By Nan Moore, President - United Way of
Tyler/Smith County, Texas
Even well-established organizations experience turbulence from time to time and
for various reasons. Our organization is no exception.
United Way of Tyler/Smith County was
founded in 1940 and has experienced many periods of growth and stagnation over
the years. A few months ago, during a very difficult period, the board of
directors took the steps necessary to replace the organization's professional
and volunteer leadership. These significant changes provided us an opportunity
to take a good long look at who we are and where we are headed. We decided to do
this serious soul-searching with the help of nonprofit industry experts,
Diversified Nonprofit Services (DNS).
The two initial steps in our journey were an assessment of the community's
perception of us and our services and a board retreat focused on strategy
development.
Diversified Nonprofit Services President, Kevin Bingham led us through these
important steps. It was essential to the process that a third-party conducted
the community assessment to remove any perception of bias on the part of those
being interviewed and to provide a safe environment for honest responses to the
questions that DNS developed and asked the participants. We specifically
requested input from community leaders and donors who did not support our
organization. We wanted to find out why people chose not to give. Kevin Bingham
conducted individual interviews and facilitated focus groups to gather useful
information about our organization. The assessment report was thorough and many
participant responses were consistent with issues we knew we needed to address,
but Kevin also unearthed some "ah ha" information that we have been compelled to
examine.
With community comments and DNS recommendations in hand, the next step was the
board's strategic response to issues that had been identified. Although the
board is made up of corporate and community leaders with recognized influence,
Kevin's expertise in facilitating the strategic exercises proved to be unique
and invaluable to everyone involved. The process helped the board determine the
core purpose, core competencies, core values, a new mission statement, and a
vivid goal that will take our organization to new heights of service and
recognition. The results are also evident in the improved commitment of our
campaign cabinet and the board of directors.
Many of the changes considered necessary will take time and as with most
organizations, staying on track is a challenge we face in completing our
organizational transformation. However, we are not concerned that we will
succeed because Kevin and the experienced consultants at DNS are just a phone
call or visit away.
The mission of United Way of Tyler/Smith
County is: "Caring for our community by partnering with You". The United Way of
Tyler/Smith County raised $2,055,000 in its 2008 campaign.
