Street Tech - Now the Stride Center

Round

Fall-Winter 2005

Project Type

Full team

Project Focus

Strategic Planning

Organization Type

Human Services

Organization

Street Tech empowers men and women of all ages to become financially self-sufficient and give back to their communities. Street Tech provides high-quality computer technician training, fully integrated life and professional skills development, and job development and placement assistance to low-income and underserved adults in the San Francisco Bay Area. ReliaTech, one of Street Tech’s two social ventures, is a computer repair business that employs graduates of its program.

Project Objectives

Street Tech asked for ACT’s assistance in creating a professional assessment of ReliaTech’s business model and developing a roadmap that would allow for self-sustainability and revenue support for its core nonprofit mission.

Project Overview

For this project, the ACT team:

developed a work plan,
reviewed Street Tech/ReliaTech program,
reviewed ReliaTech experience with nonprofit clients,
built a financial model,
assessed the nonprofit market potential,
selected the nonprofit market as target market,
reviewed other providers of IT services to nonprofits,
conducted nonprofit market research interviews,
worked closely with Street Tech Executive Director,
and produced conclusions and recommendations.

Key Recommendations

Hire ReliaTech Executive Director with marketing, management, and technical skills ASAP
Evaluate remote support
Investigate funding sources
Sell to commercial market once reputation is established in nonprofit market
Establish a goal to reduce reliance on outside consultants

Other

Chart: San Francisco Bay Area Charitable Organizations (number of organizations and annual expenses)
Chart: Target Market Nonprofit Potential Literature (number of organizations compared to target market and location)
Chart: Functions of Computer Usage Based on User Need
Chart: Comparison of Actual IT Computer Services vs. Perceived IT Service Needs
Chart: Size of IT Consulting Projects vs. Type of Project
Graph: Source of IT Help
Graph: Major Categories of Help
Graph: Providers of Consulting Services
Graph: Why Nonprofits Don’t Use Consultants