Impact and Strategic Clarity Planning: Pre-Kickoff Materials

Impact and Strategic Clarity Planning: Pre-Kickoff Materials Innoweave October 2012

Agenda • Introduction to this process and expectations • Introduction to your organization • Next steps and deliverables before Nov 16th

Introducing The Bridgespan Group and team members for Impact and Strategic Clarity Planning The Bridgespan Group Your Bridgespan teammates for the Impact/Strategic Clarity project Bridgespan collaborates with mission-driven leaders and organizations to accelerate breakthrough social impact. A nonprofit ourselves, we share our clients’ passion for building a better world. (link to our website found here) Samantha Levine Manager Samantha.levine@bridgespan.org 617-572-2336 Chase Behringer Consultant Chase.Behringer@bridgespan.org 617-572-2753 • History: Founded in 2000 • Services: Strategy consulting, executive search, leadership development, philanthropy advising, and developing and sharing insights • Offices: Boston, New York, and San Francisco (~200 staff) • Clients: 400+ foundations and nonprofits globally Jennie Funk Consultant Jennifer.Funk@bridgespan.org 617-572-2653

Reminder of the Innoweave Impact and Strategic Clarity project goals • Innoweave aims to provide community sector leaders with new tools and processes to effect large-scale change • This project will help 14 nonprofit organizations to examine your current efforts in a structured and data-driven way: • What impact you aim to achieve • How you will achieve it • How you will measure your success

The project officially kicks off on Friday, Nov 16 (although preparation begins now!) Oct. 15: Participants selected Nov. 16: First workshop Jan. 17: Second workshop March 15: Official project end April 15: Feedback concludes • Prep for Workshop 1 includes creating a draft Intended Impact statement • Full details on the prep required contained in these materials • Draft your theory of change - the activities that you will pursue to achieve Intended Impact • Test theory of change • Complete a program analysis to determine your past performance relative to intended impact • Gather external evidence to see what implications that research has for your theory of change • Refine your theory of change based on the analyses • Create a learning agenda with the outstanding questions to investigate over the next 3-5 years • Determine implications for programs and operations, develop implementation plan One-hour coaching calls with Bridgespan every other week

Fourteen organizations will be working in parallel during this process

A few words on the role of the “shadow coaches” Why are there coaches? What role will the coaches play? Who are the coaches? • Innoweave’s goal is to increase the capacity of the community sector • One strategy to increase capacity is training others to support nonprofits in gaining strategic clarity • The trained coaches, well-versed in the tools and approach, can then take other nonprofits through a similar process • Coaches will “shadow” this process, attending both workshops and the regularly- scheduled calls between your organization and Bridgespan • While the coach’s primary responsibility is to listen and learn, coaches may also offer advice and thoughts during discussions based on their own extensive nonprofit experiences • The coaches are local community sector leaders who have been selected through a competitive application process • We are currently pairing a coach with your organization • The specific person shadowing your organization will be announced shortly

Expectations over the next six months Commitment & focus • This intensive process involves hours of senior team time beyond the regular Bridgespan check-ins • In order to reap the benefits we ask that you devote appropriate focus to the process Respect for schedules and deadlines • With 14 nonprofits to support, we can rarely accommodate changes to the check-in schedule so please guard our time on your calendars • Respect for deadlines is also an expectation Confidentiality • During our workshops you may learn about each others’ organizational challenges and key questions, which we ask all nonprofits to keep confidential Candid feedback • We seek to learn about both what is working well and what can be improved • We welcome feedback and ask that you share it early and often

At our pre-kickoff meeting we would love to learn more about your organization and answer your questions Questions for discussion Other topics that you may have questions about • How would you describe the overall goal of your organization and the audience you aim to serve? • What are the central opportunities and challenges facing your organization today? • What questions you are hoping to answer through the project? • What else are you most excited to take away from this process? • You team structure for this project • What the actual work will be like, and how much time it will take • What to prepare for our Nov 16 workshop (also covered in the next section) • Anything else? Please bring any and all questions to our pre-kickoff meeting!

Next steps and deliverables before Nov 16th • Read “Delivering on the Promise of Nonprofits” • Watch a short video on Intended Impact/Theory of Change (the link to which will be sent over email soon) and draft your organization’s Intended Impact • Plan Board engagement • Begin gathering data for the Program Analysis • Schedule check-ins with Bridgespan (via Doodle poll, the link to which will be sent over email soon) 1 2 Pre-work 3 4 Logistics 5

1 Before the kickoff, please read “Delivering on the Promise of Nonprofits” • The article, written by three senior Bridgespan partners, provides an overview of Bridgespan’s accumulated knowledge on the importance of strong strategies, and how to develop one • It explains four questions nonprofits should rigorously address: • Which results will we hold ourselves accountable for? • How will we achieve them? • What will the results really cost, and how can we fund them? • How do we build the organization we need to deliver those results? • It also includes a case study about Harlem Children’s Zone • We will refer to this at the kickoff and throughout the process

2 There are several elements to strategic clarity, intended impact being a critical element upfront What are you doing for whom and how? Your intended impact statement answers “What” and “For whom” Priorities & resources; Organization Measures

2 Intended impact defines success for your organization What is the impact that you will hold yourself accountable for achieving, in what timeframe? What? For whom? = Intended impact The following slides and the Intended Impact/ Theory of Change video (which will be emailed soon) will help you prepare a draft intended impact statement to bring to the Nov 16 workshop

2 When crafting your intended impact statement, keep your ambition realistic Harlem Children’s Zone Spanish Students Now 2009 budget: $40M 2009 budget: $1.5M Over the next decade, Harlem Children’s Zone (HCZ) will help children aged 0-18 living in the HCZ to make a successful transition to an independent, healthy adulthood, reflected in achievement profiles consistent with those in an average middle-class community. Spanish Students Now seeks to help native Spanish-speaking students in Los Angeles to graduate from high school prepared for college and careers. Specific and achievable Specific, but not as realistic, given the budget

2 Additional sample Intended Impact statements • Homeless Youth Services (HYS) seeks to assist homeless youth age 12-23 in Washington D.C. to permanently exit life on the streets. • The Enrichment Program’s (TEP) target population is students of color living in low income urban communities in grades K – 6 who are currently performing below grade level in school. Within this group, the Program seeks to improve individuals’ academic performance and self-concept, with the eventual goal of increasing their engagement as positive members and leaders within their communities. • Increase by 50% the number of first generation college graduates from San Francisco by 2015. • The San Francisco Child Abuse Prevention Center provides direct services, education, and systems coordination to prevent child abuse and neglect in San Francisco and the greater Bay Area. Over the next 5-10 years, SFCAPC will improve safety outcomes for children age 0-12 living in San Francisco and the greater Bay Area who are at the greatest risk for abuse and neglect. • Create a healthy, sustainable ecosystem and reverse global warming by reducing carbon emissions to a safe, sustainable level, in part by achieving a mandated combined average fleet fuel economy of 40 MPG in the U.S. transportation sector within five years.

2 Intended Impact template (optional – use only if helpful to structure your thoughts) Target beneficiaries of <ORG> • <Articulation of beneficiaries> Target outcomes we intend to achieve for them (and measures) • Outcomes we track while in our program • <Specific measure> • <Specific measure> • Etc. • Outcomes we will track up end of program • <Specific measure> • <Specific measure> • Etc. • Long-term outcomes we intend to track/achieve • <Specific measure> • <Specific measure> • Etc.

3 Think now about how your board will engage • Early on, the full board selects 1-4 people (“key board members”) who are interested in being more deeply involved in strategic planning • The key board members meet with the work group regularly to provide input and advice every 3-4 weeks • The key board members update the rest of the board at each of the regularly scheduled board meetings • At the end of the process, the full board approves the strategic direction • Note: in some cases, board members have served as full work group members and attended all weekly meetings Review your currently scheduled board meetings and create a plan for board involvement using the plan template sent over email

3 Suggested topics and timing for engaging your Board Oct. 15: Participants selected Nov. 16: First workshop Jan. 17: Second workshop March 15: Official project end April 15: Feedback concludes Potential Board touchpoints • Introduce this process to the full Board and identify a subset willing to engage more closely in the process • Schedule regular check-ins with this subgroup • Review draft Intended Impact/ Theory of Change with the subgroup • Receive early input • Check in with full Board • Review early findings from Program and External Evidence Analyses • Refine Theory of Change as needed • Discuss implications of analyses on programs and operations with subgroup • Brainstorm ideas for strategic direction • Meet with full Board to present and gain approval for strategic direction and imple-mentation plan

4 Also before workshop #1, start to fill out the Program Info sheet needed to complete the Program Analysis What is the Program Info sheet? What is the Program Analysis? • We have provided a template for program information data that will be crucial to have in business planning, but can take time to gather • The act of gathering this data can also be very revealing • Comparing “target” vs. “actual” data can generate important insights about each program • In addition, if you discover that it is very difficult to gather certain information, that is also a valuable finding • Begin filling these out now, and ideally complete them by workshop #1 • An analysis examining your past program data to see how well you are currently performing against your draft impact statement • Are you serving the intended beneficiary group? • Are they receiving the intended services in the right doses? • Who is (and is not) achieving the desired outcomes, and why?

5 Please indicate time preferences for your regular check-ins with Bridgespan • We would also like to schedule regular check-ins between your organization, Bridgespan and the shadow coach as soon as possible to decrease the chance that future conflicts will arise • As a reminder, we have meetings with all 14 organizations every other week and as a result can only accommodate rescheduling requests for truly extenuating circumstances • Please fill out the Doodle poll (which will be emailed to you soon) to indicate your availability ASAP, so we can block time in all participant calendars

Recap and details Next steps How and when Pre-work Logistics

Any other questions? ? Feel free to contact us at any time!

Impact and Strategic Clarity Planning: Pre-Kickoff Materials