Defining what your organization is capable of is tricky. We want to believe that with the support of our board, staff, and volunteers we can do anything, but the truth is every organization has limits to what outcomes they can produce based on their funding, staffing, and service area. Understanding and working within your organization’s capacity will prevent burn out and improve your ability to achieve your goals. 

But…what IS capacity? 

Imagine you want to start a taxi service, so you buy a brand-new car with all the bells and whistles. Are you now capable of running a taxi service? No. What you have is an essential piece of equipment. To have the capacity to operating a taxi service you must also be able to: 

• Have the vehicle licensed.  

• Have a vehicle that can pass any required safety inspections. 

• Meet qualification to be licensed as a cab for hire company. 

• Procure insurance for the organization and vehicle. 

• Hire a driver with proper licensure, experience, or credentials. 

• Have GPS or other system to help driver travel unfamiliar areas. 

• Pay for gas, regular maintenance, and repairs. 

• Have a method to securely accept payment. 

• Etc, etc, etc. 

Once the company has all of these things in place you have the capacity necessary to begin operations. After your first year of operations, you can decide if your organization has the capacity to sustain the operations of one taxi or if you have enough demand (and income) to grow your business in the future.  

Dangers of Operating Above Capacity

For the Client: Being unable to meet demand, long waitlists, and denying service. 

For the Organization: Staff feel overburdened, have unrealistic expectations placed on them, increasing feelings of burnout, and staff turnover.

How we can help