CASE STUDY 5

Maximizing Resources to Serve Organizational Growth

Client Portrait

Headquartered in London, this faith-based LGBTQ education and advocacy organization works with community members to influence the practices and policies of community institutions. They also coordinate with other faith-based and secular LGBTQ advocacy organizations to support inclusive policies and governmental laws.

Client Challenge

This three year-old volunteer-run organization needed to respond to a steadily increasing number of requests for training and consultation while simultaneously building the organization and its standing in the larger community. Over-stretched volunteer organizational leaders were at risk for burnout. The leaders sought to build on previous work with Rally Point founding partner, Andrea Jacobs, Ph.D., to further develop their organizational capacity.

How could the organization maximize current resources to meet the need for training and resource development, while also building the number of engaged volunteers, and strengthening relationships with supportive communal leaders to help move the organization forward?

Rally Point’s Solution

Andrea worked with organizational leadership to create a strategy and implementation plan to support smart organizational growth.

The plan included

  • designing and facilitating a three-day train-the-trainer workshop to increase the number of volunteers able to lead workshops as well as to strengthen relationships among the volunteer core and between the volunteers and the executive team;
  • leading a strategic visioning session with organizational leadership to identify priorities for the coming year;
  • helping to identify organizational systems that could alleviate burnout of executive leaders while increasing engagement of new volunteers;
  • introducing elements of the Rally Point framework to enable the building of powerful, diverse coalitions to generate changes in community practices and policies;
  • serving as expert speaker on issues around inclusion and diversity at public events hosted by community organizations; and
  • backing leadership in meetings with key community leaders that catapulted change.

Benefits & Impacts

While continuing to experience exponential growth, the organization has realized the following benefits:

  • strengthened volunteer core of the organization including doubling the number of volunteers able to lead workshops and increasing the number of volunteers engaged in organizational leadership roles;
  • identified strategies for sustainable organizational growth including building strategic partnerships with other secular and faith-based LGBTQ organizations;
  • expanded and deepened base of support among progressive as well as conservative segments of the community; and enhanced ability to communicate within another’s worldview—to meet people where they are—enabling the organization to better work with diverse constituencies to achieve their goals.

To discuss how Rally Point can benefit your organization, get in touch.