Guest post by Brent Lyles, Executive Director, Austin Youth River Watch

Austin Youth River Watch Board members Greg Johnson and David Greene discuss big ideas at a Greenlights-facilitated planning retreat.

“We won the Greenlights 501 Council grant!” I still remember the moment we found out. With thousands of nonprofits in the Austin area, Austin Youth River Watch felt incredibly proud to have been chosen to receive Greenlights’ full strategic-planning package for free, thanks to the 501 Council grant.

What it meant to us

Austin Youth River Watch has been in business for almost 20 years, quietly working with high-school students on two things: Helping them graduate from high school, and teaching them to test water quality as a community service, all across the Austin metro area. Huge changes for us occurred during 2009 and 2010, including increased numbers of students in our programs, the addition of our first paid Executive Director (me!), and a new focus on nonprofit best practices.

We knew we were growing, and we wanted to grow more, but we needed strategic direction: How should we grow over the next few years? What would be our obstacles and opportunities? Who were potential partners? Greenlights provided the structure and masterful facilitation to answer all these questions and more, and that made all the difference. Was it easy? No. Were there times when we felt overwhelmed and confused? Absolutely. But, with help and guidance from Tara Levy, we eventually made it through, and now…

We have a Strategic Plan!

The process included Board and staff retreats, benchmarking, focus groups, interviews with partners and stakeholders, and a LOT of thoughtful conversations in-between. It took us the better part of six months, and that’s not including the write-up. The amount of staff time involved was huge (though not unexpected). We are especially proud that our Plan has buy-in from everyone here at River Watch; that will be critical as we move into next steps.

Our plan includes three major goals: (1) Double the size of our core programs, from ~120 students per year to ~250 students per year. (2) Supplement those core programs with site-based, Service-Learning opportunities for our students. And (3) Grow our organizational capacity (Board, staff, facilities, technology) to support those programmatic expansions. As an Executive Director, charged with leadership and fundraising for Austin Youth River Watch, I can’t tell you how beneficial it’s been to have a formal plan in place. I am using it every day, referring to it and sharing it with potential partners and funders.

Advice to others

I do have a few thoughts for other folks who are interested in taking on Strategic Planning (including applicants for the 501 Council grants):

• Make sure you’re ready. Doing planning on this scale is a big commitment, and we had to intentionally schedule time and energy AWAY from our other job responsibilities over the course of six months. Not easy! Also, jumping into planning because of an organizational crisis (like funding cuts) is NOT a good time to do it. Strategic Planning is different from Crisis Management.
• Think about the Fit. Every organization has its strengths and weaknesses, and that’s true of planning consultants too. Does Greenlights have a consultant who is a good fit for your needs? We are a quirky organization, and we needed someone who could work with us and have a big-picture grasp of our situation — and who appreciates our sense of humor!
• Keep an open mind. The power of a planning process lies in taking the time to consider lots of opinions, advice, and ideas. For us, we had to evaluate some conflicting options (including whether growth was even a good idea!), and to be honest, we had some difficult conversations that left us with discouraged hearts. Happily, we took some deep breaths and came back to the table with open minds — without those tough conversations, I don’t think we could have been as successful in creating such a robust plan.

Next steps

And now, the real work begins! Our plan includes a variety of tactics to approach our Big Hairy Audacious Goals in manageable steps. Over the next few years, we’ll be reaching out more to key stakeholder networks, building critical support for our growth. When we look back, we’ll know that we couldn’t have done it without Greenlights, and we’ll owe a special debt of thanks to members the 501 Council for their support as well.

I invite you to follow our adventures! Visit our website, join the River Watch mailing list, follow us on Twitter and like us on Facebook . And personally, if I can be of help to YOU, please feel free to contact me directly — I always love a good conversation over coffee…

Thanks for reading,

R. Brent Lyles, Executive Director