A well-researched and positioned business plan ensures that Minnesota will be among the leaders in the emerging trend of service-based historic preservation training.

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CHALLENGE

Northern Bedrock Historic Preservation Corps (Northern Bedrock) is the first organization in the country to fully integrate the service corps model of young adult job training with hands-on historic preservation work. Because of Northern Bedrock’s innovative business model, it was important for the organization to establish a clear and actionable business plan to guide the organization through their start-up years and to obtain state funding and legislative support. This project was made possible by Minnesota’s Arts and Cultural Heritage Fund.

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SUCCESS

New History assembled and led an interdisciplinary project that brought expertise in business planning, historic preservation, and financial modeling to the project. In order to understand Northern Bedrock’s unique position in both the service corps and historic preservation services marketplaces, New History’s project team developed a market survey and conducted in-depth interviews with organizations that may become hosts for Northern Bedrock’s future projects. Additionally, the team interviewed other service corps to develop a set of “best practices” for operating a corps organization. The team coupled the results of this research with a detailed pro forma analysis to produce the final business plan. The business plan was used to secure state funding and legislative support and start the organization–which is successfully delivering jobs training and preservation projects today.