For a complex health and counseling agency with a wide range of services, an in-depth look at the external environment was an essential precursor to confirming and clarifying strategic priorities.

After successfully navigating a challenging but promising agency merger and a series of leadership changes, Hearing and Speech Center of Northern California (HSCNC) needed guidance from a new strategic plan. But before that, the agency's leadership needed some contextual information. Darragh Kennedy, the CEO of HSCNC and an agency veteran, his management team, and the HSCNC board requested a Strategic Planning Prep Service Grant to clarify their proposed direction, uncover some unknowns in the strategic environment, and reach out to relevant stakeholders.

"Ours is a complex and diverse agency," says Kennedy. "While our professionals and managers felt very informed, in their respective areas, we knew that a consulting team could ask different and innovative questions about our services, community needs, and approach."

"We now have the information we need to make informed decisions about our future, and build a more sustainable nonprofit-our ultimate goal." Darragh Kennedy CEO Hearing and Speech Center of Northern California

The pro bono team started with an in-depth review of HSCNC and their research needs. What information was considered crucial by the head of each business unit? What themes were driving Kennedy's decisions?

One challenge was HSCNC's size and complexity, including a wide range of services and a number of revenue streams. A clearly defined project scope kept the team focused on strategic priorities. For example, auditory services have been a significant source of revenue for the agency, but increasingly complex billing procedures meant that outstanding accounts were tangling the finances. A key research target, then, was interviewing medical staff and employees at other agencies who understood how to make that billing system effective and could offer some information about best practices.

In all, the team completed 20 external interviews with funders, donors, clients, and staff at peer organizations. "I can't believe they got all these people on the phone," says Leslie Castellanos, Development Director at HSCNC. "I was very impressed by their willingness to ask difficult questions. It would have been very difficult for us to do that, or for anyone who knows us well. They asked questions that we probably never would have thought of."

Along with the wealth of primary research, the team conducted a thorough literature review to highlight or confirm trends, presenting key findings at milestone meetings. A SWOT analysis brought together organizational strengths and weaknesses with key findings on threats and opportunities.

The biggest impact for HSCNC was a more solid understanding of the world outside their door. "It validated a lot of what we already knew," says Kennedy. "But that hard data is key-it confirms that we're moving in the right direction." The team's synthesis and analysis was also essential. "Even if we could have gotten all the raw data on our own, we would have needed support in organizing the information, making it comprehensible and useable in a strategic planning process."

"That hard data is key. It confirms that we're moving in the right direction." Darragh Kennedy CEO Hearing and Speech Center of Northern California

Bill Caroli, the pro bono team's account director, agrees that much of the value of the project was in verifying hunches. "I'm not sure we told them anything they didn't intuitively know before. But when you come in with a consulting group and tell them this with authority, it helps to guide staff, to reassure the board, to make you feel like you're on the right path."

The project also provided the organization with some immediate next steps. For example, one key finding noted that even current HSCNC clients don't always know the breadth of available services. "Some really basic things, like providing informational materials in the lobby and in examining rooms, will make a difference immediately," says Castellanos. Still, HSCNC realizes that some initiatives will take longer to realize. "So many things in the report we just want to tackle right away," says Castellanos. "But it's a long term process."

"As a volunteer, getting the inside view of what’s really going on in an organization is very interesting." Lucas Barrowman Pro Bono Project Manager Taproot Foundation

The pro bono consulting team included professionals with experience in product management, marketing, business development, and management and strategy consulting with firms such as Sidley Austin LLP, BearingPoint Inc, IBM, and ActiveStrategy Inc. Team members Bill Caroli, Lucas Barrowman, Rajesh Krishnan, Patty Stern, Dylan Rivas, and Kenneth Su each gave an average of 3-5 hours each week to uncover and synthesize key information for HSCNC.

The mission of the Hearing and Speech Center of Northern California is to enable people who are hard-of-hearing and deaf, and people with speech/language disorders of all ages and backgrounds to participate fully in their families, schools, workplaces and communities. HSCNC provides a comprehensive network of services, including professional audiology, counseling, speech & language therapy, auditory-oral education for young children, and youth and community education, and is the only full-service center of this kind in the Bay Area. Learn more about HSCNC at http://www.hearingspeech.org/.

Every year, hundreds of nonprofit organizations rely on the Taproot Foundation's award winning Service Grant program to provide millions of dollars worth of pro bono Strategy Management, Marketing, Leadership Development & Strategic HR, and IT consulting services that better equip them to tackle our society's toughest challenges.