Celebrating The Soul of American Heritage: The Rhapsody Project
Drawing on the power of music, this Seattle organization harmonizes community pride and heritage by orchestrating programs that bring cultural tunes to schools and community centers. The organization hired King's Dream to produce a strategy that resulted in enough income to create job opportunities and establish a more reliable revenue system.
The Challenge.
The Rhapsody Project contacted King’s Dream for assistance in establishing an earned income strategy that would allow them more predictable income and the working capital necessary to support the organization's move Into their first physical space In the historic King's Street Station.
Furthermore, as a freshly minted organization, it’s crucial to acknowledge that putting all your eggs in one funding basket—or relying solely on grants—is about as strategic as a cat trying to swim. Diversifying your revenue streams isn’t just a smart move; it’s the difference between thriving and merely surviving in the great donor-funding ocean!
The organization struggled to complete tasks and advance development initiatives without funds for salaried staff.
The Deliverables.
Nonprofit Stabilization.
For nonprofits, a budget-conscious earned income strategy is as crucial as formulating the organization's mission. King’s Dream installs bespoke, culturally relevant growth interventions for businesses and nonprofits seeking financial stability. These tactics may include optimizing or activating finance committees, developing strategies to manage and secure financial resources, and expanding the organization's capacity to achieve its mission aligned with its core values.
The Solution.
To assist The Rhapsody Project ("tRp"), King’s Dream started by exploring the organization's history, culture, and management principles. The advisory team attended meetings and was greeted with the utmost sincerity and hospitality we now recognize as Rhapsody's inclusive workplace culture. A quirky group of misfit musical savants and folksy community performers. The board was comprised of artists at heart who found refuge in music; thus, the strategy had to honor and consider Rhapsody's collectivist, inclusionary leadership model.
The company formulated a strategic action plan and conducted multiple interactive vision planning sessions to involve the volunteer staff and board in determining the organization's future direction. Business financial strategist Mathew Heggem collaborated with co-founder Joe Seamons and the executive board to create an earned income strategy for defined buyers in the education sector, offering an accredited Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion training curriculum.
Implementing the advisor's strategy also included identifying key initiatives the organization could employ to improve its financial performance, launching a local business sponsorship program, and modifying existing offerings to make them more profitable.
The Results.
At the end of our planned engagement, tRp had a detailed earned income strategy that utilized its existing Layers of Heritage offering to yield a consistent profit. With a five-year financial plan and a comprehensive budgeting spreadsheet, The Rhapsody Project could properly implement its vision statement.
"Understanding where we stood with money was super helpful. Our entire mission statement is centered around people that are disenfranchised by capitalism.” - Jed Crisologo, Structural Leadership Team Program
The firm's advisors took on the dynamic duo of marketing and sales, crafting compelling materials to converge with like-minded local businesses and uncover possibilities for corporate social funding. In orchestrating marketing strategies, King's Dream's marketing advisors conducted the symphony of social media campaigns and fundraising efforts while also taking the lead in establishing the company's inaugural in-house marketing role.
The human resources recruitment and retention strategy included job role creation and role outcome mapping to ensure staffers felt emotionally and financially dignified. While working to reduce bottlenecks at the director level, advisors discovered the chief supply constraint is the co-founder's time. A doer and relationship-centered, Joe's time and ability to delegate tasks was boosted by activating volunteers, committees, and board members.
Curious About King's Dream?
At King’s Dream Business Consulting, we love working with small, community-focused businesses. We help small business owners and non-profits nationwide develop growth strategies, generate new revenue, and expand their reach—all while keeping your unique values intact.
Be our next success story. Contact us today for a free consultation.
Samaria Johnson writes many things, hopefully none of which you consider boring. She loves taking complex information and breaking it down into engaging, understandable content. Samaria’s goal is to only use her words in ways that help make the world a better place.
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