Case Study 2 — RYCC Builds a Pilot-to-Adoption Sustainability Story
Composite, for teaching. RYCC and partners are illustrative.
The Situation
Denise Okafor must write RYCC's sustainability and dissemination plan for the Hartwell Foundation. Her draft says, "We will seek additional funding to continue the program after the grant." This chapter tells her that's the magical, boilerplate version reviewers distrust — and that RYCC actually has a much stronger story to tell.
Applying the Chapter
She chooses real strategies. Running the menu honestly: earned revenue is limited (low-income families); but institutional absorption is genuinely promising — the school district has expressed interest in adopting a successful three-site model into its enrichment offerings, and Denise secures a letter of intent saying so. And diversified funding is real — she names specific local funders and a tech-company giving program (warm, via a board contact) she has begun cultivating. She builds the plan around these two strong, real strategies.
She frames the pilot-to-adoption pathway. This is RYCC's most attractive sustainability argument: "Hartwell's grant will prove a three-site model that the district is positioned to adopt and sustain within its enrichment budget." A modest foundation grant catalyzing district adoption offers Hartwell outsized leverage — its money is the catalyst, not the ongoing fuel. Denise makes the pathway explicit, with the letter of intent as evidence.
She shows the work begun during the grant. Rather than future-tense promises, she writes present-tense: "We have opened adoption discussions with the district (letter attached) and begun cultivating [named funders]; relationship-building is scheduled throughout the grant period." Sustainability is a process already underway, not a deferred wish.
She plans active dissemination. Beyond a community report, RYCC will produce a replication toolkit (curriculum, partnership model, lessons) so other neighborhoods can adapt the program, present at an education convening, and brief district and city officials who could expand CS access. The dissemination reaches the people who can replicate or scale — active translation. She budgets the toolkit production and report.
She frames it in Hartwell's mission. Not just "the program will continue" but "the youth-opportunity impact will endure and spread to other communities" — Hartwell's mission, extended.
The Trap She Avoids
Denise's "we will seek additional funding" draft would have read as boilerplate, signaling RYCC hadn't thought past the grant. By naming real strategies, framing the pilot-to-adoption pathway with evidence, showing work already underway, and planning active dissemination, she convinces a program officer that RYCC's impact will outlast the grant — often the deciding factor in a close call.
The Payoff
RYCC's plan tells the sustainability story funders most love: a small grant catalyzing permanent district adoption, backed by a letter of intent and already-underway work, with active dissemination spreading the model further. Hartwell sees not a program that will end when its money does, but a catalytic investment with lasting and spreading return.
Discussion Questions
- Why is RYCC's pilot-to-adoption pathway so attractive to a foundation, in terms of leverage?
- How does showing work "begun during the grant" (with the letter of intent) transform Denise's plan from a wish into a process?
- Compare RYCC's sustainability frame (project/absorption) to Hernandez's (impact) in Case Study 1. Why is each honest for its project, and what would go wrong if they swapped?