4 minute read
Introduction
MESSAGE FROM THE CHAIR
On behalf of the Board of Directors of Big Brothers of Greater Vancouver Foundation (BBGVF), I am very proud to introduce the new Strategic Plan for the years 2020 to 2025. This plan is the result of many hours of effort on the part of Board Directors and myself under the conscientious leadership of Gerry Egan, Strategic Planning Task Force Chair. The committee was supported by Valerie Lambert, Executive Director and her capable staff. Our process was facilitated by Joanna Whalley who brought her vast experience to the table to help us distill and clarify our thoughts.
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The role of Big Brothers of Greater Vancouver Foundation is to provide shared services to Big Brothers of Greater Vancouver (BBGV) and Renew Crew Foundation (RCF). These services include marketing, communications, fundraising, accounting and finance, administration and HR. BBGVF also stewards the financial resources on behalf of the group of agencies. The Board establishes and monitors adherence to strict governance policies.
Shortly after we began this work, it became apparent that we were on the verge of a pandemic of uncertain duration and severity. I particularly appreciate the efforts of the team in completing this work on time, notwithstanding the upheaval in the world. The pandemic actually helped us find our voice as we recognized the importance of raising emergency funding and reaching out to our longtime donors in order to maintain our financial security.
The Committee began by reviewing the vision, mission and values of the organization to ensure they sufficiently inform and inspire our future direction.
Our vision is: To create a sustainable and strong foundation of funding and volunteers to support mentorship programs that empower children and youth to reach their full potential.
Our mission is: To source and steward sustainable funding, inspire volunteers to contribute their time, and to engage with our community and staff to build awareness about the impact and value of mentorship.
As a Board, we participated in and endorsed the values of trust, collaboration and teamwork, growth and innovation and inclusivity. These have changed somewhat from the organization’s previous values. The new values resonated with our entire staff, who participated in our process.
Our strategic priorities for 2020-2025 evolve around four key areas: Community and Growth (Broadening our Impact), our Internal Delivery Process (Deepen our Impact), People Engagement, and Financial Sustainability. These priorities are unpacked and thoroughly discussed in this text.
Each of these priorities includes stretch goals that will challenge our entire team to deliver their very best to our community. Specific strategic directives and key performance indicators (KPI’s) have been identified for each of these five areas. These will continue to be developed over the next five years. We view our Strategic Plan as a living document. As we plan our operations for each of the years 2021 to 2025, we will refine and enhance our KPI’s and even add new ones as conditions evolve. Our new plan also is branded with our new colours and logo. We hope it reflects an optimistic view of the future.
I would like to thank my co-directors for the incredible contribution they made to BBGVF in participating in this worthwhile process. I would also like to thank all of our community partners, families, mentors, youth and staff who took the time to give us feedback on our plan. It was critically important and we hope we have reflected your views in full.
Thank you.
Trevor O’Reilly, CFA Chair, Big Brothers of Greater Vancouver Foundation Board
My daughter has been a Big Buddy in the Teen Mentoring program for 2 yrs, I’m so impressed with your organization’s support of both the Big & Little Buddies. I’ve donated clothes & household items to BB for years also. Thank you for jumping in to action so quickly during the COVID-19 crisis/pandemic to support the Bigs with all the webinars & then getting the mentoring program up & running again virtually! Such flexibility, creativity & dedication!
- Parent of a Big Buddy
LONG-TERM IMPACTS INTRODUCTION
INTRODUCTION
MESSAGE FROM THE EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR
The Board-led strategic planning process was very comprehensive and inclusive. We consulted widely with literally hundreds of stakeholders who generously took the time to respond to our survey questions, give thoughtful comments and encourage our strategic planning process. New directors representing fresh perspectives participated in the process along with more seasoned directors who were able to bring a longer-term perspective to our discussions. There were also a number of staff representatives on the Task Force committee.
We checked back with the entire staff at key points in the process to ensure that everyone had a chance to engage in the process in some way. All voices were very much valued.
To assist us in identifying areas of opportunity and challenge, we engaged in a SOAR analysis in place of our previous SWOT process. This is fully described in the plan and served as the backdrop to our strategic priorities. We have also incorporating our work around Equity, Diversity and Inclusion and anti-racism into every aspect of our operations and this will evolve over the next few years.
Notwithstanding the challenges of the past several months, we are excited to be rolling out this new plan. We hope you find it thoughtful, worthy of your feedback and aspirational for the future.
Thank you.
