Case Study - Supportive Housing Network of New York
Strategic Planning for an Advocacy Focused Membership Organization
The Challenge
The Supportive Housing Network of New York (the Network) is an umbrella organization of more than 200 member organizations. The Network sought to solidify and expand its role as a strong advocate for its members, and as a catalyst for promoting systemic change within supportive housing. In so doing, it wanted to ensure that program initiatives aligned with The Network's organizational mission and that staff and resources were managed judiciously. The Network engaged Social Dividends to conduct a strategic planning process to determine how it could best direct its resources for maximum impact.
The Solution
Over the course of nine months, Social Dividends worked intensively with the entire Network staff to identify key questions about how they could have an even greater impact. We achieved consensus by:
- Creating and analyzing a survey that was sent to 3,000 organizational stakeholders;
- Interviewing 25 key members of the Network’s leadership;
- Organizing a committee of 20 people who represented the membership’s diversity;
- Holding town hall meetings with various key constituencies;
- Crafting a work plan that addressed staff responsibilities with clear benchmarks and a strategy for keeping the plan a working document.
Social Dividends designed an inclusive process that rallied the members, deftly moving them to an agreement on priorities, goals, and the best use of staff time. With alignment between the mission, vision, and allocation of resources, the Supportive Housing Network of New York was able to move forward with a three-year plan that would dramatically impact the supportive housing community.
The Social Dividend
More people are living in permanent housing with supportive services.