JLSB Strategic Plan Update

JLSB STRATEGIC PLANU p d a te

MISSION: The Junior League of Shreveport Bossier, Inc. is an organization of women committed to promoting voluntarism, developing the potential of women and improving communities through the effective action and leadership of trained volunteers.

PILLAR I:

Provide an Engaging Membership Experience

PILLAR II:

Engage and Improve the Community

PILLAR III:

Safeguard Sustainability

PILLAR IV:

Communicate Mission and Vision

Note: Initiatives in RED are ones that the Board decided to focus attention on during the 2020-2021 League year. Those with a check mark (✓) were addressed in previous League years and are currently considered complete. Midyear updates are included in italics.

STRATEGY 1: The JLSB will increase and promote member engagement through processes that support the growth and development of members to ensure the sustainability of the JLSB and continued fulfillment of its mission.

ADDRESSING THE PILLARS: I, III, IV, II INITIATIVES TO ACHIEVE STRATEGY 1:

sion of the JLSB. This initiative is on-going and primarily addressed through the advisor and January interview meetings. INITIATIVE 1.2: Evaluate obligations, placements, and slated positions to ensure that members’ time and talents are used effectively and efficiently during tenure of membership. Addressed through Operational Planning and feedback from members to their Council VPs during project wrap up meetings and post-placement surveys. INITIATIVE 1.3: Assess and review role of advisor and member relationship to ensure that individual members’ needs, strengths, and goals are being reviewed and assessed on a yearly basis. Also on-going – The Nominating

Chairman and President have worked together to develop a framework for the advisor/membership relationship and how it should function throughout the League year and a member’s experience. INITIATIVE 1.4: Ensure that strategic direction is communicated to members and that members’ voices are reflected in strategic direction of JLSB. Implemented a member engagement survey to inform November small group meetings this year as well as the reintroduction of Education Workshops to address member feedback concerning member experience and development. We have also added a “comment box” to the member homepage on Digital Cheetah for feedback to be given throughout the year. INITIATIVE 1.5: Create a committee to research, develop, and implement a plan with a variety of opportunities for members to connect to other members. Member Engagement Coordinator and Assistant Coordinator. INITIATIVE 1.6: Evaluate content of Provisional Program and memorialize processes utilized to select Provisional Community Project. It was determined during the 2018-2019 League Year that there would no longer be a separate community project specific to the Provisional class but rather Provisional members would observe existing community placements throughout their Provisional year. INITIATIVE 1.7: Create an acknowledgment committee to recognize significant events in lives of members. The Membership Council works with the Board and Management Team to ensure life events are recognized properly by the most appropriate member in leadership. The Celebrations section of the Parishscope also highlights exciting life events of our members. INITIATIVE 1.8: Assess and utilize training budgets to empower members to become the best civic and community leaders. One unforeseen benefit to the pandemic has been that our financial resources have been able to be stretched to include more members than in the past since AJLI training opportunities have all been virtual this year. Additionally, we have been able to allocate resources to members for them to participate in other virtual training opportunities through sister Leagues like the Junior League of New Orleans. INITIATIVE 1.9: Review, adjust, and develop new opportunities for Sustainers to be regularly engaged in leadership development and community impact efforts. The pandemic has caused us to be in a holding pattern due to the demographics of many of our Sustainers. Our hope is to combine the honoring of the Sustainer of the Year with our May End of Year Celebration to connect Sustainers with Active members and celebrate the League as a whole on that day instead of separate celebrations for each member group. INITIATIVE 1.10: Evaluate the AJLI Membership Rollout Transformation. STRATEGY 2: The JLSB will operate from a sufficient and sustainable resource base by employing effective fund development initiatives and prudently allocating fund development resources.

ADDRESSING THE PILLARS: III, I, IV INITIATIVES TO ACHIEVE STRATEGY 2:

INITIATIVE 2.1: Evaluate the allocation of all fund development (ways and means) resources, including fundraising events budgets, value of volunteer hours, ways and means financial obligations, and membership dues. Our current Fund Development Research & Development chair has done extensive work in this area over the past two years. This chair is now included in all Fund Development event wrap up meetings in order to collect this much-needed data. INITIATIVE 2.2: Assess current fundraising events strategy and develop and implement criteria for selecting fundraising events. We are utilizing data collected from Initiative 2.1 to access all current fundraising events, but this year the data is skewed due to the pandemic. It is the decision of the operational planning committee to not make changes at this time. INITIATIVE 2.3: Develop an investment plan utilizing a third-party consultant. In the 2018-2019 League year, we diversified our savings accounts to maximize our interest returns and also established an endowed fund with the Community Foundation of North Louisiana. INITIATIVE 2.4: Deplete cookbook inventory with the understanding that cookbooks can be utilized for marketing efforts. The current cookbook committee has come up with a number of new, innovative ideas for moving the cookbook inventory. Sales have been strong despite limitations related to the pandemic. INITIATIVE 2.5: Research and develop a long-term individual giving campaign to expand our current individual giving campaign (1933 Society). INITIATIVE 2.6: Develop a committee focused on researching and applying for grants. INITIATIVE 2.7: Manage current and fixed assets in a prudent manner. INITIATIVE 2.8: Create, improve, and solidify corporate community partnerships. We have expanded our partnership with Christus to include community partner highlights related to healthy living in our JLSB internal communications. We also added Clarkes Jewelers as a year-long corporate/community partner this year. INITIATIVE 2.9: Utilize Donor database in Digital Cheetah to track past, current, and potential donors. A donor database was developed during the 2019-2020 League year, and our Fund Development Assistant VP has been tasked with formulating a plan to continue to expand and better utilize the database.

STRATEGY 3: The JLSB will clearly promote identity through effective communication.

ADDRESSING THE PILLARS: IV, I, II INITIATIVES TO ACHIEVE STRATEGY 3:

INITIATIVE 3.1: Evaluate members’ perception of the JLSB identity. INITIATIVE 3.2: Develop a comprehensive marketing strategy that highlights leadership development of women. On-going – A strategy has been developed but the goal now is to become more consistent and frequent with this messaging. INITIATIVE 3.3: Develop a comprehensive marketing strategy that highlights and promotes JLSB community impact. On-going – A strategy has been developed but the goal now is to become more consistent and frequent with this messaging. INITIATIVE 3.4: Create an “elevator” speech for each member to utilize when asked “What is the JLSB” or “What does the JLSB do in the community.” This is always a work in progress, but we will be offering an April Education Workshop on this topic with Sustainer and former JLSB President Ginger Lukacs. INITIATIVE 3.5: Incorporate brand standards as outlined by AJLI. Work on this initiative began several years ago with a revision to the Parishscope and social media presence to adhere to AJLI brand standards. This year we have been working on a revised website to comply with these standards on that platform, as well. The new website will launch before the end of the current League year. INITIATIVE 3.6: Ensure accurate internal perception of the JLSB through consistent messaging in a variety of communication formats. On-going work by the Communications Council in conjunction with the Executive Vice-President and President. INITIATIVE 3.7: Assess, review, and develop, as needed, formal processes and standards for JLSB external communication, including social media and website. INITIATIVE 3.8: Develop criteria to evaluate and maintain the integrity, quality, and accuracy of publications and distributions lists. On-going work of Management Team and the Communications Council. The Parishscope distribution list was revised this year to ensure all recipient information was updated. STRATEGY 4: The JLSB will be a leader in affecting positive change in the Shreveport-Bossier area through impactful programming and the training of civic and community leaders.

ADDRESSING THE PILLARS:II, I, III INITIATIVES TO ACHIEVE STRATEGY 4:

INITIATIVE 4.1: Implement and grow the “Red Apron Pantry” Project. Currently in our third successful year, the Red Apron Pantry was one of the only food banks in our area that remained open during the entire course of the COVID-19 pandemic and after Hurricane Laura. INITIATIVE 4.2: Create and develop processes to determine measurable impact of each current community project and their accord with JLSB mission. Our Project Research & Development team has worked with the Community Council this year to develop a comprehensive placement “exit survey” for members that will allow us to better collect quantifiable data related to our projects. Additionally the PR&D team is included in all wrap up meetings of community projects in order to collect data first hand, as well. INITIATIVE 4.3: Develop and implement criteria for continuing current community projects and selecting new community projects. The data collected as part of Initiative 4.2 is used by PR&D to address this initiative. INITIATIVE 4.4: Determine and implement an effective means for gathering input on needs and wants of the community. The development and utilization of the Community Advisory Board (a board comprised of representatives from a wide cross section of area non-profit and service organizations) has helped us gather this much-needed input. INITIATIVE 4.5: Evaluate the community impact of a narrower or singular focus, such as an issued or demographic based emphasis. This initiative relies heavily on Initiative 4.4, and due to the pandemic, we have been unable to meet consistently with the CAB which has resulted in delays to this. INITIATIVE 4.6: Explore community partnerships with other non-profit organizations. INITIATIVE 4.7: Determine an effective way to communicate JLSB community programming and impact (to include education component addressing underlying issues being addressed by community projects) both internally and in the Shreveport-Bossier community. The Project Research & Development team is working to synthesize all of the information collected as part of Initiative 4.2 and supply that information to our Communications Council in order for them to effectively communicate our impact to our members and the community-at-large. INITIATIVE 4.8: Create and utilize a community contact database. We have worked to update and expand our “Out of League” mailing list as a starting point for this community contact database.