Strategies Suggested by Participants of the Workshop on December 10 & 11, 2008 Note: The number next to each consideration reflects the number of participants that made that or a similar suggestion. SALARIES Managing Salaries Freezing or Delaying Hiring (16) Wage freeze (4) Staff reduction (21) Cut part time staff and relocate full time staff to cover mission-critical aspects and eliminate the non-critical projects (6) Reduce administrative staff, consolidating administrative activities (5) Reorganizing staffing to reduce overlap (1) Review staffing patterns at each program to eliminate redundant positions (1) Consolidate programs and positions (2) Program Directors oversee more programs to compensate for the vacancies from lay-offs (1) Reduce time 3/5 or 4/5 time (2) Assess productivity of seasonal employees in youth programs (1) Unpaid sabbaticals (1) Reduce consultants by doing the work internally (1) Use per diem employees for certain programs, allowing flexibility if our contracts are lower than expected (1) Share one FTE between 2 programs (1) Cut interns in half, using administrative staff to fill the gaps (1) Change roles/consolidate departments (2) removing a program management position (1) 1
Outsourcing Outsource technology services (2) 2
FRINGE BENEFITS Fringe Benefits Change health insurance providers for a less expensive medical plan (5) Change health care plan to be a HRA, paying as employees use health benefits rather than as a flat fee (1) Increase employee percentage paid towards medical (5) Created a health reimbursement plan to assist employees with larger co-pays and deductibles (1) Reduce healthcare premium by slightly reducing benefits (1) Eliminate incentive compensation plan (1) Reduce percentage of pension contribution (3) 3
OTHER EMPLOYEE RELATED Other Employee Related Reduce holiday party costs (5) create a new section perhaps called other employee related parties are not considered part of fringe benefits from an accounting perspective same with the next two board meeting comment should be in travel area. Eliminate the party (2) Have a pot-luck style party (1) Cook for the holiday party rather than having it catered (1) Eliminate hospitality services at professional development trainings encourage brown-bagging instead (1) 4
SUPPLIES Supplies Office supply management (3) Review supplies, deciding what is not critical Changed stationary to less expensive Stopped purchasing office supplies for the quarter Reduce and Reuse paper (3) Recycle paper by making copies on the blank side of paper (1) Use scrap paper in printers, changing out with letterhead or fresh paper for important projects (1) Purchase quarterly rather than monthly and as-needed (1) Aggressive use of group purchasing (2) Join a national coalitional database rather than purchasing contract management software (1) 5
CONSUMPTION EXPENSES Fixed Costs Re-opened discussion with landlord (in year 6 of a 10 year lease) to downsize space thus reducing annual rent (1) Renegotiate leases for large equipment, i.e. copier lease (1) Renegotiate with government lenders to increase their level of support for our building purchase (1) Delay plans to expand (1) Delay office move (1) Consumption Cut travel and expenses (5) Eliminate site visits (1) Rather than send entire staff to a national conference, send 2 to report back to the rest of the staff (1) Take mass transit whenever possible, use taxis only when necessary (1) Analyzed and annualized spending by vendor, renegotiating with each vendor (1) Set up business accounts for cell phones, postage, and FedEx, getting business savings (1) Thorough account examination (3) Track expenditures by line item for each department (2) Review security per diems (1) Re-evaluate all communication costs line by line (1), switching to electronic communication whenever possible (1) Renegotiate liability coverage for agency (2) Reduce printing expenses (4) Print only 1 newsletter per year instead of two More e-alerts than published information 6
Send all non-necessity communications, including save-the-dates, via email rather than post, reducing postage and printing costs (1) Rent color copy machine for in-house production of marketing materials (1) Keep utilities low (2) ConEd pays 90% of retrofitting costs for installing energy efficient lighting Set heat to AVTO and do not allow adjusting Examine program and administrative costs, eliminating the non-essentials (5), Participants in summer youth program will walk to Central Park rather than hiring a bus (1) Rather than order food on Fridays for a youth program, purchase from the grocery store (1) Eliminate non-critical subscriptions, books, publications (2) Upgrade fewer curriculum projects (1) Assess events (3) Eliminate event expenses (1) Assess non-mission critical events and determine whether they can be conducted for free or with a lower cost (1) Hold all events internally, when feasible (1) Postpone non-critical plans and purchases (6) Postpone marketing plan (1) Delay upgrading of the website and database work (2) Postpone strategic planning (1) Postpone mailings to donors (1) Defer IT purchases (1) Revised format for our web-based program to save on editing and writing costs (1) Board meetings held outside of the office by an external stakeholder (1) Renegotiate cleaning services (1) 7
Changed telephone system at lease-end (1) Determine whether purchasing could be replaced by donated goods or services (1) Request a RFP from auditing firms (1) Spread new projects over a longer time frame (1) 8
ORGANIZATIONAL INVESTMENTS & REVENUE Organizational Investment Purchased an HR system that will save staff time and potentially the hiring of new staff by better managing hiring, payroll, time and leave (1) Invested in a reorganization of budgeting and accounting system in order to have better and more timely information to work with (1) Invest in supportive technologies to ensure sustainability and growth (e.g. fiscal and donor management software) (1) Pursue technical assistance opportunities to increase stability of operations (e.g. auditing agency s technology to determine potential areas for concern, financial management techniques, fundraising strategies, etc) (1) Revenue Analyze revenue generating programs determining how they could increase revenue without increasing expenses (3) Sublet a portion of our space (1) Weekly revenue meetings to share information across all revenue departments (1) Conduct a full year forecast every month, identifying offsets to revenue gaps as part of monthly budget review process (1) Take extreme care when submitting documentation for rental subsidy payments (1) Reduce the number of complimentary tickets to our benefit dinner (1) Cover costs of annual holiday party for clients with private funds raised by the Board (1) 9
PARTNERNING Partnering Merge with another organization (1) Take on management services contract to run another agency (2) Partner with another organization in achieving mission goals (2) 10