Relevant Information for Decision Making

In our non-profit organization making correct decisions in very important in order to have a successful program. Every choice that our executive director makes has multiple other choices or alternatives along the way. The organization I will be dussing is a non-profit the provides services to member in the public Seattle school district. The organization’s main objection is health and physical education to young girls in the 8-13 age group. Though a non-profit wouldn’t be categorized as business the organization is still providing a service and meeting objectives for the organization. The name of the non-profit is called “Girls on The Run”. Girls on the Run is a North American non-profit program that works to encourage pre-teen girls to develop self-respect and healthy lifestyles through participation in running programs. The organization’s curricula seek to address all aspects of the girls’ development to enhance their physical, emotional, mental, social, and spiritual well-being. The program is based off of donations, sponsorships and depending on the eligibility a registration fee. For girls who are unable to pay for the program scholarship are then put into play.

Recently the program manager and executive director sat down with the board and determined they now have the finances to expand the program. The question they faced was 1)Expand the amount of the girls at each site that are in the program or 2)Expand the amount of locations that the program took place at.

After discussing with the Seattle school district and the board the executive director and the manager decided to move forward and expand the program by adding new locations. Girls on The Run felt it would only be beneficial to spread the organization out even further into Seattle and the surrounding areas.

So what does this mean financially for the program that they must take into consideration? The program is going to need more coaches which means training and education. A skilled set of coaches can potentially increase the number of participants we attract for the program, the level of customer service and membership confidence, and encourage coaches to be more loyal to our organization. (BROOKINS, 2012) Once we dedicated funding to the coaches training and education it became a sunk cost. Sunk costs are past costs. These cannot be changed with any future decision.(MALIK, 2012) And because all the coaches must obtain the