Amid rapid growth, Scratch Foundation turned to us for strategic guidance and leadership development to fuel their mission of empowering kids through creative and confident coding.
During a period of growth — new leadership, redefined purpose, and virtual work — Scratch Foundation turned to The Collective Good to refine their growth strategy. Our team quickly realized that as Scratch grew, from a university project into an independent nonprofit of over 80 people, its start-up culture was not holding. Scratch leadership knew that achieving their ambitious goals required an investment in internal capacity and organizational health alongside the work on the strategy.
TCG's partnership with Scratch intentionally connected culture, strategy, and day-to-day work by building three core elements of organizational health: clarity of purpose, alignment of priorities, and skill development to not only manage but to lead. We designed and facilitated a series of workshops that took place during quarterly all-staff retreats, inviting every team member to contribute to the strategy and to identify opportunities for organizational improvement. The jewel of the project was the creation of an executive coaching program, a bold commitment by Scratch leadership in its senior and rising managers. Led by nine TCG coaches, this initiative supported over 25 team members over nearly two years.
We often say that a strategy is no more than good ideas on paper without the people and processes to bring it to life. This blended approach strengthened the capacity of the team as new strategic priorities, a new organizational design, and revamped decision-making processes were crafted and rolled out.
As with all of our projects, hearing from the people closest to the work is a critical step to truly understand the strengths, pain points, and opportunities to improve systems. In doing so, we captured a range of perspectives about how work is prioritized, delegated, and completed across the organization. This helped us identify areas of greatest alignment and misalignment across AIRA and among the team. We used a congruence framework to analyze our findings through a lens of alignment (or misalignment) between strategy, structure, work and people/culture. We then held deep dive conversations with leaders across the organization, digging into challenges and co-developing ideas for solutions and next steps.
We also mapped out their key partnerships. This helped us understand their impact on different communities and what made them truly special. By the end, our team had a crystal-clear picture of what Equal Measure did, who they worked with, and what everyone had to say.
From this process, Future Caucus gained a clearer focus on building a constituency for inclusive governing and amplifying new narratives.
Our work together leveraged existing strengths and was laser-focused on the most pressing needs of the organization. If Scratch was going to succeed in growing into its next chapter of impact, the team had to be prepared to execute on its strategic plan while addressing the common challenges of organizational transition. Both of which required an investment in leadership, which paid off with the following outcomes:
Proactive About People
By following this roadmap, we are confident that AIRA can position themselves for success and mature into their next phase as a larger organization.
From this process, Future Caucus gained a clearer focus on building a constituency for inclusive governing and amplifying new narratives.
Embraced Leadership Coaching
Centering the Mission and Strategy
The result was a clearer mission and theory of change and a new way of leveraging their influence in the space as evaluators, conveners, and agents of social change.
From this process, Future Caucus gained a clearer focus on building a constituency for inclusive governing and amplifying new narratives.
The result was a clearer mission and theory of change and a new way of leveraging their influence in the space as evaluators, conveners, and agents of social change.
From this process, Future Caucus gained a clearer focus on building a constituency for inclusive governing and amplifying new narratives.
We worked with Equal Measure to create a plan for growing in a healthy way. By looking closely at what they did best, we found new ways to partner with others and make even more of a difference. We knew a solid foundation was crucial for sustainable impact. So, we dug deeper than just partnerships. We identified key areas where staff needed to bolster their skills and become even more effective partners, facilitators, and changemakers.
Beyond talent development, The Collective Good also streamlined Equal Measure's internal processes, optimized business development and consulted on thought leadership content, and even revamped the team structure. This efficiency boost ensured they could handle growth without losing their laser focus on racial justice. The team is forging deeper connections, reaching more partners, and growing community engagement in ways that will change systems for good.
By drawing upon AIRA’s self-knowledge and deep commitment to its health-oriented mission, The Collective Good offered an analysis and set of recommendations that were actionable, goal-oriented, and truly aligned with the vision of its most valuable asset – its people.
The result was a clearer mission and theory of change and a new way of leveraging their influence in the space as evaluators, conveners, and agents of social change.
From this process, Future Caucus gained a clearer focus on building a constituency for inclusive governing and amplifying new narratives.
If you are in the business of social impact, your work is urgent.
Reignite your team, clarify your strategic path, and grow your collective impact.
The Collective Good is a strategy firm that helps leaders drive social change by cultivating collective insight and turning it into aligned action.
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