The executive director of Portal, Inc., a local nonprofit, contacted Paul to facilitate a process that would create a strategic plan for the organization.  Portal is “dedicated to supporting adults with disabilities” and is “committed to fostering independence and inclusion.”

To achieve the planning objectives, Paul first conducted an external feedback survey to gain insight into how well the organization is achieving its mission and the importance of each of Portal’s programs at helping them achieve their vision.  Then, he engaged the organization’s staff and board with an online survey to solicit feedback on updating the organization’s mission and vision statements, as well as identifying organizational strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and challenges.  Then, Paul facilitated two strategic planning sessions attended by eleven board and staff members where we worked on updating the organization’s mission and vision statements and identified goals.

From evaluation (N=8), 100% of participants agreed that updating the mission statement helped clarify their role as an organization and updating their vision statement assisted them in understanding the general direction for their organization’s future.  100% also agreed that the process of identifying goals increased our ability to identify issues and set priorities. Participants evaluated Paul’s facilitation as a 4.6 on a 5-point Likert Scale (1=poor and 5=excellent).  One participant commented that the process was “more interesting and relevant than previous strategic planning meetings in past.  Felt like we accomplished something.”   

Moving forward, Paul will work with the board and staff to develop action plans to accomplish goals.