Exploring the True Cost of Sustainability
Client: National philanthropic organization
The Challenge: This client wanted to develop a strategic plan for assessing and building the sustainability of six of its grantee organizations that they deemed as “proven programs.” The challenge was to help the client's senior leadership team develop a strategic plan that would enhance the capacity and capabilities of the six grantee organizations to develop sustainable fundraising plans that included robust business or organizational development plans. Many of the grantee organizations worked across the client's metropolitan region and some of them were regional affiliates of larger national nonprofit organizations.
Our Approach: Unlike other engagements, we appproached this one with an eye toward how to manage the political sensitivites of working for a major funder while also looking to accurately and honestly assess the "sustainability needs" of large, popular programs. We designed a flexible approach that involved a blend of coaching sessions with the leaders of the grantee organizations, coupled with an unbiased assessment of the true costs of running each program.
The Work: Through our work with this client, we demonstrated a number of our core business capabilities:
- data collection and data analysis;
- in-depth interviews with staff and board;
- facilitated planning sessions with 6 grantee organizations;
- financial analysis of the financial condition for each organization;
- tools to assist the senior leaders with budgeting and financial planning;
- an organizational assessment in key functional and program areas;
- a comprehensive SWOT and PESTEL analysis; and
- a written strategic plan with communications recommendations on how it should be presented and framed to the board, staff, customers, and other stakeholders.
Outcomes: Over the six-month period we worked with the client, we worked directly with 6 community-based organizations, providing each of them with leadership and organizational development plans based on our assessment of what it would take to increase the capability and capacity of the organization to deliver high-quality, high-impact programming. We also developed a strategic assessment of the client's grantmaking activities. Our assessment included candid recommendations on what is working and what is hindering the client’s strategic initiatives to advance education in its backyard (metropolitan region).
