Hanbury Preservation Consulting

Revolving Fund Feasibility Studies

Hanbury Preservation Consulting's feasibility studies for revolving funds are grounded in several core beliefs:

• Organizations should have a clear sense of why they want a revolving fund and what they hope it will accomplish; or they should use the feasibility study process to move toward that understanding.
• Most board members can benefit from an overview on these programs to insure that all have a similar understanding of the types of programs and their attributes.
• Every organization is different.  In order to be useful, a feasibility study must reflect the specific organization, its culture, and the service areas in which it operates.
• Boards must be honest about their collective risk tolerance and capacity.
• Community engagement is an important part of the process to educate the public, discover concerns, identify opportunities, and build community support.
• Implementation rarely happens as planned, but with basic tools an organization can shift to capitalize on opportunities.
• While some revolving funds do provide positive cash flow, they should never be considered a consistent revenue source.

Hanbury Preservation Consulting works with clients to design a process that acknowledges the above beliefs and incorporates them into a plan that includes board education, public input, and an organizational review, resulting in a document that provides data, and outlines both concerns and opportunities. The report is generally issued in conjunction with a board retreat to discuss the findings, build consensus for establishing a program, and determining first steps.

Since 2006, Hanbury Preservation Consulting has provided consulting for feasibility studies to  nonprofits with service areas ranging from statewide to local, with broad areas of concern, and with varying levels of capacity. In each instance the study model was adapted to suit the organization and to focus on the issues most important to their board and staff.