Stories of Collective Transformation
Each of these organizations comes with its own unique set of accomplishments and challenges, yet they are all united by their commitment to advancing social justice and equity within their organizations and ecosystems. They partnered with us to evoke the clarity needed for transformational change.
Equity-focused Collective Impact Effort Seeking Greater Systems-level Impact
Strategic Planning with a County-wide Collective Impact Effort
THE CLIENT: YWCA Cradle Kalamazoo
THE PLAYERS: A multi-organization, cross-sector collaborative of over 20 clinical institutions, community-based service providers, government, funders, researchers, and community leaders
THE BIG VISION: Reducing infant mortality rates to 3.0 per 1,000 and eliminating mortality disparities for Black births in the county
OUR SCOPE: Strategic Planning
THE OPPORTUNITY:
Build Upon 10 Years of Collective Impact to Expand Systems-Change Interventions & Strengthen the Quality of Collaboration
Cradle Kalamazoo was founded to reduce infant deaths to 3 in 1,000 and eliminate disparities for Black births in Kalamazoo County, Michigan. The effort is grounded in a systems analysis that knows racism at every level (ideological, institutional, interpersonal, and individual) is a core factor in creating and perpetuating a high infant mortality rate. Cradle is an Infant Mortality Initiative of YWCA Kalamazoo.
While the collective impact effort had been successfully moving the needle in many spaces within Kalamazoo, leaders were frustrated by a lack of transformational progress and sought a new strategic plan that would unify, anchor, and guide them to have the higher level of measurable impact they envisioned.
THE PROCESS:
They needed a consulting team that understood the opportunities and challenges of collective impact work and had a grounding in how to apply antiracism in both programmatic strategies and internal culture.
In 2022, we began working with Cradle leaders, including staff from their administrative and data backbone teams, as well as representatives from community organizational partners, to envision a new strategic direction. Through a comprehensive 9-month process, we facilitated partners to identify the levers of systems change where Cradle has the biggest opportunity for impact and developed bold strategies for taking action over the next 3 years.
Our collaboration included guiding them to explore how antiracism can more explicitly show up in their programmatic strategies by using a targeted universalism approach to center the Black community. We also guided them to identify strategies to target system-level root causes of problems they have long been tackling (for example, an explicit move into the housing policy space to address sleep-related deaths, which have not been, and cannot be, eliminated through safe sleep education alone).
Among our key activities were:
Focus groups
Interviews
Surveys
Antiracism workshops on anti-Black racism and white supremacy culture
Engaging with case studies from other localities
Feedback-gathering sessions to develop a theory to change, three-year objectives and goals, and
A scorecard with targets for implementation success.
OUR IMPACT:
Cradle’s previous strategic plan did not include strategies to nurture and sustain the collective impact effort itself.
Our plans always include strategic priorities related to:
Resources of all kinds that are necessary to do the change work (people, culture, infrastructure, data, funding, etc.)
Programs and services
Impact greater than any one programmatic effort.
For Cradle, this helped the group attend not only to what they want to do “out there” in the world but also what essential work they must do internally to build and sustain effective and equitable accountability, decision-making, and communication (e.g., bringing more racial healing and other antiracist practices into Cradle spaces). Dozens of strategic planning clients have taught us that without the rich soil of internal elements, the programmatic work will fail to grow and thrive.
With the clarity and momentum from the planning phase, we joined with Cradle leaders to share this model for impact at the Collective Impact Action Summit, an annual national platform for community-based collective impact practitioners. In the session, “Brave Enough to Evolve Strategies: Lessons in Systems Change from Cradle Kalamazoo”, we celebrated their journey and wise choices to pivot for greater impact over time.
60+ Organizations Leveraging Collective Strength & Leaning into Anti-Racism
Strategic Planning with a Cross-Sector County-Wide Collaborative
THE CLIENT: Los Angeles County Perinatal and Early Childhood Home Visitation Consortium (Consortium)
THE PLAYERS: A multi-organization, cross-sector network of over 60 early childhood providers, funders, and advocates, plus the backbone organization
THE BIG VISION: Sustainably-funded, accessible, anti-racist home-based support through voluntary parent coaching for all expectant and parenting individuals, in support of LA County’s youngest kids
OUR SCOPE: Two Strategic Planning engagements (2014 and 2022); Plan Implementation; Member Engagement Strategies; Network & Leadership Team Development; Family Feedback (through 2025)
THE OPPORTUNITY:
Build Upon a Culture of Collaboration to Center Racial Equity and Grow Impact and Sustainability
Home visiting is a proven way to help ~90k babies born every year in LA County grow up healthy, safe, and ready to learn, but efforts in the county have historically been fragmented, insufficient for the need, and lacking sustainable funding.
THE PROCESS:
In 2014, we began working with countywide leaders in voluntary home visitation to redesign and re-launch a cross-sector network of providers, funders, and advocates to collectively coordinate, measure, and advocate for high-quality home-based support for parents. In 2022, we had an opportunity to build upon that original strategic planning effort with a new plan, this time in alignment with a multi-year effort to build an integrated, equitable home visiting system across Los Angeles County.
When we kicked off our second planning process in 2021, Consortium leaders leaned into an aspiration to be a network that could leverage resources and collective influence to increase public and philanthropic funding and favorable policies. Consortium leaders were also eager to integrate racial equity and parent voice more explicitly into the field. They needed consultants to bring a racial equity lens and guide the development of shared vision, goals, and metrics among stakeholders ranging from home visitors to County executives.
Our process included:
A comprehensive racial equity audit
Focus groups
Interviews
Surveys
Feedback gathering sessions to develop a theory to change
A racial equity commitment statement
Five-year objectives and goals, and
A scorecard with targets for implementation success.
OUR IMPACT:
Collaborative Planning and Building Shared Ownership Across Diverse Membership
Our 2014 planning process helped establish a foundation of trust among Consortium members and created direction and tools for ongoing collaboration, including a charter that outlined members’ commitment to practices such as consensus-based decision-making and broad participation. In 2021, we built upon this foundation and co-designed a new five-year strategic plan with more than 90 member representatives from across organizations, sectors, and roles.
Since our vision is that social sector collaboration is equitable, accountable, and effective, we are big believers in maximizing impact through collaborative networks.
The Consortium exemplifies the power of strategic planning to develop trust and catalyze momentum. We were honored to join The Consortium to present our powerful learnings at the Sixth National Summit on Quality in Home Visiting Programs.
As we continue to support The Consortium and its backbone organization, Los Angeles Best Babies Network (LABBN), through their many stages of growth and impact, we are filled with gratitude for the opportunity to go alongside our clients and champion their visions and missions.
Long-Standing Educational Equity Organization Pursuing Values Alignment & Program
Strategic Planning with a Nonprofit Organization
THE CLIENT: Los Angeles Education Partnership (LAEP)
THE PLAYERS: Staff of more than 60 individuals, board, external stakeholders
THE BIG VISION: Integrated and liberatory “Diapers to Diplomas” educational programs through which children of every race, gender, socio-economic status, and ability are supported to become developmentally and academically prepared for success in school and life
OUR SCOPE: Strategic Planning with a racial equity process woven throughout; Organizational Design to support strategic plan implementation; Executive Coaching
THE OPPORTUNITY:
Expand Ways of Integrating Anti-Racism into the Internal Culture and Program Strategy
LAEP chose to work with Evoke Collective (formerly GAC) on strategic planning because our equity approach aligned with their values. Together, we practiced living out our preferred definition of equity as both an outcome and a process (Race Forward).
This involved collaborating with the LAEP team to strengthen their strategies for greater impact on kids, families, and educators (that is, advancing equity as an outcome), while also embedding equity principles into the planning process itself, such as centering diverse staff voices and fostering authentic, relationship-based communication (that is, advancing equity as a process).
THE PROCESS:
Modeling Expanded Ways of Integrating Equity Practices Internally and Amplifying Internal Expertise to Strengthen Impact on Educational Equity
We supported staff and board to engage in foundational racial equity discussions and learning circles on key equity topics, which is internal work their team is continuing as part of implementing their strategic plan. They also shared experiential learning about how they can practice their equity values internally, such as through feedback loops with staff and consensus-based decision making.
At every opportunity, we helped build LAEP’s capacity to lean into its existing internal resources—including staff and board with deep expertise around equity—to facilitate and shape the equity trainings and discussions.
OUR IMPACT:
As a result of our approach, we guided LAEP to develop frameworks and documents to guide their next years of impact, which included:
A theory of change
Organizational values
A refined vision
Aspirational objectives and goals, and
A scorecard with targets for implementation success.
We also guided LAEP to identify the organizational capabilities needed to implement their strategic plan and to try on alternative structures for internal staffing and collaboration.
Early Childhood Advocacy Organization Seeking a New Structure to Support Planned Growth
THE CLIENT: Early Edge California (EECA)
THE PLAYERS: Staff, advisory board, and longtime political consultants
THE Big vision: High-quality, multilingual, multicultural early childhood education for all of California’s kids
OUR SCOPE: Strategic Planning; Organizational Design; Quarterly Strategic Reviews; Staff Retreats; Executive Coaching; Strategic Plan Refresh
THE OPPORTUNITY:
Design a Structure That Will Allow for Planned Growth
As we completed the strategic planning process with EECA, they asked a question we hear from organizations often:
“What structure, processes, and capabilities do we need to make this plan a reality (without running ourselves into the ground)?”
Using our distinctive organizational design methodology, we were able to guide EECA to answer this question and develop a path forward to grow in the ways they envisioned during strategic planning.
OUR IMPACT:
Shared Buy-in for New Structure
Through interviews and group discussions with staff, we clarified the missing capabilities and capacity within the team that would be needed to maximize impact with more ease and effectiveness. With every team member bringing their unique expertise and line of sight to the process, we co-developed a series of alternative future scenarios.
EECA selected a revised and expanded organizational design that would best serve the team and their highly collaborative work.
THE PROCESS
Following planning, we also supported EECA in implementation by facilitating quarterly strategy reviews of progress on implementing their strategic plan, which is now a quarterly practice they have maintained for years.
In quarterly strategy reviews, we shared a process with EECA that supports them to:
Build accountability and adaptability
Reflect on progress
Learn from recent efforts and
Make collective decisions about needed updates to strategies
As EECA successfully completed implementation of their first strategic plan, we facilitated their efforts to refresh their plan for continued, greater impact.
Transformative Strategic Planning for organizations advancing social justice and equity.
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