Center for the Visually Impaired, Inc.

Our organizational goals for 2021-2022 are:
• Maximize the number of people we serve.
• Provide high quality, cost-effective services centered on the needs of clients and their families.
• Foster organizational capacity to learn, fulfill mission, and navigate change.
• Maximize resources to fuel CVI's mission.
CVI’s strategic plan challenges us increase the number of people we serve through our low vision clinic and adult rehabilitation programs to approximately 1,800 over the next two years. Serving the growing numbers of people who need us will mean restructuring our programs with a shift to a more customer focused, entrepreneurial model. This approach offers the dual benefits of creating pressure to innovate and enhance quality as we generate additional revenue and instill financial discipline.

CVI’s two-year strategic initiatives include:
Establish a Financial Assistance Fund to ensure access to services regardless of a person’s ability to pay, as we incorporate private pay fees into our operating model.
To fulfill our mission and values, while achieving sustainability, CVI must attract people with the ability to pay for their services and ensure that those who cannot pay receive the same levels of care and opportunity.
Each service is offered at an appropriate fee. For clients with financial barriers, we offer a sliding fee scale to determine their appropriate contribution. The financial assistance fund will support the difference between the cost of the service and the amount a person may be able to pay.
Restructure Programs to develop a more sustainable operating and business model to ensure high quality services are available to the greatest possible number of people.
Offering a menu of services so that people can select the services they want based on their goals is the cornerstone of our shift towards monetizing our core capacities. The menu creates a pathway into the programs and choice architecture for people who seek us out or are referred by their doctor.
We have developed a menu of services for the clinic and adult services, and piloting menus for children’s/youth services. When people can select their own goals and act on them, they are more empowered and effective in their adjustment to vision loss.

Build Capacity by investing in our home, staff development, planning and change management.
Our home is a financial and programmatic asset. After twenty years, we need to invest in capital improvements. Priorities include refreshing the patient lobby, including improved lighting for people with vision loss, plumbing upgrades, establishing an assessment room for BEGIN, painting, replacing the front portico awning, and improving the accessibility of entrances.
Capacity investments also include investing in staff credentials and development, program evaluation, longer term strategic planning, and change management to create the conditions and culture to succeed in a new operating model.

Expand our Reach as we shift beyond reliance on referrals to engaging more directly with the community and smoothing pathways into our programs for people who need us.
We will invest in outreach to doctors, senior centers and communities, schools, and the broader community to ensure that people who need us know we are here to help. We will invest further in creating smoother on ramps into the programs through staff training, our website and brand, and aligning job roles to better support clients.
We must invest in market research and focus groups to gain the information we need to invest resources appropriately in outreach and design programs that meet people’s needs. Our outreach design will be based in the dual purpose of making sure people know we are here and creating the circumstances where they can more easily gain help.

Leadership is a critical success factor for CVI in all its work. We are fortunate to be governed by a fully engaged board of community leaders who support CVI financially, set strategic goals, and provide financial oversight and stewardship.

The Board has remained steadfast in its commitment to CVI as we have confronted difficult financial decisions, the pandemic, and a leadership transition. Fontaine Huey, our President for 7 years, announced her retirement in the fall of 2019. Lisa Kennedy became CEO and President in February 2020 after having served as Interim President. She is working closely with the Board in testing the assumptions and initiatives in the current two-year plan and will lead a longer-term vision and strategies for programs, program-centered earned revenue, and development.

Our board has played a pivotal role over the past year. New board members and long-time leaders have embraced possibilities for change. They are building relationships with program partners and philanthropic supporters as they lead the way in supporting CVI financially. With 100% participation from CVI’s governing, foundation, and lifetime board members have contributed $184,000 in pledges and gifts this year, an increase of 29% over last year.

We anticipate total costs of $2,863,050 to fully implement the strategic initiatives. Of this amount, $1,550,000 will be generated through earned revenue from program fees, rental income, and government fee for service contracts. The $1.3 million balance will be funded through philanthropic support from the CVI family, other individual donors, and foundations.

Our professional staff includes three optometrists with low vision specialty, an occupational therapist with low vision certification, two certified orientation and mobility instructors, and teachers of the visually impaired with special education training, Braille and activities of daily living teacher, and assistive technology. Seven of our full-time staff are blind or visually impaired.

Like other organizations, our operations and revenue have been disrupted for almost a year as programs have remained remote or operated at limited scale. Many people who need us cannot gain the help they need because of their risk for COVID complications. We have sought to make the best possible use of the disruptions to thoroughly assess CVI’s mission, programs, and purpose in our community. This assessment, in partnership with the board and program staff, has energized us about new solutions and the future.

• Recruited two new doctors and added two clinic days each week. We now offer 10 days of appointments every month as well as offer exams in a satellite clinic serving Gwinnett County.
• Updated the website so it is client-center and fully accessible. Established marketing and outreach plan and increased staff capacity for outreach.
• Developed menus for clinic and adult programs. Promoted a Certified Orientation and Mobility trainer to manage the adult services program.
• Developed and implemented sliding fee scales. We moved a staff member into a full-time role
to manage implementation of sliding fee scale and Financial Assistance Fund across programs.
• Received $97K in pledges and gifts to date toward our Financial Assistance Fund. The board seeded the fund with $36K. Foundations have committed $60K.