary responses to a potential problem. The book is evidently reliable and useful for the proposal, so that its advice should be taken into account.

James., E., & Rose-Ackerman, S. (2013). The nonprofit enterprise in market economics. United Kingdom: Taylor & Francis.

The authors depicted various peculiarities of sustaining a non-profit business under the circumstances of persistent market economics. These conditions suggest that for a profit company it is much easier to accelerate rather than raising funds and providing of services for no charges. Nevertheless, the book still argues that the non-profit business should be established according to the same key processes as a regular for-profit organization, i.e. market entry planning, sales, marketing, accounting, inventory management, etc. The research provides the substantial and credible information, so it can be used for the case of Reintegrate Therapy. It is worth saying that these findings are applicable to Reintegrate Psychotherapy. Therefore, its key processes for the project are the following ones:

· Environmental assessment;

· Market scanning and entry;

· Establishment of public relations;

· Legal compliance;

· Formulation of target audience.

Advertising

On a separate note, establishment of public relations and advertising of the organization is an essential element of the initiative. Non-profit organization has to obtain public relations for ensuring its further performance, that is why presenting Reintegrate Psychotherapy mission and vision to the masses is a much-needed activity. Joseph Galaskiewicz (2016) placed the emphasis on the public presentations, as a real-life interaction is the best method of dissemination of a particular organizational message.

Galaskiewicz, J. (2016). Social organization of an urban grants economy: A study of business philanthropy and nonprofit organizations. New York, NY: Elsevier.

The author suggested a basic concept of public relations establishment throughout public presentation of corporate message, values, and aims. A nonprofit organization does not have to advertise itself explicitly, providing a meaningful account on a certain public concern can attract local communities, so that they can be potentially engaged in action and raising funds. This strategy is obviously useful for Reintegrate Psychotherapy, but a more up-to-date advertising campaign should be launched.

Deployment of social media management is an evident requirement to the advertising campaign of the firm and to its regular strategy. Since Reintegrate Psychotherapy is planning to create a digital community of retired military service members, a large social media presence and so-called going viral are needed. Seingah Nah and Gregroy Saxton confirmed that nonprofit organizations with a strong presence in social media are more engaging in regard to donations and public awareness.

Nah., S., & Saxton, G.D. (2013). Modeling the adoption and use of social media by nonprofit organizations. New Media & Society, no.2, vol.15, 294 – 313.

Authors provided the results of their research concerning an effectiveness of social media management for nonprofit organizations taking into account various models that were determined with specific purposes. The research, however, demonstrated the evidence that social media were ineffective for fundraising but boosted social participation in community-related activities. Thus, the firm should consider that research for guiding its social media management strategy. The article is peer-reviewed and hence contains reliable data.

Executive Leadership

Besides key elements described above, nonprofit organization often neglect their executive leadership, even within a board level of governance. Thomas Wolf (2013) promoted a view that executive leadership in its organizational sense is quite important element for nonprofit business. The author proved that by stating that executive leaders are expected not only to monitor, regulate, and guide all processes within an organization, but also substitute a lacking performance. Wolf (2013) also claimed that many board members do not comprehend all importance of their position, and consequently they do not try to control or alter anything in nonprofit business. The book contains applicable empirical information and deserves to be reviewed as well.

Wolf, T. (2013). Effective leadership for nonprofit organizations: How executive directors and boards work together. New York, NY: Skyhorse Publishing.

Moreover, Thomas Wolf (2013) described an executive leadership from the position of its effective cooperation with board members, as these representatives are responsible for sending executive message to the very bottom of the organizational hierarchy. The author argued that an active functionality of executive leader is vital for nonprofit organizations, since an operational misconduct and lack of commitment expose an organization to multiple risks. Nonprofit organizations do not depend on sales but on a quality of services or social changes they are striving to render. In other words, executive leader is not only a central decision-maker but also an initiator of a particular way of organizational conduct: the rest of the personnel will act in the way the executive leader performs (Wolf, 2013). The book is quite congruent with the organizational management, human resource strategies, and nonprofit segment of business, so that the author’s standpoint regarding an executive leadership in a nonprofit company is worth integrating to the practice.

Management Plan

An effective and well-controlled implementation of any project requires a precise tracking of its milestones. That is why the Reintegrate Consultation Firm should develop a Gantt chart for tracing its success in implementing the activity. The illustration below demonstrates the diagram with the identification of key activities and their sequence within the project.image1.png

As it has been already mentioned, the organization needs a comprehensive staffing for addressing various functions. In such a way, Reintegrate Psychotherapy will need board executives, managers, counsellors, psychologists, IT specialists, and support staff. In the same way, the implementation of the project heavily depends on the sufficient supply of resources. The organization will need an effective budget for asset purchase and expenses, human resources for aforementioned staffing, and telecommunication/IT equipment. These managerial issues are expected to be achieved within 2 years, as the deployment of IT network and foundation of strategically valuable organizational structure are complicated tasks for a nonprofit startup. Importance of sourcing the project in the non-profit business is discussed by John M. Bryson (2011) in his book.

Bryson, J.M. (2011). Strategic planning for public and nonprofit organizations: A guide to strengthening and sustaining organization. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

The author provided a profound account on managing nonprofit project initiatives and places a particular emphasis on sustaining business throughout building a resistant strategy. That is why the allocation of resources is an important consideration for non-profit organizations, especially under the circumstances of limited working capital. The author suggested that being dependent on sponsorship and public funding a non-profit company has to reasonably utilize its resource base for sustaining a competitive and cost-effective strategy. The research is relevant to the proposed initiative. It outlines the basic points for a strategic planning of a nonprofit business. For the same reason, this source is closely applicable to the initiative’s proposal.

Holloway, J.B. (2012). Leadership behavior and organizational climate: An empirical study in a non-profit organization. Emerging Leadership Journeys, 1(5), 9 – 35.

The author suggested that such categories of employees as IT specialists and support staff can be potentially outsourced. The company may not need them on a regular basis. Its organizational structure can become inappropriate for staffing machine bureaucracy elements. These findings are quite applicable to the case of the Reintegrate Consultation Firm; and its reliability is also justified.

Also, stakeholder management should be approached with a stewardship theory. Non-profit organizations are almost always built on commitment of their personnel and leaders, and their success is measured with a quality of delivered services to the communities. Therefore, provision of favorable environments for committed performance of organization’s workforce as well as creation of potential for accessing the services by target population is the central idea of the above-mentioned theory. This concept is quite relevant to the case of Reintegrate Consultation Firm. The book by Helmut Anhier (2014) contains sufficient information in that regard, so it has to be discussed in detail.

Anheir, H. (2014). Nonprofit organizations: Theory, management, policy. New York, NY: Routledge.

The book includes enough information on stewardship theory and its relation to nonprofit stakeholder management. Personnel, as executive stakeholder, is supposed to be provided with satisfactory conditions for their quality and devoted performance, meanwhile, the customers, as the target population, should be able to access the services offered with ease and fully understand their value. The author described stewardship theory as well as other approaches to managing a nonprofit organization from the position that uncommercial business is particularly focused on delivery of specific public benefits and their regular quality. In such a way, the book contains valuable recommendations and theoretical framework for optimizing an organizational performance in reference to commitment and stakeholder satisfaction. Reintegrate Psychotherapy will need a practical guidance for stakeholder management, especially at a stage of commitment building and engaging its first customers. That knowledge may be useful concerning customer retention, as establishment of deep customer commitment even after recovery is also an important consideration for such initiative as Reintegrate Consultation Firm.

Evaluation Plan

The project requires regular evaluation and quality assessment for ensuring timely, effective, and credible gaining of project deliverables. Thus, the appliance of the certain evaluation plan and criteria is essential.

Puyvelde, S.V., Caers, R., Du Bois, C., & Jegers, M. (2012). The governance of nonprofit organizations: Integrating agency theory with stakeholder and stewardship theories. Nonprofit for Voluntary Sector Quarterly, no, 41, vol. 3, 431 – 451.

The article contains various theories of governing a nonprofit business. One of its central points is the assessment of the organizational potential. The evaluation plan for the initiative should address such measurements as spending of resources per a settled time frame, their factual efficacy, quality assurance through regular reporting, cost-benefit analysis, the record of market performance via basic analytic applications, and estimating of a market entry potential required for the company. These recommendations are useful for the initiative. Therefore, this peer reviewed article is worth considering for the future development of the project.

However, adjusting of all activities towards the recently reconsidered requirements should follow a pattern of a balanced scorecard. Kazi and Radulovic (2011) suggested that it can enhance communication and a strategic portfolio alignment with the project.

Kazi, L., & Radulovic, B. (2011). Proceedings of the 34th International Convention. Information system based on balanced scorecard for student teamwork software project management. Opatija, Croatia.

This conference paper argues that the provision of the balanced scorecard as a foundation for an information system platform can render multiple advantages for non-profit project management and student teamwork. It should not be mentioned that the paper is applicable to the proposal in terms of suggesting the balanced scorecard as the foundation for the IT-driven nonprofit organization. Reintegrate Psychotherapy should consider the use of the balanced scorecard for implementing a project and innovative transformation of an organizational structure in a long run. The article is also peer reviewed and credible. However, it serves a supplementary function for the project proposal. The balanced scorecard is an extremely specific and narrow term. This article places an emphasis on such option for adjusting the project performance.

Eventually, it is necessary to return to the subject of stewardship theory, as long as it can be tailored to the evaluation of the project implementation. The article by Joanne Carman (2014) includes an account of this relationship. The main argument is based on the fact that nonprofit organizational environment is heterogenous, even though everyone shares the same commitment values. That makes quality control and assurance the main metric for performance and job commitment, as nonprofit organizations do not pursue any commercial purposes.

Carman, J. (2014). Understanding evaluation in nonprofit organizations. Public Performance & Management Review, no. 34, vol. 3, 350 – 377.

The author discussed an evaluation of nonprofit performance in relation to various theories. Admittedly, specific value for the initiative is presented with the concept that theory of stewardship, as the core foundation of committed performance in nonprofit business, can be used for evaluating a quality of performance. Personnel perform various types of job, but its quality can be measured with an extent of devotion. Henceforth, addressing ethical and organization context of nonprofit company will automatically increase productivity and quality of performance. The article is also peer reviewed and based on fundamental knowledge about nonprofit business, organizational management, and strategic evaluation. The concept presented in the article is evidently eligible for taking into account by the project initiative. All in all, evaluation of performance and project implementation is a complicated factor in the nonprofit startup, but its adequate management and deployment can drastically simplify the process.

Financial Analysis

As for the financial analysis of the initiative, the firm is required to file an application for exemption under the section 501(c)(3). The matter is that the organization should be recognized as either the public charity or private foundation (IRS, n. d.). Once the firm relies on public awareness and support, it should be recognized as public charity with the direct right for a tax-exempt status (IRS, n. d.). That is why the number of incoming assets should be clearly outlined. Still, the organization needs its initial working capital for the startup. According to the model of the Wall Street Journal (2016), the firm will need $596, 750 for a startup and $408, 000 for its further development within 2 years. The chart in the appendix presents the allocation of all assets and expenses according to the startup analysis (Figure 2).

Berry, T. (2011). How to estimate startup costs. Entrepreneur.

The article by Tim Berry (2011) involves an argument that the development of projections for a short run with minimal estimates is a quite reasonable solution. It concerns especially if the firm is expected to sustain its strategic model within a short period. In other words, the identification of all assets and expenses needed is sufficient for a startup. Meanwhile the rest of issues is the purely managerial and strategic excellence of a business owner. Entrepreneur is a well-respected publisher, so its information can be recognized as reliable. The article provides the basic data for startup cost allocation. It is relevant to the proposal for that reason.

Zietlow, J., Hankin, J.A., & Seinder, A.G. (2007). Financial management for nonprofit organizations: Policies and practices. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

The authors explained the fundamentals of financial management for a nonprofit business and suggests feasible models for project startups. It is worth saying that Reintegrate Therapy is planning to use a model of increased sales deliverance mentioned by the research. The organization will be expected to deliver services to the target population equal to revenue on 20% more than the funds collected. For instance, the company collects $100, 000 for a month. Hence, it should serve the target audience on equivalent of $120, 000 within this month. Such model is feasible for a proposed initiative. The book provides a well-justified grounding for its recommendations and models.

Nevertheless, startup expenses are only a preexisting requirement to financial sustainability of the initiative. The company needs to obtain working capital, which will launch the rest of planning initiatives. Paul Haely and Krishna Palepu (2013) presented a wide array of reasons why financial planning should be tailored to strategic performance.

Haely, P.M., & Palepu, K.G. (2013). Business analysis valuation: Using financial statements. Mason, OH: Cengage Learning.

The authors in their book provided a standpoint that financial planning and analysis of financial statement can be attached to specific components of strategic performance. They delivered a sufficient rationale for their suggestions, which is why the book is purely credible. Furthermore, the book motivated the initiative to reconsider its financial planning towards making projections on the initial working capital of Reintegrate Psychotherapy. Working capital is the basic parameter of financial liquidity and indicator of present corporate assets, so that the firm can control its present and shortcoming performance according to the funds present at the current moment.

As a result, consideration of accounts receivable, current assets, and current liabilities are very essential. Working capital, however, is determined with a difference between current assets and current liabilities, but such issues as inventory, operating costs, and non-planned expenses are also worth a thorough analysis.

Michalski, G. (2012). Accounts receivable in nonprofit organizations. SSRN Electronic Journal, no. 68. Retrieved from Doi: 10.2139/ssrn.2193352.

Michaliski (2012) played a particular attention to the fact that financial accounts in nonprofit organizations are as important as in commercial businesses, as long as accounts receivable determines a working capital of a firm and hence its performance potential. Moreover, the author suggested that strategic analysis of accounts receivable, current assets and liabilities, inventory, operating expenses, and other financially dynamic components should be traced on a regular basis, as the firm should not perform from donation to donation. Needless to say, that such financial tool is rather crucial for Reintegrate Psychotherapy.

Balance Between Work and Family Life

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