YI Strategic Plan

The Power

Playbook Strategic Plan 2023-2026

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Table of Contents 5 Message from the Executive Director of YI 6 Mission, Vision and Strategic Goals 7 Values 8 Executive Summary 11 Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Statement 13 Theory of Change 16 Background and Approach 18 Strategic Goal 1 Strategic Objectives Performance Measures 19 Strategic Goal 2 Strategic Objectives Performance Measures 20 Strategic Goal 3 Strategic Objectives Performance Measures

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Message Power “Power properly understood is nothing but the ability to achieve purpose. It is the strength required to bring about social, political and economic change.” Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

Playbook A set of strategies for conducting a campaign; A guide.

from Kristin McGuire I’m excited to share YI’s Power Playbook with you. It’s the culmination of almost a year’s worth of work that will guide Young Invincibles for the next three years.

We started this process with a familiar vision - to boldly go where no one has gone before. A nod to not only Star Trek, but to our values of Bold Ideas, Community, Young Adult Power, Equity, and Collaboration. The task was to create a strategic direction for YI that gets us from our current conditions as young adults to a step closer to attaining our vision that “All young people fully participate in our nation’s political process and have the economic opportunity to reach their fullest potential.”

As Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. said, “ Power properly understood is nothing but the ability to achieve purpose. It is the strength required to bring about social, political and economic change.”

That’s the point of The Power Playbook. We believe that this will not only guide our policy work, but also helps us center the joy, or play, in our work to advance economic opportunity. It will elevate and achieve our purpose.

The Power Playbook will guide us through the next three years of Young Invincibles. It will strengthen our internal operations, help grow our community engagement, and embolden our policy and research. We won’t hit all of our goals immediately, and that’s okay because change takes time.

I want to give thanks to our Strategic Planning Committee. I’m proud of you and the staff at large for investing the time and serious thought into this collective project. Thank you to our many partners and former staff who provided input. We are grateful for your insight. Thank you to the Annie E. Casey Foundation for their organizational effectiveness support on this project, as well as the Molina Family Foundation that provided general operating support, and many other contributions. Lastly, I want to express my deep gratitude to the young adults who participated for your vision and your continued insight. Thank you for helping us hold the line and stay focused, for always reminding us why we are here and who we are accountable to.

This would not have been successful without each of you. And don’t get me wrong, it hasn’t been easy. We’ve had some tough conversations. We’ve disagreed. We’ve agreed. We’ve celebrated. And I think that’s what I am proud of the most; that we were able to get through the hard stuff to achieve something great. For that, we will be a better YI. My hope is that this document inspires you and your work. I hope it provides vision and guidance. I hope it excites you.

With that, it is with great pride and gratitude that I present to the YI Network, inclusive of all young adults in this country- whether you have participated in our programming or not, our staff, our partners, and to the “Young at Heart ‘’ Invincibles, the Power Playbook. I am excited for you to explore it and make it your own. As you do so, I hope you begin to see yourself and your work within the following pages.

The task at hand is the work of all of us. Young people will not be ignored.

In solidarity,

Kristin McGuire

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Mission, Vision, and Strategic Goals

Values

Mission Young Invincibles’ mission is to amplify the voices of young adults in the political process and expand economic opportunity for our generation.

Vision All young people fully participate in our nation’s political process and have the economic opportunity to reach their fullest potential.

Young Adult Power

Lasting social change is created by empowering local young adult leaders with deep community ties who can drive the work. By providing young people with tools and practice to better use their voices and skills, we create a ripple effect of young adult leaders addressing systemic barriers.

Equity

Strategic Goals

We want to live in a world of opportunity, cooperation, and abundance. A world that does not yet exist. We work to ensure political, educational, social, and economic equality for all people by understanding the complex and interconnected systems of power and white supremacy that have marginalized people and created entrenched inequities. We must acknowledge the world in which we currently live in order to change the institutions that preclude justice.

Advancing the mission…

Strategic Goal 1 Goal: Drive engagement and advocacy for policy change.

To support our vision and mission, we Community have defined our values to achieve our We build and sustain a community of belonging, where brings their full selves. Our relationships goals, knowing we must continually everyone are authentic, empathetic, compassionate, and communicate and uphold these values respectful. We are mutually responsible for and accountable to one another, meeting each other across the organization.

Strategic Goal 2 Goal: : Expand opportunity, community and collaboration for young adults.vy

In our programming and advocacy, we create opportunities to shift power for communities with the least access to political and economic power.

Our diverse team aims to implement inclusive and equitable practices, policies, and strategies.

wherever we are.

Collaboration

We care about one another and take joy in working together to set and accomplish our goals. We value and celebrate each other’s unique lived experiences, worldviews, talents and contributions. We work through the courageous and difficult conversations that build better relationships and stronger teams.

We bring high quality data, youth voice, facilitation, and strategic thinking to our relationships with our partners.

Bold Ideas

We are not satisfied with business as usual or the status quo. Tangible and sustainable systemic change requires new and different leaders whose ideas and approaches can design better solutions to the challenges we face. We commit to creating, learning, growing, and improving together.

Strategic Goal 3 Goal: Achieve the highest standards of management, business operations and fiscal responsibility.i

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Executive Summary Fourteen years ago, a few college friends were sitting around the cafeteria table and came up with a bold new idea that would change the way policy makers viewed young adults in the political ecosystem. Little did they know that their idea would become the largest young adult policy and advocacy organization in the nation.

Since then, Young Invincibles has worked to elevate the voices of young people in the political conversation in truly meaningful ways and to drive forth policy change that expands economic opportunity for young adults across the country.

We are proud to carry the torch, the current state of young people across the country exemplifies how critical our work to amplify the voice of young adults really is. Over the past 3 years young people have survived a global pandemic, weathered(ing) an economic downturn (for the second time for some), and are now experiencing the largest mental health crisis we have ever seen. These occurrences have exposed opportunities that we as millennials and Gen Zers have known for far too long: Y oung adults hold tremendous power and, with support, can use their lived experiences to shape policy making T o be successful, we must focus more on power building and narrative shifting to remove economic barriers and create long lasting policy change.

Our current society frames young adults as some sort of mysterious being that is difficult to understand.

We see buzzwords like quiet quitting, the anxious generation, and great resignation, but don’t regularly hear the facts. Young people continue to experience a disproportionate economic impact from the financial crisis (read: We are BROKE). Media outlets often spotlight stories about why young people don’t vote but fail to mention young voters played a significant role as evidenced by higher midterm turnout among young voters. Young people are increasingly accumulating medical debt and about a third report suffering from mental health issues such as depression and anxiety. We are literally sick and tired.

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Our mission remains crystal clear: to amplify the voices of young adults in the political process and expand economic opportunity for our generations.

Over the next three years, we will continue to center those who are the most disproportionately impacted and have the least access to economic opportunity.

We will focus our work on the policy that we have found to be the most impactful: Higher Education, Health Care, Civic Engagement, and Economic Opportunity. We will advocate for this work at the State and Federal levels. We also realize that in order to achieve economic opportunity, we must first fight for economic justice. We will view bad policies as a violation of our values. We will use our aspirations as a means to find solutions. We will do this by shifting the narrative around economic access and deservedness. Put simply, we will challenge longstanding American ideals by defining the socalled American Dream and who has access to it.

We will accomplish this by aligning our existing programs, creating unified experiences for young people who engage in our programming, elevating our use of digital tools to expand our reach and educate more broadly, and refocusing on our policy and research efforts to produce high quality, cuttingedge research.

Equally as important, we are dedicated to bringing celebration to our work. Movement work is hard, so we are publicly committing ourselves to inspire joy in the lives of young people as we build power.

Our approach to advancing equity

Executive Summary Continued proactive partnership and support strategy to ensure we are showing up for other organizations focused on racialized young people as effectively as possible.  Root our policy, situational, and demographic analyses in the best research available about what the world will look like for young adults aged 18-34 now and for the next 5-10 years, making necessary adjustments as new data becomes available.  Celebrate our identity as a diverse staff that is majority young adults while designing and normalizing organizational policies that allow us to continue to grow and improve.

Elements of the PlayBook: Since our founding in

2009, Young Invincibles has become the leading young adult Policy & Advocacy organization in the country by several measures. We have worked to create a space for young adults who believe that our generations have a unique set of experiences and these experiences are a necessary starting point for the removal of economic barriers.

The Power Playbook seeks to answer these questions and presents a set of ideas on how we can cultivate economic opportunity for young people:

We identified the following strategic goals to help drive our work over the next three years: D rive Advocacy & Engagement E xpand Community, Collaboration, and Opportunity A chieve Highest Operations

standards

of

Organizational

After we set the goals, we drafted a set of strategic objectives to help us reach them. These objectives are the foundation of our PlayBook. They represent a set of bold ideas that will move our organization from where we are to where we want to be.

We envision that success to look like:  A strong, sustained collaborative of young adults and partners making progress on long term policy change that is centered around those most impacted by longstanding biased policy making by sharing their stories and being civically engaged  A shifted collective mindset that challenges what is possible and equitable when it comes to economic opportunity and political access for young adults

 What strategies are essential to building the political power of young adults?  How is our organization currently structured to advance where we are and where we are going? What infrastructure is necessary to realize our vision moving forward?  How will we know when we’ve reached our goals?

Our commitment to Diversity, Equity, and inclusion remains. What we are working together to achieve at Young Invincibles, a movement for young adults by young adults, rests upon principles rooted in Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion. We will continue to:  Center low-income young people and racialized young people first (not secondarily) in all areas of work. C rystallize the important and unique role that YI plays and will play in the advocacy arena, and building a

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Regional Map

Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Statement YI was founded to disrupt an inequitable power dynamic during the federal debate about health care reform, with a particular emphasis on elevating the voices of young adults who did not have a voice in the political discourse. But given the ways in which racism leads to unequal distribution of resources in our society — impeding people of color’s equitable access to health care, higher education, civic engagement, and financial well-being — YI recognizes that we can and must do more to strengthen both ourAs a result, as an organization we must commit cultural competency overall andand empower our staff to advance policies and our commitment to racial advocacy strategies that are responsive and equity, specifically.

Legend West North East

Rocky Mountain South

Midwest Headquarters

Since our founding, we have learned that access and opportunity look differently for all young adults, particularly those in historically marginalized and disadvantaged communities.

work to create the most good for the most atneed members of our constituency. This means centering equity in all of our work.

At YI, equity means acknowledging that different members of our generation are starting their journey towards financial and personal success from different economic and social perspectives.

It means adjusting our strategies, policy positions, and training mechanisms to meet the young adults we are trying to reach where they are, not where we assume they are or where we want them to be. It means consistent learning and recalibrating of our approach towards creating lasting impact, both internally and externally.

We have made and learned from mistakes along the road to this understanding of the importance

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of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion at YI, particularly in recognizing the value of the lived experiences, needs, and wants of our own staff members, of our young adult spokespeople, and of our partners. As a result, in January 2017, following calls from YI staff and young adults in our programs, the DEI Change Team was created to ensure that leadership, staff, and the organization at large followed through on their intention to fulfill YI’s stated DEI commitments, effectively and authentically. The Change Team was tasked with advising leadership on how to engage staff in identifying priority issues and implementing action steps. In July of 2017 a DEI Workplan was developed with two main

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Theory of Change

Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Statement Continued focus areas: increasing hiring and retention of staff of color, and tackling the perception of YI as a white organization internally and externally by prioritizing race and class in our policy work and young adult programming.

This focus demonstrates an understanding that racism has been historically and intrinsically tied to the American economy and is a driving force of the systemic inequities we are working to resolve.

For example, recent Young Invincibles research has highlighted persistent racial inequality in wealth building, with white young adult households more than three times as likely as black ones to own their home. Black college graduates are 50 percent more likely than white ones to hold student debt, and black young adult households had a pre-pandemic median net worth of $1,130 in contrast to $47,096 for their white counterparts.

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At Young Invincibles, we believe that uplifting race and class within targeted public policies, informed by and benefiting impacted young adults, better serve young adults of all backgrounds. We advocate for and with first generation college students, lowincome young adults, and racialized young adults.

Our approach to equity prioritizes class and access while centering race. It is explicit about race, not exclusive to race.

Today, we carry the torch of our DEI change team by continuing to embed our DEI principles in our policy work, young adult engagement, and hiring practices.

We work to ensure that we are helping YI to center and serve the most at-need young adults in our nation respectfully, authentically, and effectively.

Young Invincibles is a national, multi-issue, policy and advocacy organization for young adults. Because of our unique position in the policy ecosystem, we understand that change is often complex and interconnected. We value the work of our partners and know that we all hold a valuable place in creating change for young people. Our theory of change captures our understanding of how we view change, how we work to create change, and what change looks like. It upholds what we have done for over a decade:

we create successful advocacy campaigns that shift biased narratives through inspiring and engaging young adults, developing policy solutions, and elevating young adult voices to policymakers and the media.

We work to develop leadership and build power among

young adults across the nation who have been impacted by the worst our country has had to offer. We do this work with racialized young people, young people who are economically oppressed, and young adults who are first generation college students. We view these lived experiences as assets that should be uplifted and centered during the policy setting processes in our states and federally. Our super power is our ability to deeply engage in high level policy conversations and translate them into consumable pieces of information for young adults. We use this talent to recruit, engage, and build a base of young people who are excited to participate in the

political process.

We believe that when we amplify the voices of young adults, provide timely and accurate information on the issues that impact young people the most, then advocate for policies that create economic opportunity for marginalized young adults, we begin to see policy norm shifts that lead to a democracy where young people have the economic opportunity to reach their fullest potential and are engaged and fully participate in our nation’s political process.

When we do our work well, we see young adults who are engaged, confident, and empowered. We see young adults who are excited to serve as trusted messengers in their communities. We have strong partnerships with organizations that are also committed to improving the conditions of young adults.

Ultimately, our theory of change demonstrates how Young Invincibles harnesses the inherent power of young adults as the most diverse and largest voting bloc in our country and utilizes this power to generate the economic opportunity, social change, and political access that young adults deserve.

At Young Invincibles we Believe that young adults aged 18-34  are the most diverse than any age group before them  Have a unique set of experiences that should be valued when making policy  Are a powerful voting bloc in America

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At

Theory of Change Continued And our Mission is to amplify the voices of young adults in the political process and expand economic opportunity for our generation.

 Young people are empowered and will serve as trusted messengers to their friends, families, and communities  Partnerships are strong and work together to improve conditions of young adults

We will accomplish this by

A strong movement WITH and FOR young adults will be sustained.

 Shifting Narratives via storytelling and organizing  Building our base of young adults and partners E mpowering Young Adults via our leadership programs and speaking opportunities  Sharing Accurate information (Consumer Ed, research & Comms)  Policy Change

We

In everything that we do, we are guided by our values: Young Adult Power, Equity, Community, And this will lead to the realization of our vision that All young people fully participate in our naCollaboration, and BOLD ideas tion’s political process and have the economic opportunity to reach their fullest potential.

We will begin to see the following shifts

Know that young adults are a powerful voting block in America.

And our mission is to amplify the voices of young adults in the political process and expand economic opportunity for our generation.

And when this happens, we will see

 Equitable policies that center impacted young adults  Narrative shifts  Strong Coalitions  Greater Public Awareness

Believe that young adults have a unique set of experiences that should be valued when making policy.

Realize that Young adults are more diverse than any age group before them.

We will accomplish this by

Building our base of young adults and partners

Shifting Narratives via storytelling and organizing

Sharing Accurate and timely information (Consumer Ed, research & Comms)

Y oung Adults are aware of their place in the political ecosystem

Policy Change

Empowering Young Adults via our leadership programs and speaking opportunities.

In everything that we do, we are guided by our values:

Young Adult Power, Equity, Community, Collaboration, and BOLD ideas

And we will begin to see the following shifts Young people are empowered and will serve as trusted messengers to their friends, families, and communities

Young Adults are aware of their place in the political ecosystem

Partnerships are strong and work together to improve conditions of young adult

A STRONG MOVEMENT WITH AND FOR YOUNG ADULTS WILL BE SUSTAINED And when this happens, we will see Equitable policies that center impacted young adults

Narrative shifts

Strong Coalitions

Young people feeling empowered and becoming advocates

AND THIS WILL LEAD TO THE REALIZATION OF OUR VISION THAT ALL YOUNG PEOPLE FULLY PARTICIPATE IN OUR NATION'S POLITICAL PROCESS AND HAVE YI THE ECONOMIC OPPORTUNITY TO REACH THEIR FULLEST POTENTIAL.

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Young Invincibles Strategic Planning Committee

Background and Approach The six-month process of developing the Young Invincibles’ strategic plan with the Executive Director, Deputy Director and Strategic Planning Committee made up of nine YI and YI Advisor staff members, considered all current aspects of the organization, young adult’s needs, industry and policy in determining the future state of Young Invincibles’.

Collecting data by way of survey from YI partners, funders, board members, current and past parttime and full-time staff illuminated themes requiring a deeper dive to understand the implications. This deeper dive came by way of interviews held with staff, funders, partners and board members to answer additional questions shedding greater light and perspective on the themes to make way for the development of the three strategic goals. The Strategic Planning Committee then continued adding to the plan by developing the strategic objectives and action items to finalize the plan.

long-term economic and social outcomes.

This strategic plan summarizes essential strategies that will drive advancement in Young Invincibles’ three goal areas. It is designed to flow throughout the organization and serves as a primary guide for allocating the resources needed to achieve YI’s

YI will use key measurements, enterprise risk management, and evaluation of programs to provide evidence to support YI’s budget creation and decision-making. This strategic plan is illustrated in the infographic below:

Dy Brown

Emma Hersh

A systems-based execution framework will empower YI employees to partake in performance management.

The framework aligns and integrates leadership, strategic planning, employee engagement, process management, business information, and customer (funders, partners, young adults) input into feedback loops that produce continuous learning and improvement.

Heidi Gider

Senior Director of Development

Greg Norwood

Iesha Young

Kristin McGuire

Kyra deGruy Kennedy

Matt Eckel

Ruth Sosa Martinez

Stanley Augustin

WHY is Young Invincibles’ work important?

Mission

WHERE is YI in the future?

Vision

WHAT is the overarching, longterm outcomes YI aspires to advance?

WHAT objectives will YI focus on to achieve its strategic goals and what measurement of progress will be used?

HOW will YI achieve these objectives?

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YI leadership and employees will use this plan to convert strategies into actions, then actions into results. For each strategic goal, there are strategic objectives, where leadership and employees will create an action plan, routinely measure and review progress toward achieving the objective, and evaluate how the objective’s actions should be altered and improved.

Deputy Executive Director

Virginia Engagement Manager

Rocky Mountain Director

Strategic Goal 1

Strategic Goal 2

Strategic Goal 3

Strategic Objective

Strategic Objective

Strategic Objective

Engagement Coordinator

YI Advisors

Engagement Manager

Executive Director

Director of Policy Research

Content Strategy Program Manager

Tremayne Jackson Strategies

Programs

Actions

Senior Director of Finance & Operations

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Strategic Goal 1

Goal: Drive engagement and

advocacy for policy change.

Context

Young Invincibles’ greatest strengths in the advocacy arena comes from a combination of the policy expertise of its staff and the deep engagement of the young people that YI brings into the process. Young Invincibles will work to ensure that young adult priorities help set national and regional policymaking agendas, are top of mind for policymakers looking to implement that agenda, and are considered indispensable to policymakers’ bottom line priorities.

This means having policy staff with the expertise to ensure YI is a thought leader in the policy space, along with the political savvy to ensure that our expertise is considered by decision makers. It means playing an indispensable role in the organizational coalitions that can turn good ideas into political leverage. And it means keeping young adult stories, experiences, and expertise at the forefront of Young Invincibles’ advocacy efforts.

Context Strategic Objective 2: To strengthen our advocacy effectiveness, YI will publish high-quality, cutting-edge policy research to deepen understanding of young adult issues, create foundation for narrative shifts, and guide our policy and programmatic work throughout the organization.

Action and Measure:

By 2nd quarter of 2023, YI will develop a participatory action research strategy that leverages the unique viewpoints of young adults. This new strategy will be fully implemented by the end of 2023. This aligned research method will be utilized to secure funding for projects that include each state’s policy agenda.

By January of 2024, YI will have standardized metrics to measure impact of research projects released throughout the organization. Additionally, YI will create metrics to measure post-research policy implementation and youth advocacy successes.

Strategic Objective 1: YI will focus on building relationships and partnerships that advance our Strategic Objective 3: We will gain policy momission and enhance our collective strength. mentum and shift narratives about young adults Action and Measure: by becoming the authors writing and telling our

By June 2023, Young Invincibles will focus on deepening partnerships by defining coalition own stories. participation and assessing how we provide value to the coalitions we actively engage in and implement a mapping and evaluation process to record and track these partnerships and their outcomes.

By December of 2024, we will identify ways to convene and foster connections between and among young adults and partner organizations who champion young adult issues, as well as partners in government and business.

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By December of 2025, YI will cultivate and secure funding for each office that supports partnership opportunities that strengthen and/or expand our existing policy and advocacy work, is responsive to young adult needs, and increases our mission impact.

Strategic Goal 2 When it comes to base building, Young Invincibles’ greatest strengths fall within our young adult programming and partnership work. While fulfilling, this work is not easy. Young Invincibles continuously works to develop methods to expand our young adult base and bolster engagement, deepen our partnership work, foster collaboration both internally and externally.

Young Invincibles has consistent access to the perspectives of informed and engaged young adults with respect to their experiences and needs. Young Invincibles will keep these narratives at the forefront of both its public-facing work and policymakerfacing advocacy efforts. We want to build our base of volunteers while also holding true to our mission of fostering economic opportunity. We currently host a 10 to 12-week paid leadership development program called Young Advocates, five state Youth Advisory Boards, and one National Youth Advisory Board.

This equates to deeply training approximately 250300 young adults annually. Our aim is to create a bolstered engagement model that encourages civic participation that is strategic and sustainable.

Goal: Expand opportunity, community and collaboration for young adults.

Strategic Objective 1: Design and deliver an integrated, structured, and inclusive young adult experience across the organization that maximizes young adult engagement and builds the bench of young people prepared and ready to engage in advocacy.

Action and Measure:

By June 2024, YI will create and implement a clear ladder of engagement that encompasses program and non-program participants.

By June 2024, YI will create an internal policy that normalizes a standard practice of minimizing the effect of barriers young adults may face as a result of advocating with and/or on behalf of YI by establishing a proactive system of needs evaluation, developing an institutionalized structure to address such barriers, and prioritizing external paid opportunities.

Each year of this strategic plan, YI will increase engagement with non-program participants by 1525% and increase the percentage of non-traditional students and older young adults who engage with our programming by 10%.

Action and Measure:

By December 2023, build awareness of YI’s successes and programs by creating a PR and marketing plan that promotes YI and its programs.

This plan will identify industry, general interest, identity based media outlets, government officials and key influencers to promote YI activities.

By December 2025, design and spark bold, proactive strategic communications campaigns that integrate the strengths of our base of storytellers, policy agenda, and narrative change strategy. We lead in our narrative change and strategic communications work by increasing storytelling training, public speaking opportunities, and story placements by 10% annually.

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Strategic Goal 3 Context

Young Invincibles is the nation’s largest young adult policy and advocacy organization. To continue this legacy for another decade, we must strive to ensure our financial health and sustainability by bolstering our organizational infrastructure, building financial sustainability, and facilitating program integration.

In addition, we want to keep true to our mission of amplifying young adult voices by curating a culture of listening, learning, and wellbeing.

Since our founding, YI has grown from working from leased desks into an organization with offices across the country. YI is organizationally and technologically complex, with both centralized and departmental divisions that provide support and in service of our mission. Because of these complex needs, timely tech improvements are vital for the long-term strength and vigor of the organization. We continue to ensure our systems and processes change and adapt to make the future easier in order to guarantee our software and technology is up to date and safe for our employees.

Goal: YI will achieve the highest

standards of management, business operations and fiscal responsibility. .

Strategic Objective 2: Young Invincibles will develop and sustain a resilient budget to support our impact goals by securing sustainable resources and increasing predictable, reliable, and diversified funding.

Action and Measure:

To ensure the health and sustainability of our organization, we will diversify the revenue by 3- 5% each year of the strategic plan. This will include individual donors, corporate partners, and business development.

Annually in December, YI will create a strategic development plan that grows the organizational budget by 5%.

Strategic Objective 3: Young Invincibles will serve as a model for nonprofit workplaces that center young adult staff development and growth in the workforce.

Action and Measure:

Strategic Objective 1: Young Invincibles will so- By Q1 of each year of this strategic plan, create a lidify our organizational infrastructure and facili- coordinated internal and external communications strategy that communicates YI’s message to staff tate program integration. and to the community.

Action and Measure:

By December 2023, YI will develop an organizational chart with defined career pathways for full time positions. This framework will align professional development and training with specific advancement opportunities within YI.

By December 2023, YI will develop standardized quantitative and qualitative metrics that will track outcomes & successes of our national and state policy and programmatic work to assess efficiency and effectiveness, aid our innovation, and expand our reach.

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We will continue to amplify the voice of young adults by highlighting the expertise of our team members.

Each year of the strategic plan, we will strategically position staff as industry thought leaders.

Strategic Objective 4: Our team effectively and collaboratively uses our time and resources to implement strategies that foster a culture that champions staff development, centers employee wellbeing, & provides space for creativity and joy.

Strategic Goal 3 Continued

By 2026, YI will create an internal training schedule that enhances the status of staff, with a focus on management and leadership training, technical and soft skill development, mentoring, and collaboration.

Each year of the strategic plan, YI will Integrate digital resources and interactive tools into the benefit package that connect staff with real-time health and wellness resources. Staff will be familiarized with these updates by the start of each benefit year.

Each year of the strategic plan, ensure all Directors present their plans to support DEI at a Q1 all staff meeting.

Strategic Objective 5: Enhance the access, usability, security and utilization of data and technology resources to advance and enhance research, decision making, and employee experience.

Action and Measure:

By Q3 of 2023, YI will have conducted an internal systems audit that will prioritize usability, functionality, and ROI of our current systems.

By Q4 2025, YI will advance innovation by deploying a modernized IT infrastructure that enables seamless access to information and resources including hardware, software, people and facilities, that is secure and adaptable and meets the current and anticipated needs of the organization.

YI will maintain an average employee engagement score of 70% or higher each year of the strategic plan by developing standardized internal policies/ practices that leave staff feeling clarity around roles/ responsibilities, decision-making, and how they contribute to the larger organization.

Goal: Expand opportunity, community and collaboration for young adults.

Strategic Objective 6: Build awareness of YI as a vital consumer education resource, one that can also help external partners achieve their goals.

Action and Measure:

By December 2025, YI’s consumer education offerings are expanded to cover all four issue areas, are re-tooled to meet young people where they are through technology, and are universally applicable in all 50 states.

By December 2023, YI will survey external stakeholders and/or conduct market research on where consumer education material can deliver partnerships. YI will aim to achieve 70% participation in the survey and combine those results with the market research conducted. YI in will package consumer education resources based on YI issue areas that can be delivered to different consumer groups based on research findings.

By the end of Q1 2024, YI will present a business development strategy to YI leadership. YIA will then continue business development efforts that started in 2023 for the remainder of 2024 with tracked progress.

By the end of December 2024, YI will partner with YIA in solidifying a 2025 revenue/development pipeline that puts YI in position to register a financial gain on the original investment YI made in YIA.

Action and Measure:

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" Amplify the voices of young adults in the political process and expand economic opportunity for our generation."

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The Power

Playbook Strategic Plan 2023 - 2026 younginvincibles.org

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