The Charleston Parks Conservancy was facing a time of transition. It had a new, energetic leader who was managing organizational growth and launching a development strategy at the same time that the organization’s main partner—the City of Charleston—welcomed its first new mayor in forty years. In keeping with the lean, nimble nature of the organization, the Executive Director sought practical guidance to help inform decision-making without “reinventing the wheel.”
Rather than conduct a soup to nuts strategic planning process, Engage proposed an alternative. Using a series of interviews with existing staff, board and partners, Engage tested the mission, brand and value proposition. We distilled our findings and identified resonant language and core organizational values. Engage then facilitated an in-
person, half-day session with a broader stakeholder group to review the findings and expand on areas of strategic interest. The retreat explored organizational strengths, weaknesses and challenges, reviewed communications strategies, refined the vision and mission, outlined intended and actual priority setting, and candidly discussed staff alignment with goals, fundraising and activity selection. Using the feedback, Engage designed a Strategic Framework that included an updated mission and vision, definition of strategic value, goals and a framework for project selection and resource allocation.
The Strategic Framework was presented to the Board of Directors who commended the work and the Conservancy used the findings to update its mission and communications materials, screen priority activities and fine tune its development campaign.
