GMCF President and CEO on the GMCF Community Hour Show Episode - 288

We share how GMCF’s new strategic plan responds to rapid growth and sets a 2035 vision for being the community’s trusted philanthropic partner. We walk through the three goals guiding our next decade and the practical steps we’re taking to strengthen staffing, grow resources, and deepen measurable impact.
• why reaching $400 million in assets changes expectations and operations 
• the 2035 vision to be the community’s philanthropic choice and trusted resource 
• three strategic goals driving decisions: build capacity, grow resources, increase impact 
• capacity plans including cost revenue study and clearer staff roles 
• adding executive leadership in development plus investment and real estate management 
• criteria for deciding when to join major community initiatives 
• how board retreats and staff retreats shape alignment and accountability 
• turning strategy into execution through “by whom, by when” ownership 
• resource growth through community leadership engagement and a focused marketing plan 
• donor-advised funds education and alignment with community needs 
• planned giving as a priority while complementing existing financial advisors 
• impact measurement, impact communication, and a comprehensive grant strategy 

GMCF

CFAs

Transcript

Sponsor And Segment Setup

SPEAKER_01 0:00

Philanthropy Today is brought to you by the Greater Manhattan Community Foundation. In this episode, we feature a recently broadcast segment of the GMCF Community Hour, as heard on News Radio KMAN. We are back at the GMCF Community Hour here on News Radio KMAN, and Vern Henriks has returned ever so triumphantly here on a Monday as we get set for a lot of neat things. And uh, you know, we're gonna we're gonna shift direction here a little bit. We've been putting a lot of focus on annual report and CFAs, and we've talked a little bit about Grow Green Match Day. But there's some work that you and um uh you know your your board of directors have been working on a number of other individuals in preparing for the future and developing a strategic plan. So I thought maybe we take a few minutes and share some of that, uh some of the background there.

Vision 2035 And Three Goals

Building Capacity With New Roles

SPEAKER_00 0:53

Yeah, there's been uh much discussion the last couple of years about a strategic plan and what things look like uh uh in the upcoming years for the community foundation. Um uh when we reach the uh$400 million in assets, I shared with the board that uh we have now changed as a community foundation. Uh when you get a little larger, you uh things look uh look a little different uh from your end of the spectrum as well as uh those looking at you from the outside. And so communication is important, and obviously we've talked many times about how we're growing as a staff, and uh you know one of the elements that's really uh come into play this year is we've tr strategically uh uh increased our fees slightly and to enable us to even increase our staff a little bit more. And so uh uh today I thought we would uh share a little bit about the background of some of that and uh and why we want to do that. Okay. Well, let's uh get into some of the nuts and bolts here. So the uh the board decided that uh for the vision of this uh strategic plan is by 2035, GMCF will be the community's philanthropic choice to accomplish charitable goals, uh trusted source by constituents and leaders for the benefit of the area, and the facilitator of decision making for impactful programs in the community. And so that's kind of the overarching vision of what the plan is. So let's get into some of the steps in the process. So the there are three goals that they identified that they wanted to look at. Um the first one was to build capacity, uh, the second, grow resources, and the third was to increase impact. In each of those areas, uh we have a statement, and uh there are five uh str uh strategies that we want to accomplish in the process. And so I'll go a little more in detail uh you know with that. And uh all of this is going to be also shared at the annual meeting. It'll be kind of the the launch of it here, but since we're just uh a few days away, we decided to share it today. Thank you. So the uh under the build capacity, uh the objective is to ensure that GMCF has assist uh sufficient resources, revenues, and systems and staffings to continually build its capacity to meet the needs of our donors, grantees, and communities. Um we want to make sure that we're answering the call for the communities. Oftentimes uh uh people ask me what our goals are as a community foundation, and uh my initial response is we want to be prepared to answer the needs of the community when we're asked to to do that. Um I don't feel like we as a community foundation are determining what needs to happen in the community, but once those community leaders have decided what they feel is important for the community, uh we as a community foundation need to be prepared to support that decision and uh and make it happen. And so uh the best case scenario for that uh in the last uh few years has been the Flynn's Community Accelerator Accelerator, Child Care Business Initiative Project, and then the uh the nursing program initiative that uh we partnered with uh at MATC. So we want to be prepared to do those things for the future as we go forward. So under Build Capacity, um five strategic areas. We want to make sure that we uh have a comp uh conduct a comprehensive cost revenue study internally so that we know what we're doing uh from our financial perspective, and uh we want to review and realign our staff roles and responsibilities. Uh obviously we're growing, uh so the cheese is moving. You know, we had more people there, and uh I've shared affectionately that we're kind of in organized chaos uh at this stage of the game.

SPEAKER_01 4:25

Is that required reading for anybody Who Moved My Cheese? Who is that, Robert Blanchard that wrote that?

SPEAKER_00 4:30

I don't know, but it's a great uh Who Moved My Cheese is a great example of uh of of activity.

SPEAKER_01 4:36

That may be the last book I read twenty-seven years ago, but that's okay.

Retreats And Turning Plans Into Tasks

SPEAKER_00 4:40

So the third is to hire an executive level professional for development. Uh and actually uh next Monday we'll uh introduce uh Shane Shively on the show and uh and he starts next Monday, the day of the CFA's annual meeting. So uh that goal will be accomplished on uh his arrival on Monday. The fourth is establish uh uh an apply criteria for community initiatives, and uh uh what that amounts to is uh when these projects have come to us before, you know, there's lots of board discussion as to whether we want to get involved with it or not. And so the board is is interested in establishing some of that criteria so that when it comes to the table, uh we've got uh ten checkpoints, let's say, uh so that we decide, okay, if it's going to do this or if it satisfies satisfies seven of the ten, you know, we're in. If it doesn't, you know, then we're out in that whole process. And then the fifth one is higher and executive level position, uh investment real estate management. So those are two VP positions that uh uh we will have added just recently. And if you remember, in September we uh added uh uh Sarah Barrett as our vice president for strategic impact and grant program. So that's bringing on three vice presidents in a one-year time frame. And uh so at when that structure is complete, uh it'll be myself as the president and CEO, and then there'll be four vice presidents under me, and then the staff uh at that point in time. And the the strategy here is we've gotten larger as an organization as each one of the vice presidents will have their staff. Uh we we all have or they all have about two or three people uh under them in the process, and uh so it'll be an exciting adventure uh you know as we continue to grow along those lines. And uh but it's been fun. You know, everything you do like this, it gives you an uh a great opportunity to talk and uh reflect and discuss as to what we want to do, and uh so it's been an exciting opportunity and uh for the staff, particularly the newer staff, as to why we're making these decisions.

SPEAKER_01 6:36

So when you set these opportunities to visit with staff and and your board and and other people that are involved, what kind of framework, what kind of an outline do you put together in order to facilitate those discussions?

SPEAKER_00 6:50

Well, in uh every summer, usually it's either in June or July that we'll have a board retreat, and uh and that'll be an opportunity to talk about things internally, and then we'll even bring some uh uh guests uh externally of of projects that might be in play or possibly in play and and get some uh perspective of that and uh and then make some decisions from there on what we want to do. Um in January of every year we get together for just a staff retreat. Um in uh the that today or this year it was a two-day retreat, and and we'll reflect on a lot of those things and uh and partially that's when we kind of realign uh services and and who's gonna do what at this point in time with new staff. Um with the growth of uh the VP position here in uh uh next week and then pop probably in this summer, we may have to realign there a little bit at the next strategic planning session. But the biggest thing is to make sure that everybody is comfortable in what their roles are within the organization and and the community knows who to go to. Uh I can only imagine it being a fund holder of the community foundation and one of the nonprofits or in the community as much as we've grown and how some of those roles have changed. I can imagine some of the confusion, but um we're getting closer to probably having that stable, uh complete foundation unit that uh the changes will be moderate moving forward. So uh when we decided to increase the fees, it was to accelerate that process and uh get those positions in place uh uh right away versus the s uh the basically the slow growth that we were on before that.

SPEAKER_01 8:29

So when you have this, you know, you got all this documentation, you review it, then what are the action steps that you take?

Growing Resources Through Philanthropy

Measuring And Communicating Community Impact

SPEAKER_00 8:37

Well, then it comes down to buy whom, by when. So uh, you know, we establish the goals, we establish the the strategies, like I just said on our first one of building capacity, and then internally uh we'll sit down and say, okay, you know, Vern, what's what do I need to do and by when? Jayna, what do you do need to do and by when? Uh Felix, what's your role to do and by when? And so everybody has their part in the process, and and that was important for me too, is to make sure all of our staff s saw themselves in the strategic plan and knew where their they had an impact in making this all happen. So the second uh goal in this was to grow resources. And uh so really in that whole process, you know, it uh uh as we as a foundation we in we don't intentionally try to go out and uh uh raise money ourselves, but we do intentionally talk about philanthropy, and with that the uh the acquisition of resources kind of comes to us from that standpoint. Uh the first strategy there is to engage community leaders in the implementation of the uh comprehensive development plan so that they know what we're doing and that they can kind of buy into that process. Launch a comprehensive marketing plan focus on growth and impact, and that's where our marketing team comes into play. And we talked earlier today, even the the idea of uh um you know what Jane is doing in print, uh, but also what Tyler's doing on the video side of things. You know, we want to use video in in that process. Align and establish the donor-advised funds with the community needs. Uh donor advised funds have been uh very popular in recent years, and uh and so continue to educate the community how they can use that in their own personal ways uh uh to achieve their goals. The fourth is to strengthen awareness and efforts of plan giving program. Um this is probably going to be the greatest emphasis uh moving forward in uh and making sure that uh you know people are comfortable in their plan giving efforts, uh, how they can utilize the community foundation in that. Uh we're not here to replace their current advisors, whether it be an attorney or a financial advisor or whatever, but we're here to help them facilitate that process and make them aware of how they can use philanthropy and and support their nonprofit causes uh in the easiest and most efficient ways possible. And then uh the fifth one is to grow the assets and grant programs to uh meet community needs. Um our emphasis is uh more on uh getting getting the funds to make things happen versus try to grow the assets. Now, ironically, the more money you give away, the more money you attract, and uh and that's really why our asset rule has grown the way it w we have. Um I think we mentioned on the show before here, uh uh we were identified last summer as the third fastest growing community foundation in the nation, and that was based on numbers from a couple years ago. Um, you know, it'll be interesting to see how those numbers change and uh when they get to today's numbers as well. But um we're growing, uh not only in staff and assets and but impact as far as the grants are concerned, and that's probably the place that we're most proud of. Yeah, okay. Sets the tone for the future, doesn't it? It does. And thus we get to the third uh goal increase impact. Uh this is what really we're all about. You know, try to support the charitable needs of the community as much as possible. And uh so the first goal is to provide an annual review and a strategic impact for the foundation efforts, and this was really the genesis of hiring SARA. Uh we wanted to review the dollars that go out and how they impact the community and report back to the community more than what we have been. Second was to collect and evaluate information for major and impact, which falls under the same line. Uh the third is effectively communicate impact of grant programs to the community. The fourth is implement a broad, comprehensive, and effective grant distribution strategy. And the fifth, establish a GMV as GMCF as the knowledgeable resource of philanthropy for all constituents. So those three goals that we uh that we have identified build capacity, grow resources, and increase impacts will be the driving force of the decisions we make in the years to come.

SPEAKER_01 12:51

Okay. Well, we got a little blueprint, got a little perspective.

SPEAKER_00 12:54

Thanks for coming in and sharing with us. Yeah, I think it'll be fun, and it uh I hope the the community and the nonprofits have an opportunity to reflect on this. I'm sure there'll be more discussion. Uh we've scheduled a uh uh April thirteenth meeting with our past presidents to go over this and other things with them as well. We like to keep them involved in the process and and uh we're excited about uh uh serving the community and making things happen.

SPEAKER_01 13:18

All right.

SPEAKER_00 13:19

Going to go see the new coach? I think I might run up there today. Uh but uh we want to welcome him to Manhattan and make sure he gets off to a good start.

SPEAKER_01 13:27

Absolutely. And KMAN will have live coverage of that beginning at eleven o'clock as uh K State welcomes new basketball coach. Exciting times.

SPEAKER_00 13:36

It is. You know, I uh you know, anytime you have change, there's always opportunity, and uh so we're looking for the opportunities moving forward.

SPEAKER_01 13:43

We're gonna take a uh little bit of a break here, and Jane is gonna step in and talk about some of the cool things that are happening here in the very near future on the GMCF Community Hour on News Radio KMAN.