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The Organization

This youth leadership organization traces its lineage to the 19th Century. Its most recent transformation occurred within the last two years, when five organizations merged and essentially created a new institution. The goal of this fundamental change was to revitalize core programs, engage new audiences and grow the impact of the organization long-term, to meet evolving societal needs. The organization serves thousands of individuals statewide with an annual budget of more than $7 million dollars. A staff of over 120 and literally thousands of volunteers are engaged in achieving the organization’s impact.

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The Process

The need for a new strategic plan assuring coordination and alignment of all activities and programs was apparent. An effective planning process must involve the ideas, energies and commitment of the people who ultimately must implement the plan’s actions.

In addition to creating a plan, the goal of this assignment was fostering greater alignment among and between the Board, staff and volunteers around the future direction of the new organization. An important aspect of the process was role clarification, establishing the right forums for the Board to set overall direction, based on ideas and inputs from the Staff. The Staff was then charged with implementing actions supporting the Board’s overall direction. It is the Board’s role to then monitor implementation; ensuring follow up actions are conforming to the direction it has set. This role clarification will serve the organization well as they implement the plan

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The Outcome 

The planning process strengthened the understanding of roles and provided opportunities for input from multiple perspectives within the organization. The resulting focus was on balancing the five key components of the organization – its market, programs, organization, human resources and capital resources, with a special emphasis on systems building. Over time, the forward momentum of this organization depends on the strength of each of these components and the related systems to support consistent organizational results and provide information for ongoing situation analysis.