Symphonic Strategies has worked with a variety of partners to bring new thinking and innovative ideas to collective efforts to improve society. In each case, our goal is to equip leaders with robust tools and holistic strategies that make transformational change more likely, more sustainable, and more impactful. We approach your challenges like a jazz band, blending mastery of a craft with the creativity and art of improvisation.
Here are some examples of recent initiatives:
Alarming numbers of Americans negotiate life with literacy skills that are at or below the 4th grade level in reading, interpreting and/or comprehending written material, which includes basic math functions. Roughly forty-four million adults in the United States, more than twenty percent of the nation’s population, are classified as "functionally illiterate." The problem is particularly acute in the nation’s capital. According to statistics at the time, more than 130,000 residents, roughly forty percent of D.C.’s adult population), are "functionally illiterate."
In response to this glaring social problem, the University of the District of Columbia ("UDC"), under the auspice of the State Education Agency and the Agricultural Experiment Station (AES), commissioned Symphonic Strategies to help it fulfill one of UDC’s primary goals: "to be innovative in carrying out the traditional land-grant functions of teaching, research and public service to solve urban community problems and to improve the overall quality of urban living in the District of Columbia."
In light of the foregoing, Connie Spinner, Acting State Director of the State Education Agency, spearheaded an effort to increase the bank of information documenting the needs and preferences of D.C. residents with low literacy skills. Sensitive to the challenges involved with effectively engaging adults with low literacy skills, in early spring 2005, Ms. Skinner commissioned Symphonic Strategies to help UDC better understand and document the needs and stories of low-income, functionally illiterate residents in two of Washington, D.C.’s most impoverished Wards—Wards 7 and 8.
In this endeavor, Symphonic Strategies engaged target populations of the city’s residents with low literacy skills—high school dropouts, ex-offenders, single mothers, young adults (19-34 year olds) and recipients of Temporary Assistance to Needy Families—to help refine UDC’s understanding of their needs and preferences. Our unique cultural competencies, non-traditional outreach strategies and unconventional information gathering techniques enabled us to engage respondents from the target populations and extract valuable information from them.
Through the personal stories of the respondents and observations and recommendations of Symphonic Strategies, we helped UDC begin to paint a picture of how financial and other resource investments can be bundled and offered in the right order, in the proper amounts, and at the right time, from the standpoint of the often ignored "consumers of social services" – adults with limited literacy skills.
Read an excerpt from the personal stories of adult learners.
In 2006, the Annie E. Casey Foundation approached Symphonic Strategies and requested our assistance with one of their educational initiatives. Given the relatively large high school dropout rates across the city of Baltimore, the Casey Foundation wanted to better understand why large proportions of students and parents in low-income communities were failing to take full advantage of the City's school choice policy.
Under the policy in effect at the time, students and families in Baltimore could choose to attend any public high school in the city. Unfortunately, there were (and still are) distinct differences in the quality of the education experience being offered from school to school. It was no surprise that schools in lower income, predominantly minority communities were underperforming when compared to schools in the more wealthy neighborhoods.
So, why would a student or parent in one of the lower income areas of Baltimore not choose to attend a higher performing school in another area? What were the barriers to effectively participating in the City's school choice policy?
These are among the questions we were asked to answer. Using cutting-edge technology, we conducted focus groups with rising 8th grade boys and girls, and an adult caregiver from their family, to understand the factors that influence their decision as to which high school to attend. The results were striking.
Read an excerpt from Understanding Pathways to High School.
Often, nonprofit organizations can make a mistake of assuming that the people touched by its programs and services are monolithic, with uniform needs and prefereces. There is a long standing narrative that assumes the poor are the poor, with little recognition of the differences between individuals.
We were hired by Capital Partners for Education (CPE) to conduct a limited, four-week long research initiative designed to "test" these assumptions.
CPE is the only youth organization in the Washington Metropolitan area that provides students with a combination of private high school scholarships, adult mentors, and academic support and enrichment opportunities. The organization's reputation is built on the success of its placement services and placing students in high schools where they are likely to fail could have a devastating effect on the organization's reputation and the viability of its programs. Assuming all poor kids are alike is a decision that fails our children.
Our research initiative was designed to provide CPE with an outside look at some of the trends and facts associated with its student-mentoring program. We developed a customized data worksheet to tease out some of the data we believed would be important in our effort to identify trends and facts associated with CPE’s students and families. We asked CPE to provide us with data on a number of variables: student achievement, student’s code, annual household income, type of caregiver in the home, number of adults in the home, parent or guardian’s level of involvement with CPE, and parent or guardian’s level of involvement in the student’s school.
In addition to the data on the students and their families, we also designed a customized online survey for all 110 CPE mentors. We asked mentors a number of questions, including: why they chose to become a mentor, whether they have ever been a mentor before, and what kinds of support services they would like to see from CPE. We also devised an innovative way to test the relative “attractiveness” of roughly 10 different mentor enrichment activities designed specifically by CPE’s staff for the survey. We tested the attractiveness of things such as monthly outings with other mentor-mentee pairs, tips on how to help mentees resolve conflicts, and strategies on how to deal with an unresponsive mentee.
The results of our research helped CPE better understand the needs and preferences of its students and mentors. More importantly, we helped the leadership devise cost-effective ways to improve student-mentor pairing, as well as to enhance its support services for mentors.
In the fall of 2006, the Fannie Mae Foundation and the D.C. Children and Youth Investment Trust Corporation came to Symphonic Strategies with a desire to increase the quantity of high-quality programs serving the unserved and underserved communities in the District of Columbia, particularly those east of the Anacostia River in Wards 7 and 8.
Working with them, Symphonic Strategies designed and led a year-long initiative to strengthen the capacity and capabilities of out-of-school time, youth-serving organizations and their leaders, expanding their reach into new areas of the city, and deepening their impact on the youth and their families.
Symphonic coaches led each of the six participating organizations through a comprehensive, 8-step strategic planning process. Throughout the process, each organization received intensive, one-on-one coaching and guidance to help the leadership make informed strategic decisions about how to strengthen the capacity of the organization to better serve children.
Participating organizations received:
Before the initiative, participants:
After the initiative, participants HAD:
In the fall of 2007, the DC Children and Youth Investment Trust Corporation (Trust) asked Symphonic Strategies to help it develop its “Gender Specific Initiative.” The Trust was expanding upon its existing efforts to increase the capacity and extend the reach of out of school time (OST) programs in Washington, D.C for girls and young women.
Working with the Trust, we designed an exciting six-month program designed to build a sharing and learning community among high-performing, community-based organizations that served girls.
Throughout the initiative, Symphonic Strategies:
In 2006, Symphonic Strategies partnered with the DC Children and Youth Investment Trust Corporation (Trust) to design and implement a new approach to capacity-building for nonprofit organizations. The collaboration focused on training and elevating successful nonprofit leaders, especially leaders of color, as well as on strengthening and replicating successful nonprofits.
Symphonic Strategies designed the learning and instructional model and developed the name for a cutting-edge capacity-building initiative called “The Institute for New Leaders, New Communities.” The model strategically combines organizational capacity-building with individual leadership development to systematically build both the pipelines of leaders and of stronger nonprofit organizations.
Since 2006, 24 nonprofit leaders in the Washington, DC area have participated in the program. They have received online and in-class instruction, executive coaching, peer group learning and offsite retreats. The participants in the Institute graduate from the program feeling empowered and renewed in their charge to further the mission and vision of their organizations.
What our clients are saying about us:
"Symphonic Strategies helps me share best practices with my peers. There's something that is so rewarding about that; getting outside of the day-to-day management of our own organizations...and learning...."
Allison Kokkoros, Principal Carlos Rosario International Public Charter School
"I would highly recommend this program. I tell people...to look at it as a time for themselves, to really come to be able to take a minute to exhale and enjoy and really get refreshed and renewed so that they can go out and do what they do."
Deborah Nix, Founder and Executive Director The Keys to Canaan
"That is what we need, that kind of innovation. You don't get that often as an executive director, especially in the nonprofit arena. So I know that I appreciate it."
Joe Harris, III, Executive Director Mentors, Inc.
“I recommend Symphonic Strategies to everybody. They're really, really good and they're different at figuring out what it is that nonprofit leaders need to know and helping them apply real-world, sometimes for-profit solutions, but tailored to nonprofits....Symphonic Strategies is a unique organization and their time has come.”
Karin Walser, Executive Director Horton's Kids
"I was inspired; definitely challenged...[We don't have to] view ourselves as the traditional nonprofit used to look. Although we're doing nonprofit work...it doesn't mean we have to look broke...and settle for status quo....We can still be great and do nonprofit work."
Kathy E. Pointer, Executive Director Youth Now! Inc.
"I know I'm going to get this reflection time on a regular basis over the next six months....This program...shifts the paradigm a little bit more so that nonprofits aren't thinking of other nonprofits as competitors. I think there is huge opportunity for the nonprofit community to do more by working together."
Lindsey Buss, President Martha's Table
"To hear people talk you through and walk you through what your next steps are....They give me the tools I need to get it to where I want it to be."
Li Thompson, Executive Director Progressive Sports & Entertainment Alliance, Inc.
"I see what Symphonic Strategies is doing as...an advanced class....We're able to approach topics from a completely different vantage point....We can start talking about how we build for the next five years, versus how do we survive the first five years."
Mazi Mutafa, Executive Director Words Beats & Life
"Symphonic Strategies allows me to give to myself, to get centered again back to the cause, rejuvenate....It's an exciting experience and it is thought provoking...completely top of the line."
Susan Hoskins, Executive Director Coalition for Economic Empowerment
"Symphonic Strategies is offering me an executive coach to help me through the process of being an executive and planning for my own organization....Every executive director that I know should try to do this."
Aishah Bilal, Executive Director WELLNess, Inc.
"It is easy to find consultants who will give you good advice. However, it is rare that you can find consultants who will roll-up their sleeves and provide nonprofits with the support they need to accomplish their goals and objectives. We found Symphonic Strategies to be one of those rare consultant firms that provided great advice, as well as excellent practical guidance and support."
Mary Bogle, Chief of Program Development & Evaluation LifeSTARTS
"Symphonic Strategies has assisted DC SCORES in taking our program evaluation to the next level. They began by helping us examine our current methods of evaluation, and they facilitated a process by which we narrowed our programmatic outcomes so they are measurable and more accurately communicate our true impact. Symphonic Strategies was very professional, timely, and forward-thinking. Throughout our partnership, I felt that Symphonic Strategies was truly invested in us and our ability to become a stronger community based organization. From facilitating board and staff discussions, conducting leadership development for our executive director, to revamping our evaluation process, DC SCORES has been more than pleased with the work of Symphonic Strategies. I would say the most unique strength of Symphonic Strategies is their ability to work within our culture or way of doing things and helped moved us forward as an organization, rather than imposing a subscribed model that most likely would not have been a good fit for DC SCORES."
Amy Nakamoto, Executive Director DC Scores
"Symphonic Strategies assisted Columbia Heights Youth Club with developing a strategic plan in order to clarify the direction the organization should move. Initially, I was nervous about taking on this huge effort, however, the Symphonic Strategies team alleviated my fears with their caring approach and high level of professionalism. The time they spent learning about our organization, working with us to think through our issues, and helping us to develop our mission and goals was invaluable. Currently, we are continuing our relationship with Symphonic Strategies to begin implementation of the strategic plan. I would highly recommend this company to other nonprofit leaders who are interested in taking their organizations to a new level."
Gail Oliver, Executive Director Columbia Heights Youth Club
"I enjoyed working with Symphonic Strategies. They helped us to develop a strategic plan that is currently in use. I would strongly recommend them to other nonprofit organizations."
Stacey Erd, Executive Director Beacon House