MBAX 6850 Week 2 Nonprofit Organizational Profile Example

Lakeshore Literacy Alliance at a Glance: An Organizational Profile of a Composite Adult Literacy Nonprofit, Its Status, Mission, Programs, People and Money

Student Name

Walden University

MBAX 6850: Introduction to the Nonprofit Sector

Instructor Name

Month Day, Year

Lakeshore Literacy Alliance at a Glance: An Organizational Profile of a Composite Adult Literacy Nonprofit, Its Status, Mission, Programs, People and Money

Identity

Lakeshore Literacy Alliance is a composite adult literacy organization serving three counties in northeast Ohio, used throughout this course as a case. It was founded in 1984 by a group of librarians and church volunteers, incorporated as a nonprofit corporation under Ohio law and holds federal tax exemption under section 501(c)(3) as a public charity, which means donations to it are tax-deductible and it must receive broad public support rather than relying on a single funder. It has an illustrative annual budget of about $4 million, 34 paid staff and about 400 volunteer tutors. All figures in this profile are illustrative. In a real profile, the organization's IRS determination letter, its Form 990 filings and its state charitable registration would supply most of these facts.

Mission and Programs

Lakeshore's mission statement reads: "Lakeshore Literacy Alliance helps adults gain the reading, writing and English skills they need to reach goals they set for themselves." The statement emphasizes adults' own goals, which shapes how programs measure success. Its status also binds it to the rule Hansmann (1980) identified as defining the sector: any surplus must stay in the organization.

Lakeshore runs three programs. One-to-one tutoring pairs trained volunteers with adults reading below a sixth-grade level; about 620 learners enrolled last year. English classes for speakers of other languages are taught by paid instructors at eight sites, with about 540 learners. High school equivalency preparation helps about 180 adults each year prepare for the state equivalency exam. A smaller fourth line of work, workplace literacy classes paid for by local employers, has grown in recent years.

The mission and programs fit well with one exception. Equivalency preparation is driven by a test with a fixed standard, not by learners' self-set goals, so it measures success differently from the rest of the organization. That tension will matter when the course evaluates programs.

People

Lakeshore's paid staff include an executive director, a development director, a finance manager, four volunteer coordinators, 18 instructors and site staff, and administrative support. Its 400 volunteer tutors deliver most of the one-to-one tutoring, each meeting a learner for about two hours a week. A board of 15 directors governs the organization; the board elects its own members, a structure the course will compare with other governance models. Most directors are retired educators, local business leaders and two former learners, and the board meets six times a year with committees for finance, governance and development.

Money by Source

The budget can be read two ways: where the money comes from and what it pays for. Both views would appear in Lakeshore's Form 990, the annual information return that most tax-exempt organizations file with the IRS and that is open to public inspection.

Table 1

Revenue by Source, Illustrative

Composite organization; shares rounded.

Money by Purpose

The two views tell different stories. By source, Lakeshore depends heavily on one government contract, which brings reporting requirements and payment delays. By purpose, it spends most of its money on programs, which donors often look for, though the course will question whether that ratio says much about effectiveness. Froelich (1999) notes that each revenue source brings its own pressures on an organization's priorities, and Lakeshore's mix suggests the state contract shapes more than its share alone would indicate.

Table 2

Expenses by Function, Illustrative

Composite organization. Functional categories follow the Form 990.

Recent History

Lakeshore's last decade shaped its current form. In 2016 the state consolidated adult education funding into fewer, larger contracts, and Lakeshore won the regional contract by partnering with two smaller literacy councils that later merged into it. The merger doubled its English class enrollment and brought a second office. In 2020 tutoring moved online for a year, and about a quarter of tutors did not return when in-person sessions resumed, a loss the organization is still rebuilding. Employer-funded workplace classes began in 2021 with a single manufacturer and now serve six employers. Each of these changes appears in later weeks: the contract in the revenue analysis, the tutor losses in the volunteer analysis and the employer classes in the fundraising plan.

What the Profile Sets Up

This profile provides the facts later weeks will build on: governance by a self-electing board, a revenue mix led by a government contract, a volunteer workforce and programs that measure success in two different ways. Salamon (1987) described the partnership between government and nonprofits as central to the American welfare state, and Lakeshore is a small example of that partnership.

References

Froelich, K. A. (1999). Diversification of revenue strategies: Evolving resource dependence in nonprofit organizations. Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly, 28(3), 246-268. https://doi.org/10.1177/0899764099283002

Hansmann, H. B. (1980). The role of nonprofit enterprise. Yale Law Journal, 89(5), 835-901. https://doi.org/10.2307/796089

Salamon, L. M. (1987). Of market failure, voluntary failure, and third-party government: Toward a theory of government-nonprofit relations in the modern welfare state. Journal of Voluntary Action Research, 16(1-2), 29-49. https://doi.org/10.1177/089976408701600104