RENEW CREW FOUNDATION Strategic Plan 2020 - 2025
CLOTHING DONATION
August 1, 2020 - July 31, 2025
TABLE OF CONTENTS Strategic Planning Task Force
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Introduction
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Messages from Tony Miles (Board Chair), Valerie Lambert (Executive Director) Slav Gudelj (General Manager)
What We Do
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Vision, Mission, Values
Strategic Priorities Community and Growth Internal Delivery Process People Engagement Financial Sustainability
SOAR Analysis (Strengths, Weaknesses, Aspirations, and Results)
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At Renew Crew Foundation, we believe in the positive impact of mentorship. 1
STRATEGIC PLANNING TASK FORCE Board Members:
Tony Miles, Board Chair, Renew Crew Foundation Gary Milne Iain McMillan
Chair, Strategic Planning Task Force Gerry Egan
Staff:
Valerie Lambert, Executive Director Slav Gudelj, General Manager Jenn Amistad, Operations Manager, Call Centre Rhea Villavicencio, Bin Program Coordinator Rose Higgins, BBGV, Manager - Research, Inclusion, and Strategy Keltie Dow, BBGVF, Senior Human Resources Generalist Will Chambers, BBGVF, Marketing and Communications Coordinator
Facilitator:
Joanna Whalley
STRATEGIC PLAN 2020-2025
Our Strategic Planning process has been a collaborative effort of contributions and ideas from our staff, board members and the wider community. This resulting plan will serve as our guide for the next five years as we continue to focus on intentional and empowering ways to support Big Brothers of Greater Vancouver (BBGV) and the communities and families we serve. We greatly appreciate the hours that went into the development of this Strategic Plan.
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MESSAGE FROM THE CHAIR On behalf of the Board of Renew Crew Foundation (RCF), 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 (Director, Big Brothers of Greater Vancouver). 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.
INTRODUCTION
The role of RCF is to operate a social enterprise to generate a sustainable source of funding to ensure the long-term financial viability of Big Brothers of Greater Vancouver. RCF collects and receives donations of lightly used clothing, household items and books. The primary buyer of the product is Value Village. RCF is governed by a volunteer Board, which oversees the activities of the organization and monitors compliance with policies and operational targets. 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 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: Our social enterprise generates sustainable financial capacity to support Big Brothers of Greater Vancouver in empowering children and youth through mentorship in our local communities.
Our mission is: To inspire positive environmental and philanthropic impact. To create innovative social enterprise solutions that provide community members with an opportunity to donate goods that generate sustainable revenue for BBGV. As a Board, we participated in and endorsed the values of safety, collaboration and teamwork, environmental sustainability, inclusivity and innovation and results. These have changed somewhat from the organization’s previous values. The new values resonated with our entire staff, who participated in our process.
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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 RCF in participating in this worthwhile process. I would also like to thank all of our donors, community partners 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.
Tony Miles, Chair, Renew Crew Foundation
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!
LONG-TERM IMPACTS INTRODUCTION
Thank you.
- Parent of a Big Buddy
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MESSAGE FROM THE EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR AND THE GENERAL MANAGER 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.
INTRODUCTION
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. Even before the advent of the pandemic, it was obvious that our organization was going through a period of self-reflection rooted primarily in asking ourselves, how do we bring the most value to the donors and communities we serve? That value must be reflected not only in service excellence, but in becoming a critical piece of the circular economy as we collectively seek to reduce landfills and use products more wisely and for longer periods of time. 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 is consistent with our strength-based approach to mentorship. We have also incorporating our work around Equity, Diversity and Inclusion and anti-racism into every aspect of our programming 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.
Valerie Lambert, CPA, CA, ICD.D Executive Director
Slav Gudelj, General Manager 5
WHAT WE DO Our Vision Our social enterprise generates sustainable financial capacity to support Big Brothers of Greater Vancouver in empowering children and youth through mentorship in our local communities.
Our Mission
OUR VALUES THAT GUIDE OUR WORK Safety
We prioritize safety in every decision we make. We continually work to identify and address risks and hazards in all that we do to ensure that everyone's well-being and rights are protected.
Collaboration and Teamwork
We engage the expertise of our team to collaborate with our donors, community partners, and customers and remain leaders in the recycling industry to support our community.
Environmental Sustainability
We provide a convenient and reliable service that both generates financial benefit for BBGV and helps divert millions of pounds of clothing and other household items and an ever-expanding list of reusable materials from landfills.
Inclusivity
We are committed to creating inclusive spaces of belonging where all voices and experiences are welcomed and valued. We commit to take intentional actions towards advancing our commitments to equity, reconciliation and anti-racism across our policy, procedure and practice.
VISION, MISSION, VALUES
To inspire positive environmental and philanthropic impact. To create innovative social enterprise solutions that provide community members with an opportunity to donate goods that generate sustainable revenue for BBGV.
Innovation and Results
We innovate and create diversified solutions for product collection from our donors for sale to our customers, providing financial stability for BBGV mentorship programs for children and youth.
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PILLAR 1 COMMUNITY AND GROWTH – BROADEN IMPACT To enhance community impact and engagement through bin placements and partnerships.
STRATEGIC DIRECTIVES
BROADEN IMPACT
Years One through Five: • Bin Safety: retrofit all metal outdoor bins to comply to the safety standards established by UBCO research team and certified by P Eng.'s. • Address the issue of fewer home-phone lines and develop an outreach program to engage with existing and potential clients. • Leverage technology and social media. • Expand bin program (indoor and outdoor with focus on indoor). • Research and explore community events for RCF to take part in.
Key Performance Indicators: • Retrofit all metal outdoor bins that are active at the moment (approximately 100 at the commence of the plan) within 2 years and ensure that all bins are safety compliant before any new placement(s). • Utilize current database reports to track progress of donor contacts and deactivation rates. Acquire sample of data from retailers and evaluate feasibility of full database update. • Generate a list of multi-dwellings and opportunities to expand either residential pickups and or host-a-bin program and create strategies around them. • Explore options to develop initiatives, in partnership with Value Village, that are tied to our BBGV program. • Continued focus on bin safety and expand locations. • Establish 20 new bin locations per year. • Pending findings of Year One KPI’s, continue to develop those initiatives.
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PILLAR 2 INTERNAL DELIVERY PROCESS – DEEPEN IMPACT Using RCF’s expertise to explore options of diversifying funding portfolio such as business set ups and supplying low-cost clothing to families.
Years One through Five: • Use RCF's expertise to setup Business Startup Incubator. • Explore the feasibility of a direct to consumer distribution model for low cost clothing.
Key Performance Indicators: • Produce comprehensive document on services that RCF can deliver based on our past experiences and core expertise, identify list of potential clients. • Work with BBGV and BBGVF to setup first sale in year one and create plans for years 2-5. • Target to establish one new contract for services/new lines of business in year two to five and increase in revenue by 5%.
PILLAR 3 PEOPLE ENGAGEMENT STRATEGIC DIRECTIVES Employees Prioritize activities and opportunities to attract and retain talented employees to aid in the realization of the vision and mission.
Year One: • •
Engagement analysis and plans. Inclusion and anti-racism awareness.
Years Two through Five: • •
Research and development of priority areas in engagement. Research and development of Human Resources initiatives.
DEEPEN IMPACT | PEOPLE ENGAGEMENT
STRATEGIC DIRECTIVES
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PILLAR 4 FINANCIAL SUSTAINABILITY Renew Crew Foundation (RCF) is the largest funder of Big Brothers of Greater Vancouver Foundation. It provides grants to the Foundation to support the mentoring programs of Big Brothers of Greater Vancouver (BBGV). This strategic priority addresses the need for RCF to build on its past financial success and to continue to diversify its recycling programs in order to meet net revenue targets.
STRATEGIC DIRECTIVES
FINANCIAL SUSTAINABILITY
Years One through Five: • Maximize the ability of the organization to provide funding for the benefit of BBGV’s programming. • Explore and implement new programs. • Diversify recycling programs in order to meet revenue targets. • Develop financial metrics that allow us to monitor and improve financial efficiencies.
Key Performance Indicators: • Establish net revenue and margin contribution targets for the five-year period of the Strategic Plan. • Develop a funding program to address the costs of modifying the bins. • Setup tracking system for bottles to determine feasibility of the program. Based on the outcome, decide on placement of additional 20 bottle bins into the community in years two to five. • Increase in revenue by 5% through new sources • Continue to develop other relationships to acquire information required to set up successful recycling program by regularly attending industry meetings.
Well, if I didn’t have my Big Brother, I’d probably be some couch potato, playing video games in a dungeon. I would’ve never left the house because I never would’ve had anyone to go with, I never would’ve had those opportunities... Sometimes you need a push to get out of your bubble, especially when you’re a kid.
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SOAR ANALYSIS The model we used to focus on our situational analysis was the SOAR, Strengths, Opportunities, Aspirations and Results. It is a model of appreciative inquiry. We chose this in preference to the more traditional SWOT (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats) analysis because it is more reflective of our strength-based approach to mentorship.
In considering our strengths, we identified the following: Our established route system. Partnerships network. Variety of communication means at high level of frequency. Reputation for trustworthiness and reliability. Our People – long tenure. Bin removal in 2019 demonstrated high integrity. Service to donors, Value Village, partners. Scalability of operations. Many years of experience in meeting community needs.
We identified our opportunities to be the flip side of challenges: • • • •
Expansion of residential routes. Expansion of bin network, events and partnership programs. Book collections and sales. New means of training our home based Telephone Representatives.
Our aspirations included: • • •
Great Service to current donors. Develop new markets. Develop online book sales.
We will know we have succeeded when we see the following results: • • • • •
Successfully meeting quotas. System upgrade. Marketing to capture areas we are not servicing at the moment. More funding for our charity. Diversified revenue sources.
SOAR ANALYSIS
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