A Charter School Was in Need of a Sustainable Business Model and Plan to Achieve Their Vision

Lauber Community Partners was initially engaged to help this organization create a sustainable business model and plan to achieve their vision of developing educational and community centers of unqualified excellence. This involved building their organizational capacity to deliver on this vision. Seven Lauber professionals have been involved in this engagement for just over two years, which has afforded the school the ability to optimize its growth and change management.

Challenges:

• The organization had been very successful in its first 15 years of operations in terms of student achievement but relied exclusively on DPI Charter Reimbursement funds with no philanthropic support
• ​The organization’s Board sought to diversify the school’s revenue and take on greater advocacy for the school as it develops other funding sources
• ​The organization’s Executive Director/Principal needed to transition to a President/CEO role, which would be at least 80% externally focused
• New senior operating roles needed to be established for the day-to-day running of the school and the organization
• ​The scarcity mind-set that had achieved savings for a rainy day and balanced budgets for over a decade needed to shift to an investment and abundance seeking mind-set

Lauber Community Partner's Approach:

​Lauber analyzed, proposed, and helped implement changes across the organization as described below:

Financial Modeling

• Incorporate all new roles and correlating new operating support (new school operating lead, marketing, and development, etc.)​ to build a 3–5-year pro-forma
• Frame the possible new revenue sources and the timeline for success
• Identify funding sources for short term investments from reserves vs. permanent budget increases​

Human Resources

• Support the organization becoming a destination employer:
  • Identify professional development opportunities for teachers and staff ​
  • Develop a recruitment and retention plan
  • Recommend and help implement changes to strengthen culture and engagement​
  • Evaluate and identify benefit changes that create a more supportive organization​
  • Create and implement a market-based catch-up plan for compensation​

Human Capital Challenges:
​The company’s goal was to advance their business to be in the “Top 5” within their industry. With a new COO and a push to launch an aggressive growth strategy, the company chose to assess how each business function could operate more effectively to support the strategic plan.  After a successful review and implementation of a more effective accounting function from Lauber Business Partners, this client once again chose Lauber to engage in a similar project for its Human Resources department.

Philanthropy Advising

• Train Board and leadership team on value proposition of creating a culture of philanthropy vs. pursuit of transactional fundraising
• Present vision and growth plan to invite community to invest in its continued organizational success to key education funders
• Draft job description for Development Officer Manager to establish internal infrastructure including database, policies, and procedures as well staffing school CEO for her new external functions
• Coach CEO on new leadership role both in terms of new responsibilities and delegating former duties to new leaders in the organization

Capacity Building and Strategic Growth Planning

• Lead a Strategic Visioning process which frames key strategic priorities and plans to deliver them
• Perform operational Assessment and implement change management plans
• Create clear roles and responsibilities for new leadership team and onboarding models to drive integration and optimal

Executive Search

• Successful recruitment and placement of Chief Financial Officer
• Successful recruitment and placement of Chief Academic Officer and Director of Curriculum

Impact
While Lauber continues to support the work in strategic communication and philanthropy advising, the organization’s leadership has far greater capacity and has begun to engage with the community in very different and profound ways, allowing it to achieve its ambitious vision.
If your organization is exploring how to grow or facing challenges that limit your mission impact, Lauber Community Partners is eager to help you succeed. Contact us today to learn more.

Lauber Community Partners
414-273-8060
[email protected]