Strategic Plan
Section 1: Overview
Since 2007, Women Giving for Spartanburg has utilized collective giving to enhance the quality of life in Spartanburg, South Carolina. In early 2017, to mark the initiative’s 10th anniversary, Women Giving for Spartanburg's leaders embarked on a process to create a three-year strategic plan. A strategic plan committee worked with Gather Consulting to take stock of the initiative strengths, explore areas for improvement, and make decisions to increase Women Giving for Spartanburg's long-term impact.
This strategic plan summarizes the visions, goals, and strategies recommended by the committee, as well as the core values that will underline and shape Women Giving for Spartanburg's work the process included the following phases:
Phase One: Assessment
A Strategic Plan Committee of seven women who represented a cross-section of Women Giving for Spartanburg. Members worked with the consultants to conduct an organizational assessment that included reviewing prior planning documents, assessing the initiatives funding history, interviewing stakeholders, and serving members and grantees. During a two-hour planning meeting in April, the consultants lead the strategic plan committee through a process of articulating the organizations core competencies, challenges and opportunities
Phase Two: Visioning and Planning
At a full day planning retreat in May, Twelve women giving members each of whom served on either the strategic plan committee or the incoming or outgoing executive committees — identified four goals the initiative will focus on over the coming three years as well as broad strategies related to each goal.
Phase Three: Moving Forward And Accountability
A tremendous amount of time and effort has been invested in this planning process to date. At the retreat, board members and strategic plan committee members said they would ensure that the strategy is executed by doing the following:
Align committee work plans with strategic plans goals
Monitor progress at board meetings
Identify specific members who will ensure that target measures are being met
Phase Four: 2020 Review and Update
A committee of six members representing a cross section of the Women Giving for Spartanburg membership met to review and update this strategic plan for the next three years 2020–2023.
Section 2: Vision, Mission, and Core Values
Members updated the initiatives mission and creative values and an aspirational vision statement that articulate Women Giving for Spartanburg's purpose
Vision: Women Giving for Spartanburg is a diverse group of women who are improving the communities of Spartanburg through their collective philanthropy.
Mission: to maximize women's leadership in philanthropy by uniting, engaging, and informing its membership, leveraging charitable contributions, and significantly improving the communities of Spartanburg County through the impact of our collective giving.
Core values:
Inclusiveness
Advancement
Bridge Building
Growth
Section 3: Endowment Discussion
At the planning retreat, members discuss the pros and cons of creating an endowment fund. They began the discussion by reviewing data they consultants presented about the endowment models being used by women giving circles in Winston Salem and Greensboro North Carolina
External Review and Member Feedback
They also discussed feedback that consultants collected from current women giving for Spartanburg members about the benefits and challenges of switching from a model of donating all member gifts on an annual basis to one of donating interest income generated from an endowment fund. Many members who responded to the survey or took part in stakeholder interviews were open to the idea of creating an endowment, but the majority said they had reservations or were opposed
Legacy Fund
Based on member feedback, those present at the planning retreat came to the consensus that women giving for Spartanburg should not change its giving model away from donating gifts on an annual basis however they recommended that the incoming executive committee investigate the benefits of creating a supplementary legacy endowment fund that could except bequests
Section 4: Goals and Strategies at a Glance
1: Membership: increase and diversify women giving for Spartanburg's membership
1.1 increase awareness about women giving for Spartanburg and create opportunities to encourage new members to join
1.2 seek new ways to engage, support, and retain current members.
2: Grant Making: Update Grant Protocols and Practices
2.1 Put processes in place to encourage applications from a wider range of large and small agencies from diverse communities.
3: Governance & Administration: Improve the capacity of Women Giving for Spartanburg’s leadership to execute the mission.
3.1 Create a path to leadership and a process to ensure that qualified members are always available to step into leadership roles.
3.2 Improve the capacity of the staff liaison to help execute Women Giving for Spartanburg’s mission.
4. Strategic Communications & Community Relations: Communicate the impact of Women Giving for Spartanburg.
4.1 Increase awareness about the long and short-term impact of women-giving for Spartanburg.