Fair Housing Advocates of Northern California II
Organization
Fair Housing Advocates of Northern California’s (FHANC) mission is to ensure equal housing opportunity and to educate the community on the value of diversity in our neighborhoods. FHANC, founded in 1982, is currently the only full-service fair housing agency operating in Marin, Sonoma, and Solano counties. It is also a HUD-certified housing counseling agency currently providing foreclosure and/or pre-purchase service. The organization has twice received national honors from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.
Focusing on civil rights, FHANC has engaged in advocacy efforts on the local, state, and federal level to affirmatively further fair housing. FHANC’s goals are to expand housing choices, help make all neighborhoods places of opportunity, provide residents with access to the community assets and resources they need to flourish, and, ultimately, increase housing opportunity regardless of race, color, religion, national origin, sex, family status, or disability.
Situation
In its 2020-25 strategic plan, FHANC management and Board set a goal of hiring a Development Director who will allow the Executive Director to dedicate additional time to advocate for fair housing public policies and practices. The strategic plan does not include a forecast of the revenue and expense needed to attain the plan’s goals or an evaluation of the financial feasibility of hiring a Development Director.
Project Objectives
FHANC asked that an ACT project team help them develop a multi-year financial forecast of the revenue and expense needed to attain the goals in its strategic plan for 2020-25. The ACT team also evaluated the financial feasibility of hiring a Development Director, with a comparison of the expected fundraising revenue to the cost of fundraising.
Project Overview
The ACT team conducted interviews and reviewed documents to learn about FHANC’s mission, services, stakeholders, and operations. The team also reviewed FHANC’s strategic plan and the progress to-date in meeting the plan’s goals and objectives. The team identified the financial implications of each of the yearly goals and objectives in FHANC’s strategic plan and developed a multi-year financial forecast to support attainment of the goals in the strategic plan. The team also gathered information to help FHANC evaluate the options for Development Director.
Key Recommendations
The team recommended that FHANC:
- use the financial model to refine their forecast of future revenue, expense, and revenue shortfall in future years
- gather more information about Development Director options based on provided specific action items