The Route 66 Road Ahead Partnership entered into an agreement with a Wisconsin firm to develop a strategic financial sustainment plan to help ensure long-term funding.
According to a news release from the partnership, it hired The Sweeney Group of Madison, Wisconsin.
To ensure the partnership’s sustainability beyond 2023, its board voted during a March 28 teleconference:
- Engage a professional fundraising firm to analyze the feasibility of Route 66 Road Ahead raising funds to sustain itself long-term and develop funding opportunities, including Route 66’s 100th anniversary in 2026.
- Set aspirational but achievable fundraising goals.
- Engage a professional fundraising firm to assist in implementing and achieving the plan’s goals.
More from the news release by partnership Chairman Bill Thomas:
The Sweeney Group is a nationally recognized consulting firm that specializes in working with organizations that are conducting their first major gifts fundraising campaign. They have assisted a variety of nonprofit organizations with many aspects of resource development, including capital and annual campaign planning and implementation, feasibility studies, retreats for boards of directors and staff, and resource development department audits.
Since its incorporation, the Route 66 Road Ahead Partnership has accomplished a lot. The organization established its mission and identified outcomes to achieve that mission. The Road Ahead determined specific goals to accomplish desired outcomes and established working groups and task forces to take specific actions to achieve those goals. The organization developed principle-based policies to guide its actions and crafted annual budgets to support the achievement of its desired outcomes. As a result, these actions established an organizational foundation for the Route 66 Road Ahead Partnership.
During its first year of operation, the Road Ahead mapped out a five-year budget plan that relied on two primary sources of revenue: funding from the National Park Service via a five-year master cooperative agreement and a three-year commitment of corporate support from State Farm Insurance Co.
Based on strategic budgeting practices and an annual set-aside of funds into a Reserve Account, the Road Ahead is funded through 2023 assuming present funding and annual expense levels. Though the Route 66 Road Ahead Partnership is financially stable for the next several years, it lacks a plan for ensuring the long-term financial sustainability. […]
The strategic plan The Sweeney Group creates could focus on a variety of fundraising tactics, including seeking major gifts and grants to fund specific aspects of the Road Ahead’s plans, establishing an endowment campaign, seeking corporate sponsorships, an annual membership program or any other number of fundraising ideas. Whatever tactics are employed will be based on what is determined to be the best strategy for ensuring the Road Ahead’s long-term financial sustainment.
The Sweeney Group has guided campaigns for the Pabst Mansion in Milwaukee, Potosi Brewery Restoration Project in Potosi, Wisconsin; Al Ringling Theatre in Baraboo, Wisconsin; and a bunch of libraries in the Badger State.
(Image of the Route 66 Road Ahead Partnership logo)