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Sustainability: What Do Supporters and Funders Look For?

• Organizational history/competence—Demonstrate and promote your unit’s value through documentation of your unit’s activities and accomplishments.
   
• Identification and understanding of needs/assets—Demonstrate that your unit’s activities meet identified needs and resources in the community, and support this with needs assessment results, after-action reports, etc.
   
• Readiness—Participate in public health and preparedness training, exercises, and general activities that will prove readiness.
   
• Compatibility with the funder’s identified mission—Confirm that your mission, goals, and objectives are consistent with those of a potential funder.
   
• Evidence-based strategies—Adopt realistic, proven strategies that will lead to solid end results and translate to organizational credibility.
   
• Measurable outcomes/impact—Create measurable outcomes to reveal the extent and impact the MRC has made at the community level.
   
• Accountability—Maintain general accountability to all key stakeholders: volunteers and their families, community, sponsoring organization, program partners, and funders.
   
• Consistency—Establish goals and objectives consistent with your unit’s mission, and remain focused on the plan.
   
• Collaboration—Collaborate and align with key stakeholder partners to strengthen and develop your MRC unit’s mission.
   
• Cost effectiveness—Analyze and compare the costs associated with the mission, actions, and outcomes your MRC is conducting.
   
• Realistic goals and budget—Establish goals and budget objectives consistent with your MRC unit and sponsoring agency’s mission.
   
• Leveraging/matching resources—Develop local partnerships and collaborative efforts to ensure a sustainable, integrated MRC.
   
• Sustainability—Demonstrate—to potential funders—that the unit has the capacity to provide its services to the community in the long term––show diversification of financial and material support, stakeholder buy-in, and integration into community plans.

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Last Updated on 8/28/2006