Financial Modeling for the Social Sector

To achieve social impact, leaders in the social sector must find the right business model to achieve sustainability. With finite resources and limited staffing, organizations that are more focused on immediate needs (rather than long-term sustainability) can find developing the right business plan challenging.

In this course, you'll learn how nonprofit organizations, social entrepreneurs, corporate entrepreneurs and social change leaders use financial modeling and creative approaches to market-based funding to scale the impact of their work. You'll acquire and immediately practice using a series of templates and instructions designed so that even finance "beginners" can start to calculate funding requirements and project future growth.

This course is valuable for organizations of all shapes and sizes, and particularly for organizations and entrepreneurs in the early stages of development.

What You'll Learn:

• Distinguish between an operational unit and a head office, and understand the financial relationship between the two
• Estimate the size and reach of your operational unit, and identify what costs-at-scale means to your venture or initiative
• Understand how to consider and calculate funding requirements for building and maintaining a capacity that allows you to innovate, learn and grow your organization

Requirements:

Approximately 4-5 hours per module watching video lectures, reviewing the readings, participating in online discussions, and completing assignments. You will need a computer that allows you to watch videos (also available in transcript and audio-only versions), download course materials, participate in online discussions, and upload completed assignments.

The course will be open for 7 weeks. You can work through the modules at your own pace. We provide a suggested "Course Roadmap & Schedule" to help you complete all activities within the course dates. The final deadline is the final day of the course.

*To receive a Statement of Accomplishment, you will need to complete at least 3 out of the 5 assignments before the final deadline.

We strongly encourage (but do not require) that you form a team of 2-8 people to take the course with. It works best to find friends or coworkers who can meet in person. Need to find team members? You can post to the online discussion forum a month before the course starts!