Big Brothers Big Sisters of Greater Cleveland 2012-2015 Strategic Plan

Changing lives for the better, forever

of Greater Cleveland

Little Brother Alexander

Big Brothers Big Sisters of Greater Cleveland (BBBS) developed a three-year strategic plan that positions the organization to perform a more vital role for children, parents, families, and the Greater Cleveland community.

We are dedicated to the same vision and mission as Big Brothers Big Sisters of America:

Our Vision:All children achieve success in life.

Our Mission:Provide children facing adversity with strong and enduring, professionally supported 1-to-1 relationships that change their lives for the better, forever.

85% of Littles said they maintained or improved their educational

expectations

Big Sister Bridget & Little Sister Kia at Kia’s White Coat Ceremony at John Hay Highscool

Big Brothers Big Sisters of America created four strategic pillars that we relied on as the cornerstones of our local planning efforts:

• Impact at Scale

• Sustainable Resources

• Intentionality, Diversity, & Inclusion

• Leadership & Partnership

Our vision, mission, and strategic pillars provide starting points for establishing our purpose for our new strategic plan.

Our PurposeAs the practice leader for mentoring in Greater Cleveland, we change the lives of children, families, and mentors while leading and supporting efforts to build Cleveland’s future.

Big Brother Ed & Little Brother DeShon

94% of Littles said they have

confidence they will achieve their goals.

Community Input

We interviewed our key stakeholders, including funders, partners, Bigs, and more, to gather their input and analysis on the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats facing the organization currently and in the future. The extensive information collected during these interviews was synthesized and aligned with the national strategic pillars to create six focus areas that guided the development of our goals and strategies in the strategic plan.

• Recruitment• Structure & Process• Partnerships• Fundraising• Revenue Development• Branding

RECRUITWe will continue to recruit Bigs from around the region, but focus our efforts on three primary audiences: corporations, African Americans, and Latinos. These audiences were identified as priorities because they will help the organization increase the number of Bigs in critical areas, while also supporting our strategic goals in matching, partnerships, and financial sustainability.

GOAL

Focus recruitment of Bigs through targeted partnerships.

STRATEGIES

• Directly market to corporations and their internal affinity groups • Increase the number of African American males serving as Bigs• Cultivate a stronger connection with Latino community

Big Brother Dennis & Little Brother Maurice

Guiding Principle Youth safety is always our

top priority

MATCHMentoring succeeds when the right matches are made, leading Bigs and Littles to develop productive, longer-term relationships. The BBBS matching system is a best practice in the professional world of mentoring, and refining and improving this system is an ongoing priority.

GOAL

Build a more efficient, targeted, marketable, and measurable mentor matching system.

STRATEGIES

• Create clear standards for accepting Littles• Develop clear capacity standards for serving children• Educate and establish strategic relationships with referral partners to improve speed and efficiency of match process• Work with referral partners to target Littles in the urban core• Expand the training opportunities available to Bigs

POSITIONBBBS will play a stronger leadership role in the community. We will proactively educate public entities about our mentoring model, establishing a “seat at the table” for our organization and a more direct role for mentoring as an integral part of the future growth of our city and region

GOAL

Serve as the long-term partner and direct provider of mentoring services to support local, state, and federal youth development strategies.

STRATEGIES

• Educate public entities about BBBB’s best practice mentoring model• Develop and package new opportunities for administering the mentoring programs of public youth development initiatives

Big Brothers Big Sisters of America has launched a Juvenile Justice Initiative that

focuses on expanding mentoring services to youth at risk of delinquency.

LEADAs a leader in the community, we will partner with organizations that seek to utilize mentoring as a key strategy to achieve greater outcomes for youth.

GOAL Establish BBBS as the preferred partner for mentoring across the region.

STRATEGIES

• Educate targeted audiences on the important role mentoring can play in our community’s future growth and development • Continue serving as lead agency for mentoring group collaborative and sustain its momentum• Identify opportunities to provide mentoring program support services to other community agencies• Explore potential strategic alliances with other BBBS agencies

BRANDBBBS has strong brand recognition nationally and locally. In Greater Cleveland, we will promote our work to key audiences to provide better understanding of how our programming positively impacts the community.

GOAL

Promote our mentoring model and ongoing successes directly to target audiences and measure the impact of our messaging.

STRATEGIES

• Distill our value proposition into a concise message and consistently use it in all communications• Develop the website into a stronger platform for conveying messages, stories, and results• Improve the coordination, connection, and dissemination of all digital media• Assess the impact of all print collateral and develop targeted and measurable pieces• Develop a compelling roadshow presentation that can be tailored to diverse audiences • Promote events and other activities as packaged public relations campaigns

SUSTAINWe will ensure the success of our business model through executing a comprehensive revenue strategy.

GOAL Implement a business model that increases and sustains revenue for the organization.

STRATEGIES

• Optimize individual, corporate, foundation, special event, and public revenue opportunities • Continue to build and support a board of directors that is deeply engaged in achieving our fundraising goals• Establish a board-designated reserve fund

Our MessageWith our new strategic plan in place and with the support of our partners, we will achieve the impact we desire for our Greater Cleveland community by:

Changing Lives• We transform the lives of children facing adversity by helping them perform better in school, learn to form healthy relationships, and develop into successful adults.

• We also change the lives of our mentors, who benefit from a uniquely rewarding experience by supporting children’s efforts to overcome challenges and realize their maximum potential.

Building Community• We are leading and supporting efforts to build Cleveland’s future, investing crucial resources in our children’s education and development, and cultivating leaders, both Big and Little.

Making Mentoring Matter• We are Greater Cleveland’s premier agency and partner for recruiting, matching, and supporting mentors, and its leading advocate for the importance of mentoring in the lives of children.

These guiding principles helped us in the creation of this plan:

Safety- Commitment to the full protection of everyone who is involved in the agency and the safety of youth served is always our top priority Quality- Provide quality service, utilizing critical thinking skills and evidence-based practices in all areas Diversity- Foster cultural competency and inclusion among all agency stakeholders in order to embrace and understand individuals of all cultures, races, religions, and ways of life Collaboration- Nurture innovation, collaboration, teamwork and develop strong relationships with all stakeholdersResults- Take initiative and be responsible and accountable for actions in order to accomplish the mission, creating value through teamwork and collaborationFiscal Responsibility- Wise and efficient use of resources with vigilant stewardship of donor contributions is valued. A long-term view of the financial needs of the organizations ensures that new initiatives and ongoing operations have adequate funding

We want to thank everyone who helped develop our 2012-2015 strategic plan with

special thanks to our key stakeholders and partners who participated in our interviews.

We also want to thank our Board of Directors and those board members who

volunteered to serve on our Strategic Planning Steering Committee:

Mac Biggar, Chartwell Group

Tony Brown, Thompson Hine, LLC.

Craig Nikrant, PolyOne

Mike Moran, Linsalata Capital Partners

Randy Stephan, The Mandel Foundation

Lisa Stumpf, Therapy Partners

Ken Zirm, Ulmer & Berne LLP

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4614 Prospect Avenue, Suite 410 • Cleveland, OH 44103 • WeMentorYouth.org