Meet Stacey McKeever: Our newest do gooder!

by Laura Huth, President & CEO, do good Consulting

Sesotho. Do you know what that is?

do good Consulting’s newest consultant, Stacey McKeever does. She not only knows how to say it, but knows how to speak it.

Stacey is do good ’s new Management, Strategy & Program Specialist. She comes to the job with nearly a decade of very diverse experience, including a two-year stint in the Peace Corps where she learned Sesotho, the language of Lesotho, a tiny mountainous country of 2 million people completely surrounded by the country of South Africa. (In fact, that’s Stacey in the photo in Lesotho standing in front of the lithaba, the Sesotho word for mountains. Now you know a bit of Sesotho, too!) In Lesotho, she trained elementary school teachers in curriculum design and teaching practice, did extensive HIV/AIDS education work, and helped her village build the first secondary school in the area.

While Stacey might not use her Sesotho at do good, her service in the Peace Corps is coupled with impressive work experience with the William Jefferson Clinton Foundation, New York-Presbyterian Hospital, Albert Einstein College of Medicine, and at several start-up non-profits in the U.S. and southern Africa.

Stacey brings an almost dizzying array of skills to the non-profits do good serves, including program planning, project management, monitoring and evaluation, operations and financial management, management of partner and donor relationships, financial forecasting, strategic planning, and education and training.

She grew up in Watertown, Massachusetts, and graduated from Sarah Lawrence College. Stacey holds an MBA from Columbia Business School and an MPH from the Mailman School of Public Health. In addition to her work with do good, Stacey is currently involved in a research project at the Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology. She and her new husband, Charles Fogelman, live in Champaign. (Stacey and Charles just got married Saturday! Say congratulations and welcome!)

We are extremely pleased to have someone of Stacey’s talent, background, and drive on our team. She is eager to put her skills to use, so if your organization needs assistance with planning, evaluation, project or financial management or forecasting, or any of Stacey’s other areas of expertise, contact her at staceymckeever@dogoodconsulting.org or 646-461-0339.

Her full biography can be viewed here.

Welcome, Stacey!

Telling Your Organization's Financial Story

by Stacey McKeever, Management, Strategy & Program Specialist, do good Consulting

Many of us in the non-profit world get involved in this work because we care about mission, because we have big hearts, because we want to make a difference… not because we love numbers. In fact, many of us hate numbers or find them scary. We believe in our programs and can rattle off about them at length – their history and growth over time, their scope and reach now, our plans for the future, how those plans are responsive to future needs. We talk about our programs in programmatic ways. We know money is important so we hustle to get it, to meet the needs of our programs, but do we really think and talk and plan about money in the same loving way that we care for our programs?

As the smart, big-hearted staff and managers we are, we need to be better about connecting the mission and the money. Here’s the challenge: talk about your finances in the same way you talk about your program. Love the financial metrics the way you love the programmatic metrics!

First, let’s start thinking about the basics. Assess your current financial status in order to tell your financial story and develop a plan for improving it.

Click here for more.

Q&A: Why Strategic Planning? Why Now?

Dear do good,

I know my organization could stand to have a better long term plan and stop fighting fires all the time. Still, strategic planning is time consuming and expensive. In the midst of all these fires, I don’t know that we can afford to spare the time. Why is strategic planning so important? And, why now?

- Fire Fighter, Champaign, IL
 

Dear Fire Fighter,

This is a really good question, and a situation familiar to many of us: I know my organization needs help but how can we afford the time or money it will take to make things better? It sure feels like a Catch-22.

So, why strategic planning and why now? The really simple answer is, you owe it to your constituency, your staff, and your funders. Let’s start out with the basics: what is strategic planning?

Strategic planning is a process that helps an organization determine who it is, what it does, who it serves, and how to do that better. At the most basic level, strategic planning helps an organization understand three things: its vision (what it wants to be), its identity (who it is now), and its strategic objectives (how it can get to where it wants to be).

With these key concepts understood, strategic planning then helps an organization operationalize, or draw out in detail, a plan for achieving these strategic objectives. The plan addresses every aspect of an organization, including:
• Sources of revenue
• Competitive analysis
• Sustainability plan
• Market and constituency analysis
• Project selection and prioritization
• Fundraising
• Hiring and retaining talent
• Knowledge sharing
• Programs
• Internal and external communications
• Infrastructure and operating model
• Operations and control
• Governance
• Human resources

This plan is developed based on an in-depth organizational study that includes a number of activities, including interviews with staff and leadership, moderated discussions, visioning exercises, brainstorms, and analysis of every aspect of the organization as it currently functions.

The resulting strategic plan is a critically important roadmap for how an organization can stop fighting fires and start fulfilling its mission. It’s not only a plan, but an understanding that helps all the constituents in an organization prioritize and stop fighting fires. Especially in this economy, a good strategic plan is a basic and necessary building block of organizational success.

And finally, why now?

The work will never stop. At a time when organizations are expected to do more with less, when need is growing and support is tougher than ever to secure, organizations can’t afford not to have a strong strategic plan. So, get planning!

Stacey McKeever is do good Consulting’s Management, Strategy & Program Specialist, and she loves helping organizations with strategic and programming planning. Contact her at staceymckeever@dogoodconsulting.org or 646-461-0339.

ONE SIMPLE ACT: Remember your mission

In each month’s Doing Good, you’ll find one great tip to implement over the next month. By taking this one small, achievable action each month, you can make big changes in your organization’s and your own performance, increase donations and volunteerism, and expand your group’s visibility. Give it a try!

This month's ONE SIMPLE ACT focuses on taking the time to stay connected with your – personal and organizational – mission.

GROUP PROFILE: Campaign for Better Health Care

by Laura Huth, President & CEO, do good Consulting

Tim Fraas is an ex-land surveyor and heart transplant survivor. His costly medications and $16,000 check-ups might mean hitting his lifetime limit on health insurance. Jane Beckett’s daughter got kicked off her parents’ insurance plan when she was 19, leaving Jane fretting that an accident or illness for her daughter might wipe the Beckett family out financially.

These stories are all too common, but shouldn’t be.

I know about the problems with our health care system all too well. At 12, I was diagnosed with Crohn’s Disease. Upon graduation, I was faced with the harsh reality of a health care system that turns a blind eye to pre-existing conditions. Twenty-eight years later, I still struggle with the discrimination our country’s health care system allows.

In Illinois, we have a champion, though. The Campaign for Better Health Care (CBHC), the largest grassroots health care coalition in the state, works to ensure that affordable, quality health care is accessible everyone.

Click here for more.

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