Overview

A Bay Area nonprofit dedicated to assisting job seekers recognized the need to realign its mission and strategy to serve its community better. With a diverse volunteer base and a seven-decade service history, the organization sought to understand its current cultural and strategic landscape to inform future directions.​

Approach

To facilitate this realignment, we collaborated on a comprehensive SOAR (Strengths, Opportunities, Aspirations, Results) analysis—a strengths-based strategic planning framework emphasizing positive attributes and future possibilities.​

Our methodology included:

• Stakeholder Interviews: Engaged with volunteers, board members, and job seekers to gather diverse perspectives.​

• Document Analysis: Reviewed existing strategic plans, initiatives, and communication materials to understand organizational narratives.​

• Group Workshop Sprints: Facilitated collaborative sessions to identify common goals and areas for growth.​

This participatory approach ensured that insights were grounded in the experiences and aspirations of those directly involved with the organization.​

Outcomes

The SOAR analysis process led to a shared understanding among stakeholders in each of the four areas:​

• Strengths: Recognizing the organization's passionate volunteer community and strong local reputation.​

• Opportunities: Identifying avenues for expanding impact and deepening ties with both job seekers and volunteers.​

• Aspirations: Envisioning the organization as a funded and leading resource for job seekers in the Bay Area.​

• Results: Establishing measurable outcomes to track community engagement longitudinally.​

These insights culminated in six clear strategic initiatives for the organization to evaluate and operationalize, providing a roadmap for growth and focused service delivery.​

Impact

The diagnostic process fostered a shared understanding among stakeholders, aligning them toward common objectives while recognizing shared strengths. The organization is now implementing strategies informed by the SOAR analysis, positioning itself for impact and community.​

This case study exemplifies how a structured, inclusive approach to organizational diagnostics can lead to actionable strategies that align with an organization's mission and community needs by involving many stakeholder voices.