Baptist Community Ministries
A Time for Every Purpose
Supporting nonprofit organizations in and around New Orleans since 1996, Baptist Community Ministries (BCM) makes grants in four main program areas: education, health, public safety, and governmental oversight. In late 2008, with the national economy embroiled in the "great recession" and the Gulf Coast still recovering from the havoc of hurricane Katrina, the private foundation decided to launch a new community needs assessment. At the same time, it undertook a full-scale strategic review that was more intensive than the usual annual planning activities. "We were asking ourselves, should we continue in the same manner we've been pursuing for the last decade?" said BCM President Byron Harrell.
BCM hired an outside consultant to handle the community needs assessment. Then in January 2009, after interviewing three candidates, the executive committee selected TCC Group to help conduct the strategic review.
Getting the Whole Picture
The three-person TCC team interviewed members of the BCM board and staff. They reviewed data collected by BCM as well as the foundation's historical documentation. They facilitated meetings, provided coaching for staff members, and developed tools and presentations to aid in developing the finished plan.
TCC facilitated a mini-retreat that stimulated a productive conversation among staff and board members. TCC also delivered memos to the executive committee that detailed the themes that arose during the interviews and included the TCC team's observations and suggestions. Even after the engagement ended, BCM has continued to use the memos as resources.
"They tried to get the whole picture," said Lauri Ashton, BCM's vice president of Evaluation, Research and Strategy. "They stayed in good contact throughout the process, with phone conversations every two weeks or so." TCC also worked well with the consultant running the community needs assessment, Ashton added.
A Flexible, Streamlined Strategic Plan
TCC provided feedback that helped confirm the strength and validity of BCM's business model. It offered expertise as BCM examined—and ultimately modified—its corporate structure. One outcome of the engagement, Ashton said, is that BCM now makes greater use of logic models and theories of change.
Another outcome, of course, was a new strategic plan that was shorter and more streamlined than the one it superseded. "We've changed many of the things we do since our work with TCC Group, but that plan has been extremely useful," Harrell said. "Perhaps its biggest strength was its flexibility for the future."
