Case Study: Using Social Work Expertise to Market an Entrepreneurial Service

Publication Date: January 1991

Publisher: Jewish Communal Service Association of North America

Author(s): Harry Citron; Janet B. Kurland

Research Area: Social conditions

Keywords: Management; Social Services; Funding

Type: Report

Coverage: United States Maryland

Abstract:

Faced with the shrinking charitable dollar, many social agencies have begun to develop other sources of revenue. The drive to maintain the delivery of quality social work services in a harsh economic climate has resulted in such strategies as increased efforts to attract mote private pay clients, seeking funds to serve special populations, aggressive grantsmanship, and the development of entrepreneurial setvices. Such services, relative newcomers on the nonprofit social work scene, challenge us to develop marketing strategies when all many of us have to back on is our clinical expertise. Yet, as this case study illustrates, it is precisely those social work skills that can be used to advantage in marketing a program to the corporate world. In fact, the marketing success of Jewish Family Services can be attributed to following a clinical social work model that incorporated such elements as needs assessment, starting where the client was, and making use of the present moment.