non-profit law firm marketing plan

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Non-Profit Law Firm Marketing PlanAdvocates for Equal Legal Access

Confidentiality Agreement

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Table Of Contents

1.0 Executive Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1

2.0 Situation Analysis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12.1 Market Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2

2.1.1 Market Demographics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32.1.2 Market Needs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32.1.3 Market Trends . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32.1.4 Market Growth . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4

2.2 SWOT Analysis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52.2.1 Strengths . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52.2.2 Weaknesses . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52.2.3 Opportunities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62.2.4 Threats . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6

2.3 Alternative Providers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62.4 Services Offered . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62.5 Keys to Success . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72.6 Critical Issues . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7

3.0 Marketing Strategy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73.1 Mission . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73.2 Marketing Objectives . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83.3 Financial Objectives . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83.4 Target Markets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83.5 Positioning . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83.6 Strategy Pyramid . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93.7 Marketing Mix . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93.8 Marketing Research . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10

4.0 Financials . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 104.1 Break-even Analysis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 114.2 Funding Forecast . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 124.3 Expense Forecast . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13

5.0 Controls . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 145.1 Implementation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 145.2 Marketing Organization . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 155.3 Contingency Planning . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15

1.0 Executive Summary

Advocates for Legal Equal Access is a not-for-profit public interest law firm that provides civil rights legal representation to indigent Burlington, VT citizens. Advocates' provides legal aid to those that cannot afford it and those that are not serviced through other organizations. By nature, America is a fairly litigious society, and while everyone has the same legal rights, attorneys are generally required for someone to enforce/assert their rights. This is not a problem for people with money. For those without, their civil rights are often compromised. Advocates for Legal Equal Access will reverse this trend by offering legal aid to those that could not otherwise afford it.

Advocates for Legal Equal Access is founded and lead by Al Rand. Al will leverage his outstanding networking and marketing skills to bring visibility and donations to the organization. Advocates for Legal Equal Access will rely on law firms and corporate money donations, as well as pro bono donations from fellow attorneys. Advocates for Legal Equal Access will be started with a donation of time and money from Al and will sustain itself off of donations.

2.0 Situation Analysis

Advocates for Legal Equal Access is a start-up not-for-profit company just beginning operations. Advocates offers much needed public interest legal services for the Burlington, VT market. Marketing is critical to success. The basic market need is an expanded offering of legal services for community members who do not currently have access to legal representation.

Advocates for Legal Equal Access

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2.1 Market Summary

Advocates possesses good information about the market and knows a great deal about the common attributes of the targeted customer. Advocates will leverage this information to better understand who is served, their specific needs, and how Advocates can better communicate with them.

Citizens not served by other organizations for economic reasons

Citizens not served by other organizations because of subject matter litigation

Target Markets

Table 2.1: Target Market Forecast

Target Market ForecastPotential Customers Growth 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 CAGRCitizens not served by other organizations for economic reasons

9% 22,547 24,576 26,788 29,199 31,827 9.00%


9% 31,455 34,286 37,372 40,735 44,401 9.00%

Total 9.00% 54,002 58,862 64,160 69,934 76,228 9.00%


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2.1.1 Market Demographics

The profile for the Advocate's customer consists of the following geographic, demographic, and behavior factors:

Geographics

• The immediate geographical target is the greater metropolitan city of Burlington with a population of .9 million.

• A 75 mile geographic area is in need of the services. • The total targeted population is 54,000.

Demographics

• Male and female. • Low income, below $25,000 a year. • Are having a difficult time surviving on their take-home income. • Cannot afford legal representation. • May have a high school education. • Have an hourly or blue collar job.

Behavior Factors

• Have difficulty staying away from legal problems. • Act as if they are unaware of certain laws.

2.1.2 Market Needs

Advocates is providing people with legal services that they need but cannot afford. Advocates seeks to fulfill the following benefits that are important to their customers:

• Selection: Advocates offers a wide range of legal services. • Accessibility: Advocates has a convenient downtown office where the majority of their

services are offered. • Competitive pricing: Advocates for Legal Equal Access offers a sliding scale for payment

by clients with some of the clients not required to pay anything based on their income level.

2.1.3 Market Trends

The market trend over the last decade has been the erosion of government subsidized indigent legal representation or legal aid. This trend has occurred primarily because of the republican controlled Congress and their perception that it is not important to provide legal representation to people of all income levels. Republican rhetoric generally holds that it is an individual's obligation to provide for themselves and the use of public money for legal aid is undesirable.

During this time period, the amount of funding that Congress has supplied legal aid organizations has been constantly decreased and in many circumstances eliminated. This funding trend is indicative of the republicans callousness of low income people's constitutional rights of reasonable access to the legal system.


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Citizens not served by other organizations for economic reasons


Market Forecast

2.1.4 Market Growth

There is a huge market need for legal aid, legal representation for people who cannot afford legal representation. As Congress has constantly reduced or eliminated legal aid, there are thousands of people who require legal representation to assert their rights, yet cannot afford this service. For many, their rights are trampled because they have no advocate to argue their side of the case. For a country that should be incredibly proud of their Constitution and how protective it is for the majority of its citizens, it is frightening to recognize that although we have a first rate Constitution and legal system, many people do not have access to this because a lack of money.

Regardless of the fact that our legal system and Constitution are benchmarks for other westernized countries, so many people are not on the same legal playing field by virtue of the simple fact that they do not have as much money as their adversary. This inequity has developed a demand for indigent legal services. Advocates for Legal Equal Access has been formed to address this societal epidemic.


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Target Market Growth

2.2 SWOT Analysis

The following SWOT analysis captures the key strengths and weaknesses within the company, and describes the threats facing Advocates.

2.2.1 Strengths

• Strong professional skills and knowledge. • Highly developed networking and fund-raising skills. • Passion for their work.

2.2.2 Weaknesses

• The struggle to raise money. • Clients who have gotten themselves into real legal messes. • The need to constantly fund-raise to maintain cash flow.


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2.2.3 Opportunities

• A caring community. • An endless supply of clients. • The possibility of the end of the Republican-controlled Congress.

2.2.4 Threats

A negative change in the economic climate which could reduce funding due to a decrease in company donations.

2.3 Alternative Providers

Advocates for Legal Equal Access does not have any true competition as a not-for-profit organization serving indigent citizens. There is more demand than supply and Advocates will be serving citizens that are not served by other organizations. They do have competition for donations or funding.

Other organizations that provide indigent legal services are:

• The public defenders. This is a publicly-funded organization/group of attorneys that provide criminal defense for indigent individuals. While some of the public defender's work overlaps with Advocate's such as due process claims, a lot does not.

• St. Andrews Legal Clinic. This organization provides similar services that the Advocates provides with more of an emphasis on criminal and housing issues. This organization is privately funded with a fair amount of the donations coming from religious-based activities/donors.

• American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU). This organization serves people's civil rights claims. There are no economic requirement for this organization, i.e. you do not need to be indigent. The ACLU has a limited budget and typically will serve cases that are higher in profile or have a greater precedent value. Precedent value is based on America's common law system where previous case law (judge made law) is what sets laws in addition to legislation. So if a case is in the appeals court, it will hold more value in terms of precedent than a case in trial court, therefore, the ACLU is more likely to take the appeals case as they get more bang for the buck.

2.4 Services Offered

Advocates for Legal Equal Access provides civil rights legal services for the Burlington indigent community. These types of services range from discrimination to fair housing practices to 1st amendment issues to due process claims. These services will apply to individuals who qualify for services using the Advocate's minimum qualification system, based on a variety of factors including income, access to other legal alternatives, and the type of litigation that is being sought or defended.


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2.5 Keys to Success

The keys to success are:

• Provide services that are in demand and neglected by the government. • Successful fund-raising.

2.6 Critical Issues

Advocates for Legal Equal Access is still in the speculative stages. Its critical issues are to provide much needed legal services while concurrently engage in networking and fund-raising efforts at sufficient levels to ensure adequate cash flow.

3.0 Marketing Strategy

Advocates for Legal Equal Access' marketing strategy will be based on marketing themselves to different law firms as well as to different corporations. The law firms will be targeted for cash donations as well donations of attorney's time. The corporations will be targeted for fiscal donations.

Al will use his marketing skills learned in his MBA studies to market the Advocates as an organization that offers public interest support for the greater Burlington community. Approximately 40% of Al's time will be spent fund-raising/marketing. A lot of this time will be spent traveling around and meeting with the different leaders of the companies and convincing them that Advocates is a well-run organization, deserving of the company's support. Because Al comes from ten years of law practice in a well respected firm, he generates a lot of legitimacy or visibility in the Burlington community.

For corporations or law firms that are donating time or money to Advocates, they are reassured that they will gain from their donation because of the visibility that they will get from their donation, and the positive feeling of their financial civic virtue.

The attorneys who are sought will be convinced to donate their time because Advocates are a particularly efficient organization and the time donation to Advocates will be of greater value (meaning more people will be served) than the same time donation to another cause.

3.1 Mission

Advocates for Legal Equal Access' mission is to provide the Burlington indigent community with legal services for civil rights issues. Advocates for Legal Equal Access exists to eliminate the current iniquities that too many people face when forced to access the American legal system. Our services will exceed the expectations of our customers.


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3.2 Marketing Objectives

• Generate visibility within the Burlington corporate and legal community of Advocates for Legal Equal Access.

• Increase the amount of corporate fiscal donations by 10% per quarter. • Increase the amount of labor donations by 15% per year.

3.3 Financial Objectives

• Generate enough funds to be able to bring on board additional legal professionals. • Decrease the costs associated with serving an individual client, allowing Advocates to serve

more people. • Maintain positive cash flow.

3.4 Target Markets

Advocates for Legal Equal Access will target the population segments by developing relationships with the other legal aid organizations. By developing a relationship with these organizations, these organizations can refer people to Advocates when they are unable to serve.

Advocates will also target these people by developing awareness of their organization with different courts in the city so that the court is aware of Advocates and can refer the people to them.

As long as the proper agencies and organizations are aware of Advocates, then it will not be difficult to get clients as the legal aid sector has demand that outstrips supply.

3.5 Positioning

Advocates for Legal Equal Access will position themselves as an efficient, professional, public interest law firm that is serving Burlington's community. Advocates will leverage their competitive edges to achieve this positioning. These competitive edges are:

• Advocates for Legal Equal Access' competitive edge is their effectiveness as fund-raisers. The legal aid market is always in demand as there are far more customers as there are service providers. For this reason it is important to be able to fund your organization. The Advocates founder Al Rand has developed an extensive network of colleagues after practicing for ten years at a large Burlington law firm. Al will be able to use his network to develop donations from the firms and their individual members.

• Another component of the Advocates' competitive edge is Al's marketing skills. These will be used to set up programs with the large firms to give their attorney's credit toward pro bono requirements as well as to their yearly hourly requirements, encouraging more donations of time from the attorneys.


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3.6 Strategy Pyramid

The single objective is to position Advocates as the premier public interest law firm. The marketing strategy will first seek to create customer and city awareness regarding the services offered, develop the customer and donation base, and work toward building relationships with corporate donors.

The message that Advocates will seek to communicate is that it can provide professional, efficient, public interest legal aid to community members that otherwise could not afford access to the legal system to assert their rights. This message will be communicated through a variety of ways. The first method will be meeting with the leaders of different companies and encouraging them to make contributions to Advocates. Al will suggest that these contributions are helpful, not only for the civic virtue aspect of supporting a public interest organization that provides much needed legal aid services, but also helpful for the company itself as Al will leverage his marketing skills to develop visibility for these companies as supporters of Advocates. Advocates will have many different events used to raise money and visibility and Al will use these events to generate visibility for the supporting companies. This will be done because Al recognizes the company's need for some sort of payback or value from their charitable donation beyond tax benefits.

Al will be projecting the message to attorneys to donate their time. This will be done by leveraging both professional and law school contacts. Al will also be in close contact with the public interest law student organization at the University of Vermont for a couple of reasons. One reason is the ability to keep tabs on public interest attorneys that graduate from University and are practicing in the Burlington area. Al will also leverage the student organization by offering internships where he can generate interest in young, soon-to-be attorneys for practicing public interest law as well as leverage the students skills for interns.

Advocates will be an attractive organization to volunteer for because of the efficiencies that they have developed in serving clients. These efficiencies allow the organization to maximize its labor for serving the greater good of the community.

3.7 Marketing Mix

The Advocate's marketing mix is comprised of the following approaches to pricing, distribution, advertising and promotion, and customer service.

• Pricing: Advocates offers a sliding scale for payment based on the clients ability to pay. Many of the clients will end up not paying anything because of their income level. The pricing scale is set to provide some, albeit small amount of revenue for the organization as well as reduce the incentive for some citizens to try to abuse the services offered by Advocates.

• Distribution: Advocates are licensed to practice in Vermont, Massachusetts, and New Hampshire. Most of the services will be distributed from their office except court appearances and other meetings that require the attorney to be present outside the office or courtroom.

• Advertising and promotion: Advocates most successful advertising and promotion will be networking activities.

• Customer service: Although some people believe that not-for-profit organizations do not have a "customer," Advocates have identified theory customers and will treat them as they are indispensable for the success of Advocates business.


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3.8 Marketing Research

The majority of Advocates' market research has been the tracking of federal and state funds for legal aid. Recognizing that the socio-economic makeup of Vermont, specifically Burlington, has not changed much in the last decade, Advocates have been closely following the significant drop in government-based legal aid funding.

Their research has also been following the current public interest law organizations inability to meet the demand of citizens who were formerly served by the government-supported legal aid organizations.

4.0 Financials

This section will offer a financial overview of Advocates for Legal Equal Access as it related to its marketing activities. Advocates will address break-even analysis, funding forecasts, expense forecasts, and how they link to the marketing strategy.


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4.1 Break-even Analysis

The break-even analysis indicates that $5,700 is needed in monthly revenue to reach the break-even point.

($6,000)

($4,000)

($2,000)

$0

$2,000

$4,000

$6,000

$0 $2,000 $4,000 $6,000 $8,000 $10,000

Monthly break-even point

Break-even point = where line intersects with 0

Break-even Analysis

Table 4.1: Break-even Analysis

Break-even Analysis:Monthly Units Break-even 6Monthly Sales Break-even $5,700

Assumptions:Average Per-Unit Revenue $1,000.00Average Per-Unit Variable Cost $0.00Estimated Monthly Fixed Cost $5,700


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4.2 Funding Forecast

It is forecasted that initial funding will be slow for the first few months. Al will be making an initial donation which will be used for start-up costs. After month four as the organization is truly up and running and has gained visibility in the community, the donations will begin to flow in at a more regular rate. This applies to both fiscal donations as well as attorneys' donations of their time to take over case loads.

$0

$1,000

$2,000

$3,000

$4,000

$5,000

$6,000

$7,000

Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec

Companies

Individuals

Law firms

Monthly Funding Forecast

Table 4.2: Funding Forecast

Funding ForecastFunding 2001 2002 2003Companies $29,445 $37,455 $41,888Individuals $2,452 $4,500 $5,500Law firms $29,546 $36,778 $38,985Total Funding $61,443 $78,733 $86,373

Direct Cost of Funding 2001 2002 2003Companies $0 $0 $0Individuals $0 $0 $0Law firms $0 $0 $0Subtotal Cost of Funding $0 $0 $0


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4.3 Expense Forecast

The marketing expenses are to be budgeted so that certain expenses, particularly the events, will be larger in certain months than throughout the rest of the year. The first 12 months will be detailed per marketing effort per month. Subsequent years will be broken down per effort per year. Please refer to the chart for a graphical representation of how the expenses will be spread out during the year.

$0

$100

$200

$300

$400

$500

$600

$700

$800

$900

Company/law firm networking

Individual attorney networking

Fund-raising/social events

Public interest organization networking

Monthly Expense Budget

Table 4.3: Marketing Expense Budget

Marketing Expense Budget 2001 2002 2003Company/law firm networking $1,500 $1,800 $2,500Individual attorney networking $900 $900 $900Fund-raising/social events $1,750 $2,000 $2,200Public interest organization networking $600 $600 $600

------------ ------------ ------------Total Funding and Marketing Expenses $4,750 $5,300 $6,200Percent of Funding 7.73% 6.73% 7.18%Contribution Margin $56,693 $73,433 $80,173Contribution Margin / Funding 92.27% 93.27% 92.82%


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5.0 Controls

The purpose of Advocates for Legal Access' marketing plan is to gauge performance in the following areas:

• Funding: monthly and annual. • Expense: monthly and annual. • Repeat business. • Customer satisfaction.

5.1 Implementation

The following milestones identify key marketing programs. It is important to accomplish each one on time, and on budget.

Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct

Marketing plan completion

Social/networking event #1



Public interest law student organization networking

Securing five attorneys for pro bono work

Milestones

Table 5.1: Milestones

Milestones PlanMilestone Start Date End Date Budget Manager DepartmentMarketing plan completion 1/1/01 2/1/01 AlSocial/networking event #1 1/1/01 4/1/01 $600 AlSocial/networking event #2 1/1/01 7/1/01 $500 AlSocial/networking event #3 1/1/01 10/1/01 $650 AlPublic interest law student organization networking

1/1/01 ongoing $600 Al

Securing five attorneys for pro bono work 1/1/01 10/15/01 AlTotals $2,350


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5.2 Marketing Organization

Al Rand will be solely responsible for marketing activities. This is in addition to his other responsibilities.

5.3 Contingency Planning

Difficulties and risks:

• Problems generating enough funds. • The arduous task of balancing a finite amount of time with serving the customers, the

mission of the organization, and raising funds, a requirement for the survival of the organization.

Worst case risks may include:

• Determining the organization is unsustainable. • Having to liquidate equipment to cover expenses.


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Table 4.2 Funding Forecast

Funding Forecast PlanFunding Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov DecCompanies $0 $1,000 $1,500 $2,254 $3,000 $2,845 $2,900 $3,005 $3,245 $2,995 $3,356 $3,345Individuals $0 $75 $125 $150 $200 $225 $150 $200 $245 $287 $350 $445Law firms $0 $1,245 $1,400 $2,645 $3,254 $3,300 $2,985 $2,745 $2,978 $3,004 $2,845 $3,145Total Funding $0 $2,320 $3,025 $5,049 $6,454 $6,370 $6,035 $5,950 $6,468 $6,286 $6,551 $6,935

Direct Cost of Funding Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov DecCompanies $0 $0 $0 $0 $0 $0 $0 $0 $0 $0 $0 $0Individuals $0 $0 $0 $0 $0 $0 $0 $0 $0 $0 $0 $0Law firms $0 $0 $0 $0 $0 $0 $0 $0 $0 $0 $0 $0Subtotal Cost of Funding $0 $0 $0 $0 $0 $0 $0 $0 $0 $0 $0 $0

Appendix: Advocates for Legal Equal Access

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Table 4.3 Marketing Expense Budget

Marketing Expense Budget Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov DecCompany/law firm networking $100 $125 $150 $150 $100 $100 $100 $125 $125 $150 $150 $125Individual attorney networking $75 $75 $75 $75 $75 $75 $75 $75 $75 $75 $75 $75Fund-raising/social events $0 $100 $500 $0 $0 $500 $0 $0 $650 $0 $0 $0Public interest organization networking $50 $50 $50 $50 $50 $50 $50 $50 $50 $50 $50 $50

------------ ------------ ------------ ------------ ------------ ------------ ------------ ------------ ------------ ------------ ------------ ------------Total Funding and Marketing Expenses $225 $350 $775 $275 $225 $725 $225 $250 $900 $275 $275 $250Percent of Funding 0.00% 15.09% 25.62% 5.45% 3.49% 11.38% 3.73% 4.20% 13.91% 4.37% 4.20% 3.60%Contribution Margin ($225) $1,970 $2,250 $4,774 $6,229 $5,645 $5,810 $5,700 $5,568 $6,011 $6,276 $6,685Contribution Margin / Funding 0.00% 84.91% 74.38% 94.55% 96.51% 88.62% 96.27% 95.80% 86.09% 95.63% 95.80% 96.40%

Appendix: Advocates for Legal Equal Access

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non-profit law firm marketing plan

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