Meal Prep Nonprofit: Implementation Plan and Launch Strategy

Introduction

The implementation plan for the Meal Prepping business begins with designing the organizational structure. The company will necessarily be organized as a nonprofit with 501(c)(3) status to ensure that major donors can write off their contributions—a significant incentive for many who wish to support nonprofit organizations. The business will need to be self-sustainable, however, and cannot count on federal dollars, as the government is already heavily in debt and future years are likely to bring significant cuts in federal spending.

The business's success will therefore depend on partnering with other local businesses to gain visibility, using crowdfunding (Zhou & Kuo, 2018) to secure seed money that will support early investment in the business's development, and leveraging social media in the way Elon Musk at Tesla has done—turning his electric vehicle company into a world-saving, environmentally-friendly brand built around a mission (Malhotra & Malhotra, 2016). In other words, to get this business to grow, it needs to be marketed as an idea that people want to get behind and support.

Physical and Technological Resources

Physical resources depend on capital accumulation. As a nonprofit with a mission-oriented vision, the appeal to donors will rest on the articulation of that vision and the organization's ability to communicate it to the public. Social media will be tremendously helpful in this regard, as it will allow the company to gain traction at the grassroots level and seek celebrity endorsement (Stever & Lawson, 2013), which can greatly enhance brand visibility and assist in crowdfunding efforts to get the brick-and-mortar kitchen open and operating. Sponsorships are another effective way of providing an income stream (Lunt & Nicotra, 2018).

The technological needs of the business will also be substantial. The modern app-based business model used by companies such as Uber, Lyft, DoorDash, and other service-oriented businesses could be effectively applied here. Families who want to sign up for meal delivery can use the app to place an order and ensure that a child will have a meal at dinnertime. The organization will be able to rely on volunteers for meal delivery after appropriate training in safety and security best practices.

The volunteer delivery service will require the business to gain suitable traction with people who want to help feed American children—but in a way that does not require them to work in a soup kitchen or homeless shelter, which can be an off-putting prospect for many potential volunteers. The delivery app will allow those who want to contribute to the betterment of their community to pick up meals from the meal prep location and deliver them to waiting children. The app will need to be developed and its infrastructure built out, at an estimated cost of $35,000 based on current labor rates for app development. Volunteers and full-time employees will be required as human capital (drivers and cooks), and a supply chain will need to be established, with costs estimated between $250,000 and $450,000 annually depending on demand.

Volunteers will reduce costs and will be relied upon whenever possible for delivery services. Cooks will be full-time employees in order to ensure stability and consistency in the kitchen. IT support will need to be kept on staff, but maintaining a clean, simple, and easy-to-use app without unnecessary features will reduce the burden of storing and securing large amounts of data. The goal is to be simple, effective, and accessible—combining volunteer assistance with paid workers to deliver a quality product for children in need.

Implementation Schedule

The first step is to pitch the idea to the public by launching a social media campaign with video uploads on YouTube explaining the service. These videos can then be linked via the Kickstarter crowdfunding platform and promoted through a Twitter reveal using the hashtag #EveryKidEats. Celebrity endorsement will be actively sought; given that this is a charitable cause, it should be relatively straightforward to obtain endorsements from public figures who want to support missions of this kind. That will further encourage grassroots support and giving to the campaign so that a brick-and-mortar location can be opened and the meal prep service and app can be launched.

The first month will be dedicated to capital funding. This will include the social media campaign, the pursuit of sponsorships and major donors, the development of the app, the establishment of the meal prep division, and the scouting and securing of a brick-and-mortar kitchen where children can eat, spend time, and read in a safe environment.

The second month will be intensive, as supporters will expect to see their donations being put to work. The kitchen will need to open, volunteer help will need to be secured, and full-time cooks will need to be hired. Managers will be required to train employees, and the second month will focus on building out the human capital infrastructure so that by month three the business is ready to open its doors and begin feeding children in the community. Each dependency in this phase focuses on specific tasks. In total there are four: (1) achieve a successful social media campaign to increase brand visibility and secure funding; (2) secure volunteers and full-time workers; (3) develop the app; and (4) outfit the kitchen for service. The critical path to success depends on the integration of these four drivers, with the primary two being the crowdfunding campaign and celebrity endorsement, as these will work in tandem.

Conclusion

The implementation plan for this business begins with raising awareness of the organization's mission. As a nonprofit, it will depend on the support of donors both large and small, which means developing a highly visible and appealing brand. Messaging will be critically important, and that is where the social media campaign must take center stage. The campaign will need to be carefully monitored and reviewed to ensure that all channels are being maximized and that networking is conducted effectively. Once adequate funding is secured, the full build-out can begin.

References

Lunt, T., & Nicotra, E. (2018). Event Sponsorship and Fundraising: An Advanced Guide. Kogan Page Publishers.

Malhotra, C. K., & Malhotra, A. (2016). How CEOs can leverage Twitter. MIT Sloan Management Review, 57(2), 73.

Stever, G. S., & Lawson, K. (2013). Twitter as a way for celebrities to communicate with fans: Implications for the study of parasocial interaction. North American Journal of Psychology, 15(2).

Yauney, R. H. (2018). Leadership development: A study of Elon Musk. Marriott Student Review, 2(2), 4.

Zhou, S., & Kuo, C. (2018). How social media are changing nonprofit advocacy: Evidence from the crowdfunding platform in Taiwan. The China Nonprofit Review, 10(2), 349–370.