Sutherland~Edwards provides a wide range of planning, research, organizational development, and facilitation services, particularly focusing on detailed organizational assessments and strategic planning for foundations, complex public institutions, and nonprofit organizations.
We specialize in assessments and planning facilitation for organizations experiencing or anticipating transition in executive leadership, those where systems change has lagged behind organizational growth, and organizations starting up or seeking to launch programs or strategies in new directions.
Our recent projects include:
Executive Transition and Strategic Planning for a 30-Year-Old Community Foundation
Organizational Assessment and Strategic Direction for an International Foundation
Evaluation and Re-Launch of a 40-Year-Old Community Foundation
Capacity-Building Initiative for Emerging Community Foundations
Developing A Leadership Agenda for a 25-Year-Old Community Foundation
Helping Local Leaders Start A New Community Foundation
Facilitating Board Retreats Focused on Planning and Evaluation
Executive Transition and Strategic Planning for a 30-Year-Old
Community Foundation:
On the cusp of a CEO transition after a decade of stable leadership, a 30-Year-Old community foundation in the southern United States recognized an opportunity to reposition itself for greater community impact. Sutherland~Edwards was engaged to lead the change process through an extensive community stakeholder assessment and subsequent strategic planning process.
Meeting with a committee of board and staff members over a seven-month period, we facilitated the creation of the first comprehensive strategic plan in the foundation’s history. The plan prioritized products to be offered, established significant changes in the fee structure, clarified previously loosely-defined relationships with geographic affiliate funds, and activated a dramatic shift to a “culture of impact” for unrestricted grantmaking.
In addition, our work resulted in a clearer definition of the role of the board and strengthened the quality of governance to support the community foundation’s new direction.
Organizational Assessment and Strategic Direction for an International Foundation:
A large, high-profile private foundation with an international reach identified the need for an in-depth organizational assessment in order to plan its future direction, and retained Sutherland~Edwards to lead the project.
Our work began with extensive data collection from internal stakeholders, including staff based around the globe, followed by a retreat of senior management from throughout the organization. The process established a clarity of vision, mission, and values that had eluded the organization for years, and surfaced structural issues that had long impeded organizational effectiveness, concluding with implications for major directional shifts for the foundation.
Building from our work, senior staff subsequently led an internally-driven strategic planning process spanning 10 months. At the conclusion of the project, the client reported that through the two-day retreat we led, we had enabled the organization to move forward on issues it had been struggling with for three years.
Evaluation and Re-Launch of a 40-Year-Old Community Foundation:
More than 40 years after its founding, a West Coast community foundation was stalled in its development, well below the expected assets for a community foundation of its age and relative surrounding wealth. When the foundation’s CEO left abruptly, leadership responsibility fell to a board that had been largely disengaged from direction-setting and lacked a strong understanding of the community foundation’s operations as well as the broader field of community philanthropy.
In need of both training and assistance with setting a new direction, the board looked to Sutherland~Edwards to lead a strategic planning process that entailed equal parts facilitated planning and tutorials – bringing forward information about community foundation best practices, trends, and operating models.
Through a formative board retreat followed by an aggressive schedule of five planning sessions over two months, we facilitated the creation of a plan that outlined a complete reorientation to the purpose and role of the board of directors, a wholesale redesign of the grantmaking focus, a reprioritization of funds offered and fees charged, and a new business model, all aligned with a new vision and mission.
The client described the result as nothing less than “a re-launch of our community foundation.”
Capacity-Building Initiative for Emerging Community Foundations:
When one of the largest private foundations in California decided to invest in a capacity-building initiative for emerging community foundations, Sutherland~Edwards was selected to design and manage the project. We developed the initial design of the six-year, $10 million initiative, with the objective of cultivating philanthropy in parts of California where the philanthropic infrastructure – and often the nonprofit sector as well – is under-developed yet critical to addressing local needs.
On a long-term basis, we are working with nine emerging community foundations, primarily from rural or isolated parts of the state, to develop their core capacity for asset growth, governance, business model planning and grantmaking and community leadership.
Now in the fourth year, Sutherland~Edwards serves as the overall project manager while also developing the content for the learning community, facilitating its semi-annual seminars, and providing the grantees with ongoing technical assistance on the range of competencies core to the functioning of a community foundation.
Developing A Leadership Agenda for a 25-Year-Old Community Foundation:
A firmly established 25-Year-Old community foundation in California, with assets of over $100 million, felt a responsibility to expand from its core identity as a donor service and grantmaking organization to one that would actively mobilize its full range of financial and other assets. The foundation sought to make a lasting community impact, using not only its limited discretionary dollars, but also its expertise, reputation, credibility, neutrality and power to convene.
Seeking to explore ways to use its full portfolio of leadership assets, the foundation engaged Sutherland~Edwards to lead a three-step process of defining the leadership role it might assume.
We first conducted an extensive round of stakeholder interviews with donors and prospective donors, professional advisors, influential community leaders, nonprofit organizations and others to determine the existing perception and position of the community foundation.
Next, a national scan of community leadership models was conducted, focusing on analogous community foundations with respect to geography, population size, and asset base, followed by development of in-depth case studies of leadership approaches at more than 20 community foundations. Using this data about the range of options and what might be required to execute them successfully, we facilitated six tightly structured planning sessions over six months.
The result was a clearly defined community leadership direction that was responsive to the foundation’s core competencies and resources and the unique conditions in its local community, accompanied by a clearly-defined implementation plan.
Helping Local Leaders Start A New Community Foundation:
A major private foundation initiated a project to help community leaders in an isolated, rural corner of California create a viable community foundation where none had existed. For years, local visionaries had championed the idea of a community foundation focused on this agricultural community – a place of great need, and also of perceived substantial wealth.
Sutherland~Edwards was engaged to work intensively with local leaders to bring this project from vision to reality.
We began our work by conducting a local wealth assessment, based on a range of interviews with local estate planning attorneys, financial advisors and others familiar with local philanthropic capacity. These confirmed the existence of ample local wealth that could be tapped to grow a community foundation. We then engaged local leaders in extensive education about the rich variety of community foundation models and approaches, and conveyed, within a few months’ time, the fundamentals of starting and operating a vital community foundation, including best practices in asset development, donor services, investment and asset management, and grantmaking.
At the end of the project, we left this young community foundation with a staffing structure; a founding CEO in place; a business model, three-year operating budget and capitalization plan; the full range of policies, procedures and documents necessary to begin business; and a detailed map for growth on all fronts.
Facilitating Board Retreats Focused on Planning and Evaluation:
In addition to longer-range engagements and in-depth planning work, Sutherland~Edwards regularly works with private and community foundations, as well as larger regional and national nonprofit organizations, to plan and facilitate annual Board and staff retreats, particularly those with a planning or evaluation focus.
We have conducted retreats for organizations ranging from nonprofits with budgets as small as $100,000 to foundations with more than $500 million in assets under management.