Prospectus for Soundbridge: Seattle Symphony
Music Discovery Center
A Nonprofit Business Plan by Nick Zajchowski
Overview
The Seattle Symphony Orchestra (SSO) opened their
music education "portal," Soundbridge,
in 1999. The SSO management felt
that a "road map" would be helpful to clearly lay out the direction
of the program for the administration, staff, and artists. Since Soundbridge revenue was largely based
on a fee-for-service model and the operations were largely independent of the
rest of the SSO operations, the management felt a business plan would be a
helpful tool for all program stakeholders.
Sections
|
·
Mission and Vision - Mission -
Goals |
- Memberships (including pricing models) - Fundraising |
|
·
Program Overview ·
Marketing - Market Analysis -
Marketing Plan |
- Projections - Factors critical to success - Top Risks |
|
- Staffing |
·
Evaluation/Performance Measures - Identification of outputs/outcomes - Measuring instruments |
|
- Board Members -
Integration in SSO - Three year budget |
-
Definition of "success" ·
Various Attachments - In-depth financial analysis - Job Descriptions |
Organizational
Feedback
The SSO found the most useful sections to be those devoted to risk assessment and evaluation. The organization felt that these sections gave them concrete ways to measure success and identify what could go wrong, as well as what could go right. In addition, the identification of factors critical to success were helpful in that they identified specifically what contributions were needed from the all of the appropriate stakeholders in order for the project to achieve its desired goals.
While it was never actually verbalized, I felt that the SSO did not find the sections on financials or marketing to be all that helpful. The SSO is lucky enough to have sizable marketing and finance departments. The resources and experience of these departments far outweighs my own, and much of the data I used was taken from their hard work. I do think that these departments benefited from the discussions of how Soundbridge was integrated into the SSO and how it could benefit from the program.
"Findings"
Since the business plan was not a research paper in the traditional sense, I did not list any particular findings that my research had uncovered. Rather, I came away with several ideas about how Soundbridge fit into the SSO and how the larger organization could help improve the overall effectiveness of the program.
I found the most interesting finding of my project was how business plans and strategic planning overlap. Since the SSO was quite large, their strategic planning only touched on very broad themes for Soundbridge. In this case, I believe the business plan was a sound tool for the organization. I see the potential, however, of smaller organizations using the business plan in lieu of strategic planning -- I see this as dangerous, since most business plans are put together by an individual and do not bring in the necessary stakeholders to achieve a unified vision and organizational buy-in.