Community Fund for Women and Girls Strategic Plan
Community Foundation for Greater New Haven
Econmic Equity
The Community Fund for Women and Girls at the Community Foundation of Greater New Haven is Greater New Haven’s only endowment dedicated to promoting the social and economic advancement of women and girls. Through grantmaking, convening and research, the Fund aims to help all women and girls in the region thrive. The Fund is supported by an all-women advisory board that meets quarterly.
Fourth Econoy was engaged deveop the a 3-year strategic plan that aligns with the overall foundation’s strategic plan and that coincides with the Foudnation’s 30-Year anniversary and the welcoming of a new CEO. Key to that processworking with staff, advisory board members, and local thought leaders on an update to the Fund’s theory of change that was last updated in 2012sThe second task is to develop a 3-year strategic plan.
Our Approach
We began with a discovery and engagement phase, which included reviewing all past documentation provided by the client, surveying prior grantees from 2015 to the present, surveying the advisory board’s strategic planning committee, conducting an in-person workshop to create building blocks for the theory of change, hosting a virtual workshop to develop the strategic plan, holding meetings with the Foundation-wide staff strategy team, and conducting bi-weekly meetings with the Core Team.
The Results
The Advisory Board approved a 3-year strategic plan as well as a longer-term, guiding theory of change document. The theory of change highlighted a north star vision where all women and girls in Greater New Haven thrive, and identified 5 key pathways to get there, philanthropy, economic autonomy, leadership, educational success, and health and well-being. The strategic plan highlighted the Fund’s existing strengths, like community-based grantmaking, as well as stretched them into new spaces aligned with the updated theory of change, including building capacity for advocacy.
Location
New Haven, CT