Developing Future Athletes in our Local Communities

Opportunity

An early-stage nonprofit that provides elite-level summer sports camps to low-income youth needed direction and facilitation assistance in designing a five year strategic plan to realize their growth ambitions.

The nonprofit believes every child should have the opportunity to be an elite athlete on and off the court. They do this by providing free sports and educational based programs to minority and under-resourced communities. The nonprofit’s small full-time staff and board had successfully grown their programs and procured grant funding and the leadership team wanted to build on their past successes. They had a few ideas surrounding their future direction but needed help connecting these ideas together to scale their services and grow the organization.

Solution

Pepper Foster led the nonprofit’s leadership team through a series of workshops, starting with a strategy brainstorm and ending with an execution plan:

1. Brainstorming - Pepper Foster facilitated a meeting with stakeholders to understand where the nonprofit is now, what their vision for the future is, and what challenges they face.
2. Identify Strategies - Between sessions, the Pepper Foster team met to identify themes and potential strategies for the organization to pursue. The second session was focused on ensuring alignment on those strategies and planning the work needed to accomplish the organization’s goals.
3. Execution - Pepper Foster built out a simple project management tool for the organization to use as they work and measure progress toward their goals. The Pepper Foster team also presented a framework for strategic prioritization, discussed some constraints the organization may face, and provided templates that could be useful to the group as they turn their plan into reality.

Outcome

Pepper Foster and the nonprofit’s leadership team identified strategies to meet the organization's five year goals. Strategic objectives were identified and the work to achieve these objectives was broken into manageable pieces. Additionally, Pepper Foster put together a timeline and milestones into a project planning tool so the nonprofit could track their progress.

A month after implementation, the nonprofit was successfully using the project management tool to execute on their goals and objectives. Pepper Foster looks forward to watching the organization scale its services in the Portland area and possibly beyond!