OUR SERVICES
Creating Substantive Change Through Strategic Guidance
BRING US YOUR CHALLENGE
No matter the challenge, The Strategy Group can create a customized pathway for transformative change and significantly greater mission impact. Incorporating leading-edge and forward-thinking strategies, we are committed to guiding and supporting nonprofits and public sector organizations from top to bottom.
STRATEGY DEVELOPMENT
Planning helps organizations prepare for their future, which can feel so uncertain at times, and provides clarity on where you want to go and how you can get there. It can also help you anticipate and manage change. Both the planning process and product are key to helping align expectations and improve communications. With planning, one size does not fit all. We provide multiple avenues for organizations to explore where they are, where they want to go, and how they will get there.
- Strategic Planning: Strategic planning helps organizations achieve clarity, set priorities and strategies, determine resource implications, and establish outcome metrics. When thinking about planning, we often think about the product — the strategic plan. The planning process is also integral to helping create a common language, understand alternate viewpoints, and develop a strong, sustainable future. We will work with you to determine what planning model best fits your needs.
- Organizational Assessments: Whether you want to assess your culture, program performance, staff satisfaction, or board engagement, conducting a single or multi-dimensional assessment can give you a deeper understanding of where your organization stands. A key function of any assessment is to identify strengths, shared concerns, and priority actions.
- Program Modeling: A solid plan is the blueprint for a successful program. We can help you formulate (or fine tune) your program model. Clear and concise logic models for new or existing programs help you to understand what you need, what you do, what you want to accomplish, and how you will measure success.
LEADERSHIP DEVELOPMENT
Success comes down to people. Organizations that make a commitment to talent management, for both board and staff, achieve greater results. Our governance work focuses on helping board members understand how effective boards function and their roles within the organization. We work with staff on multiple levels, from executive to line staff, to develop highly competent and ethical leaders with advanced knowledge and skills in the areas of nonprofit management.
- Executive Coaching: Executive coaching helps leaders gain insight into their professional styles, skills, and values. The goal is to help leaders go from where they are to where they need to be. We work with current or emerging leaders to understand and strengthen their competencies.
- Board Development: Purposeful boards understand their roles in helping organizations live their missions. We provide guidance and resources to boards on topics ranging from nonprofit governance trends to committee structures and roles to how to be an excellent board chair.
- Leadership Training: Excellent organizations invest in their staff on multiple levels. Professional development is a valuable tool for fostering growth. We provide one-time workshops as well as longer-term leadership development programs designed to build strong future leaders. Topic examples: Planning, Building Effective Teams, Effective Supervision, and Conflict Resolution.
“We walked away with actionable, direct advice that helps ensure we’re engaged in top-notch leadership and care practices so we can attract and retain the best and the brightest team members. The Strategy Group is an invaluable partner in our work.”
Mike Duggan, Executive Director
Domus
EXECUTIVE TRANSITIONS
A key to mission-driven success is excellent leadership. Leadership transitions can be times of great opportunity – and anxiety. Our goal with executive searches is to find a candidate with the experience and passion to bring your organization to new levels of performance. We also work with organizations who know a transition is in the works and want to ensure it is smooth and thoughtful.
- Senior Leadership Searches: With executive searches we help you hire exceptional talent and ensure a smooth transition. We will work closely with your search committee to clarify your needs, recruit a pool of highly qualified candidates, screen applicants, interview and reference check, negotiate the offer, and provide support post-hire.
- Transition Management: Successful transitions occur when board and staff rise to the occasion and thoughtfully plan and support change. We are brought in to help develop succession plans and to work with board and staff during the transition. While each transition is unique, oftentimes remaining leadership needs help with navigating relationships, defining roles, and ensuring honest communication.
MERGERS & STRATEGIC PARTNERSHIPS
Strategic partnerships and mergers can be meaningful tools to strengthen program quality and realize organizational efficiencies. As the public and private funding environments tighten, strategic partnerships and mergers offer opportunities to advance your mission and strengthen your impact. Organizations pursue strategic partnerships, ranging from joint programming to shared administrative functions, where there are mutual benefits while remaining independent. Mergers involve a legal restructuring that may include the creation or dissolution of one or more organizations. Every merger is unique and must take into consideration the cultures, goals, strengths, and challenges of each partner.
- Exploration: Organizations often times want to explore partnership and merger options. Questions that need to be answered include: Why now? What do you want to achieve? Who might be an appropriate partner? Is there a strategic fit in terms of mission, services and culture? What are the potential risks and benefits?
- Negotiations: Once organizations feel comfortable that there is a strategic fit and decide to proceed, we will work with the organizations to conduct thorough due diligence and to create a joint partnership or merger plan. Both organizations will need legal representation to review a merger plan.
- Implementation: The legal piece of a merger is oftentimes the easy part. Integration of culture, systems, people and processes is more complex. We will help you develop an integration plan and work with you through the steps (and, sometimes, challenges) to full integration. You will also need appropriate legal representation to ensure smooth implementation.
