Market research, planning for nonprofits creates niche for consulting group

A down economy hasn’t stopped Perspectives Consulting Group from turning a profit.

The company’s ability to offer market research and strategic planning sets it apart, says Gary Goscenski, director of consulting services for Perspectives.

“There are a number of individuals and organizations that do strategic planning, but not market research,” Goscenski says. “The ability to offer both is an attractive option for the nonprofit sector clients we serve. This gives our clients future planning based on solid, statistically accurate information.”

Foundations, churches, United Ways and schools make up Perspectives client base.  The Paw Paw-based business was established in 1987 by Goscenski and Paul Lane, a professor of marketing at Grand Valley State University, who serves as Perspectives senior consultant.

Even though the nonprofit sector has been affected by the economic downturn as much as the for-profit sector, Goscenski says nonprofits still need to plan. Now many of those plans involve finding the best uses for increasingly limited resources.  At any given time Perspectives 15-employee workforce is working on between 10 and 15 projects.

“As the impact started to take hold in 2008 we saw nonprofits not getting donor support,” Goscenski says.

As financial contributions began to decrease, the client loads for these nonprofits increased.

The impact on the state’s nonprofit sector prompted Goscenski and Lane to seek opportunities outside of Michigan.  Gosecnski said five years ago 80 percent of their clients would have been Michigan-based.

“We’ve gone from 80 percent to 20 percent,” he says. “In the last two years we’ve started doing business in 20 states more to the south than anywhere else.”

Writer: Jane Parikh
Source: Gary Goscenski, Perspectives Consulting Group