Reference no: EM133532136

Case Study: Walter is the board chair at AgeWell. He has been discussing a briefing paper to be prepared by Rio for the next board meeting for their organisation. Rio is the paid Executive Officer. The board has been looking at how to ensure that the organisation remains viable over the next five years, and has been discussing applying for government funding and seeking sponsorship to broaden their scope of activities.AgeWell is a nonprofit organisation specialising in promoting physical activity and wellness supports for older members of the community. They are not providers of home care or residential care. The organisation has identified that its mission is to contribute to the wellbeing of older members of the community by facilitating involvement in recreational activities. Agewell has four existing programs.The first of the four existing programs is a walking group, which operates in the local shopping centre with the approval of the centre. The group is led by a physiotherapist (paid hourly) and one other staff member (employed part time two and a half days per week) at about 8am every Monday, Wednesday and Friday. The walkers don visibility vests, and walk in a group at the shopping centre after a brief warm up. Most of the shops are not yet open and the activity can happen in any sort of weather. The shopping centre is considered to be a donor in that the activity occurs on their premises. The local council contributes a small amount of funding to AgeWell to assist with costs and both the shopping centre and the council have their logos on the visibility vests along with AgeWell. The physiotherapist and the other staff member are paid by AgeWell and supervision of the group is part of their employment. The money from the council and the shopping centre do not fully cover the cost of the staff time, but many of the participants are involved in AgeWell in other ways. New people often first join the walking group before becoming involved in other activities.The other three programs run by AgeWell operate out of a space at the community centre which is leased by AgeWell from the council. The single office space used by AgeWell is adjacent to a hall which Agewell has booked for activities on Tuesday and Thursday mornings. The activities which run on those mornings are varied. Tuesday mornings have a rotating group of activities such as chess, mah jong, and Scrabble, which participants can sign up to. Thursday mornings are more craft and activity oriented with knitting, crocheting, needlework, punch needling, and latch hooking as well as pencil drawing being offered. In both of these programs there is a morning refreshment break and socialising opportunities, and participants pay a fee to cover the cost of the activities. Participants and AgeWell support staff (two part-timers) and volunteers set up and run the sessions - with each quarter of the year (aligning with school terms) being a new beginning so that new people who join will all commence at once and meet other new people. Volunteers often focus on helping newcomers learn the games or crafts. The third program is at the end of both of the Tuesday and Thursday sessions where a gentle yoga and stretch class is run by a yoga teacher who is paid for running those sessions. Members who join the weekly activities often stay on for a small additional fee to cover the cost, while others who come along just for the yoga pay slightly more. Lately, however, the yoga teacher has cancelled a number of times citing family illness. This has not been welcomed by the participants as they often rely on others for transport and have to wait around to be taken home.These activities are funded by charging participants to be involved, a cost subsidised by government funding, sponsorship and donations from fundraising activities so that no individual is excluded from participation. The organisation is operating with a small surplus which is returned to the organisation, but there is very little held in reserve to cope with the vagaries of the operations (during the pandemic the part time staff were stood down and Rio sought to keep in touch with participants who had access to zoom conferencing). Equipment and supplies are often donated by supporters of the organisation including families or participants themselves. Recently a longer-term participant and volunteer left AgeWell his collection of chess sets and a small bequest which was used to obtain foldable tables for the games sessions in accordance with his wishes.Rio is worried, however, at the rising costs of all of the activities, the money paid to the physiotherapist and the yoga teacher and the impending increase in the rent for the hall and office space. Attendance at all the sessions is somewhat unpredictable, and there are discussions about whether to put the fees up to make the sessions more viable. Rio cannot afford to take a pay cut, and does not have the time to take on more duties.The grant monies which Rio is considering applying for include a broader mental health and support focus where, if successful, AgeWell would receive funding to employ a psychologist to set up programs to assist older members of the community cope with grief at the loss of a partner, or cope with the emotional and psychological distress which can accompany ageing. The funding might also cover administrative support for such a program. Rio believes that the current membership would benefit from such activities and the scope of AgeWell could increase. He also thinks that this part of their service could be offered on a fee for service basis to other organisations such as the local retirement village from where many of the shopping centre walkers are recruited.Rio is also seeking Walter's opinion on the possibility of fundraising events which include families of AgeWell members. One option he is asking about is a large picnic style event on the oval near to the hall, on a public holiday when no sport is booked for the oval. He thinks this might be able to be funded by seeking sponsorship, perhaps from an insurance company as an event partner. The key would be to ensure that the event generates a surplus to assist with funding Rio's paid position. He is also wondering if families might be willing to pay to come along.Walter has asked Rio to ensure that the information for the board includes costs of staffing, facilities, and equipment for the existing programs, as well as potential costs for the proposals. Walter will have to sign off on the grant applications saying that the organisation is in a position to offer the services promised. The board will have to approve the application before Walter signs off. Walter is also wondering whether the local retirement village might be willing to take over AgeWell - either as a whole organisation, or some of the programs. He has not mentioned this to Rio.

Questions:

Describe the term as used in this course and outline its importance to nonprofit organisations making particular reference the AgeWell case.
(a) Provide a definition in own words
(b) Discuss how this is relevant to AgeWell
(c) Provide an example from outside the case to demonstrate understanding of the concepts.