Business Coach in Los Angeles Improves Organization's Bottom Line in Tough Times

Sept. 22, 2010 - PRLog -- (PASADENA) – Outward Bound Adventures (OBA) of Pasadena garnered an additional $100,000 in grant money to advance their tremendous mission of empowering the under-served urban youth in Southern California and their families, by promoting self-empowerment, dignity, accountability, community commitment and environmental stewardship.  Like many charitable agencies, OBA has felt the financial impact of the nation’s present economy. Yet they took a proactive approach to weathering the storm by working with Rodney D. Walker of Walker & Associates, a Los Angeles-based business coach.

“Through coaching and specialized classes and instruction offered by Walker we have had a 70% hit rate in grant application approvals. He has helped us tremendously in navigating the complex waters of the nonprofit grant application process,” says Deputy Executive Director, Wendell E. Hall. Many nonprofit organizations have taken a huge hit during these times as many funders have become more selective on the types of organizations that they are willing to support.  

The Foundation Center of New York reports:

• The recent economic crisis caused the nation's more than 75,000 grantmaking foundations to cut their 2009 giving by an estimated 8.4 percent – by far the largest decline ever tracked by the Foundation Center. Grant dollars fell from $46.8 billion to $42.9 billion.

• Independent and family foundations — which represent close to nine out of 10 foundations — reduced their giving 8.9 percent to $30.8 billion in 2009.

• 2009 saw the first decline in current-dollar community foundation giving recorded since 1994.

Walker says, “Foundations are becoming more selective because they want to ensure that they are getting the most value for their dollar, which means organizations need to enhance the overall  capacity of their agencies to become more attractive to funders. Coaching  provides a viable means of helping organizations and executives to do this in an efficient manner.”  Hall goes on to say that “OBA’s success rate since employing Walker has proven to be very effective, with huge returns on our investment.”

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Walker & Associates provides professional coaching and consulting to individuals, entrepreneurs, small businesses, executives, and nonprofit organizations to assist them in thriving.