Case Studies         

GCA is currently engaged in assisting mid-size nonprofits with board development, strategic planning and increasing their visibility. 

Organizational Planning

GCA was retained by an organization whose Executive Director was going on sabbatical. Although the agency was expecting to do a full strategic plan upon her return, she needed an immediate solution for how to divide the programs between the two supervisory staff in her absence and felt that she was too narrow in her vision having been so used to the existing structure. Gail Goodman facilitated an all day retreat with executive and senior management staff and solicited their ideas for solutions through a series of group activities. The Executive Director had a solution for the agency’s organizational structure by the end of the meeting.

Raising Organization Visibility and Networking

A regional affiliate of a national organization hired a new Executive Director who was not familiar with the geographical area and did not have local contacts. She immediately identified two needs for the organization: to increase the agency’s visibility and build relationships with more diverse groups. GCA organized meetings and introductions with local community members and representative groups to familiarize them with her agency’s services.

Replication Planning

An agency that had achieved success with their program and had tried a small replication project wanted to expand the area served by their organization. GCA worked with them to develop a reasonable, strategic expansion plan which would not overtax the organization’s capacity but would allow the agency to grow while maintaining a solid infrastructure. GCA then identified possible funding sources and developed a proposal template.    

Strategic Planning

We were retained by a small environmental organization to do strategic planning.  When we started, the board was not aligned around the geographical scope of the organization’s programming, or the possible strategic issues facing the organization as it moved into the future.  Gail Goodman and Molly Penn began by doing extensive market research: interviewing stakeholders and analyzing trends and data.  They asked Margaret Rizzuto to help design an online survey that was posted on the organization’s website to support the data gathering.  Our team prepared a final position paper that allowed the board members to reach alignment on major directions, geographical scope, and declare exciting new goals to significantly broaden the organization’s reach.