Expansion Strategy, Social Media Optimization, and Business Operations Development for a Non-profit

By providing free Jazz Music education to youth in underserved schools, this non-profit seeks to empower youth intellectually, emotionally, and socially through the arts.

Situation

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, our client had to cease all in-person music education operations, resulting in a decrease of school partnerships. In response to this, the client pivoted towards consolidating their nationwide program into five key markets, focusing on deeper market penetration rather than widespread market presence across the country.

Challenge

Rem and Company was tasked with helping the client develop a research process to identify new target schools that were optimal for future program expansion in the five key markets. These schools needed to align with the demographic characteristics of the schools the client already operated in and display clear demand for a Jazz program.

Our non-profit client also needed help sourcing new sources of income to fund this consolidation effort and keep the organization operational during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Finally, for the Executive Director of the non-profit to fully focus on the running of the organization at the strategic level, our team needed to outline responsibilities and roles interns they could bring on board to provide additional business operations assistance.

Approach

Our approach was to first understand the schools the client currently operated in by researching key demographic indicators. The team worked with the client to profile an “ideal” school for outreach. We created a master spreadsheet containing information for every public school in our pilot target city, utilizing the filtering criteria to efficiently identify schools with similar demographic characteristics to the client’s existing programs.

To further the client’s insights into this list of schools, our team utilized Annual Arts Reports and search engines to collect contact information on each school’s existing arts and music programs, and contact information for key administrative staff. This streamlined the outreach process for the client.

The process undertaken by our team for our pilot target market served as a roadmap for further research in the four other markets, allowing the client to more effectively identify new target schools and make strong assumptions about each target school’s existing arts programs.

To create new sources of income for the client, our team used a two-pronged approach by identifying new corporate donor partnerships and grants, and expanding the organization’s social media audience with the intention of monetizing its content in the future.

Through extensive research, our team was able to identify fifty potential partnerships opportunities for the client within the five key markets. These findings were synthesized into an additonal spreadsheet that consisted of the organization’s background, contact information for future outreach, and an explanation of our team’s rationale for why each organization should be considered.

To expand our client’s social media following, our team researched best practices for YouTube content and search engine optimization techniques for non-profits. One key finding from this research was for the client to create a link tree to promote cross-platform engagement.

Finally, to allow our client to better focus on the running of the organization at the strategic level, we defined and created expectations for two future intern roles: marketing and strategic market research interns. Both of these intern roles will provide vital help to the client in their management of day-to-day business operations, in addition to further building upon the market research work our team started.

Impact

The Rem and Company team provided personalized deliverables to aid in the client’s market consolidation strategy and created a outreach strategy for entrance into other target markets. This enabled the non-profit to more efficiently plan its outreach efforts and serve a larger amount of youth.

Team Breakdown

• Team Lead: Rohan Patel

• Strategist: Ryan Lee

• Strategist: Sara Neiger

• Strategist: Zach Saifer

• Junior Strategist: Hallie Williams

Relevant Background Information

• Business Type: Non-profit

• Industry: Music Education

• Locations: Chicago, IL; Los Angeles, CA; Nashville, TN; New Orleans, LA; New York, NY

At Rem and Company, we're on a mission to keep doors open and dreams alive. Rem and Company started as a social impact initiative offering free consulting services to small businesses impacted by COVID-19. Rem and Company have become an information hub and digital community platform for small businesses in need. At Rem and Company, small businesses stay up to date on trends in their industries, learn new approaches from peers, build a network, and develop the capacity to adapt as the world around them changes. Our consulting teams provide small businesses with the opportunity to identify and prioritize issues facing their business, propose innovative strategies and facilitate execution. If you are a small business owner and want to learn more about how we can help, request a free consultation.