Learning, Growing!

Last week in Newark, I had an amazing experience with my consulting group, The Strategic Planning Pros – while working with one of our clients. We specialize in the nonprofit world and have recently been involved with organizations in farming and food insecurity—think RISE and Edgemere Farm.

Strategic planning is essentially setting an organization’s North Star goal—a bold vision for the future. We help clients craft a 3–5-year plan that outlines clear objectives and also provides a detailed roadmap to achieve them. It’s about balancing resource allocation with the needs, wants and aspirations of management, staff, and the communities that the nonprofits serve.

The purpose of last week’s treat was all about reaching a consensus on the organization’s North Star goal, following our data collections, interviews, and surveys within the nonprofit and community.  The discussions spanned a range of topics: ensuring community needs are met, engaging with the city on a deeper level (building long-term relationships), and aligning best practices with clear KPIs (key performance indicators) to measure success. We guided questions about focus, sustainability, racial equity, and the evolving opportunities connected to donors and funders. The day also brought out difficult discussions about the internal workings of the company’s culture, investing in skills, training for employees, and defining what success really means.

And we built terrariums as an icebreaker!

To kick things off, we got to know one another and created a safe space for communication. And the terrarium building was just the thing for the warm-up!

I feel incredibly fortunate. The team’s expertise in board management, fundraising, and leadership development is teaching me a tremendous amount. It’s a gift to watch these folks work. It was so inspiring and I have ideas to bring some of these concepts and organizational processes to The Beach 91st Community Garden – and where I see an opportunity to extend them to other groups on the peninsula. Please reach out to me if this resonates with you and your organization!

Nourishing Bodies, Minds and Neighborhoods. Sounds like a North Star goal for Rockaway!

For more on sustainability,  follow me  on Instagram: @theglorifiedtomato