Executive Director Michael Willard had an idea. He’d been part of one of Greenlights’ first Executive Director Roundtables and worked with Greenlights when he first joined Habitat on strategic planning and evaluation processes. He thought Greenlights could help Habitat “dig deeper and think our planning process and reconnect to the mission.”

In June 2008, the planning process began with a re-evaluation of the vision and mission. Despite Michael’s hesitancy to look at the mission, Greenlights pointed out the importance of starting from the top to get a baseline – who we are, what we are trying to do and why we do it.

The process was customized to include both staff and directors and get a common goal instead of just an organizational process. Board Chair Luke Ellis said the process created a forum to hear “different perspectives and ideas that were designed to reach the same goal.”

One of the sticking points was how quickly the organization should grow over the next three years. But with Greenlights’ facilitation of communication, the two reached a pace upon which both portions of the organization agreed.

The Results

Austin Habitat for Humanity has a long-term goal agreed to by all the players with a methodology to track how the organization is doing.

In addition, the two say the board and staff work more collaboratively and consistently with a common vision. AHFH has posted the plan on their website and look forward to continuing to work collaboratively between the board and staff to use this plan to increase their impact on the community.

About Greenlights

Greenlights strengthens nonprofits for extraordinary performance and impact by providing valuable management consulting services, professional development workshops and conferences, in-depth research, a membership program and more. Nonprofits pay about half the cost of our services, thanks to the generosity of our donors.

For more information about our consulting services, contact Tara Kirkland, Director of Consulting, at (512) 477-5955, x262.