DSVP Strategic Plan

Over the summer months, our partnership began an inclusive strategic planning process that mirrored more of a grass-roots campaign as opposed to a board driven strategic plan. As a “partnership of equals”, it was important to vision the strategic direction of our mission collaboratively among the partners. A call for participants in the mid-summer months attracted a group of about 20 partners representing our board, lead partners, committee members and those just getting started. After a session that helped us identify our mission outcomes, we broke into three work streams that could test and inform how those outcomes could be accomplished.

They focused on: Partners, Investments and Community. Each work-stream hosted a series of meetings to gather input and capture the thinking of our partnership. Partners were encouraged to attend any and all of the meetings, and to offer up their best ideas on what our future could be.

On Monday night, at a mid-point review, representatives from each of the groups provided an overview of what has been explored, dismissed and strategies that think can further our vision. Cross-over items were collaboratively tackled and feedback was robust. If anyone who has known DSVP for a while, they can see that our partnership is evolving. What was confirmed last night is the desire for us to break away from our current processes and structure and think differently at how we serve the highest value to our partners, investees and the community. Interestingly, we saw some common themes among the three separate group: create more opportunities for partners, be more outward facing towards the community, and rethink how we use existing resources to deliver our mission.

Next steps include a continuation of the three work-streams to finalize their recommendations. And although the groups are further along in their thinking, partners are still encouraged to jump in at any point. Please reach out to sraskin@dsvp.org to help you plug- in. Also, we will host a one-day partner retreat on Friday, September 17th and any partner is welcome to participate. We will be hosting a briefing prior to that retreat to bring anyone up to speed who hasn’t been able to participate. Keep an eye out for the evite.