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By Alexis De Sela
“He who would learn to fly one day must first learn to stand and walk and run and climb and dance; one cannot fly into flying.” — Friedrich Nietzsche
We at Lee+ Associates realize that meeting each organization where it is, whether it’s crawling, standing, walking, running, or flying, is essential. We believe in a holistic approach to our work that includes partnering with organizations of all sizes—from micro to large and complex nonprofits to examine and strengthen their Governance, Fundraising, Organizational Development, and Human Capital Management efforts.
Nietzsche’s quote can well be defining the different life cycles of a nonprofit. Each life cycle is manifested differently in a nonprofit and our team has practical experience to help explore and understand the cause and effect of those cycles. We listen and develop individual and specific approaches rather than try to fit your organization into a canned program. This is how we hold true to our promise to Add Value to Vision.
Having a strong and engaged Board of Directors who understands and lives their promise of effective Governance sets the tone for any nonprofit. Whether our role is helping Boards understand their roles and responsibilities, or preparing them and walking them through an important ask or a capital campaign, we can help.
For the past 17 years, we have helped nonprofits in their Fundraising efforts. From assessing development departments and providing best practice structure ideas, to analyzing fundraising strategies and helping create realistic goals, our team of fundraising experts, led by Marion Lee, has guided many organizations throughout the state to achieve significant fundraising milestones and success. With Lee+ Associates’ guidance, many nonprofits have secured the largest gifts in their organizations’ histories and have completed challenging capital campaigns where others have failed.
The discipline of Organizational Development focuses on increasing organizational effectiveness and health, and this is achieved by making sure there is an alignment of strategy, structure, systems, programs, processes, and people. We offer organizational assessments, a unique and comprehensive approach to strategic planning and plan implementation, data management, metrics, and analytics system development to help guide the nonprofit towards understanding and managing to achieve optimal impact. We also offer process improvement, Quality Management, and strategies to increase safety-net clinic efficiencies. This is the discipline where the building blocks of effective capacity building take place and we have experts at Lee+ Associates that have led organizations to success.
At the core of any successful organization are its people. You can have the most compelling mission but if you don’t have an engaged team of people carrying out their work, your organization will struggle. We believe people are indeed the single most important asset of any nonprofit. Our Human Capital Management program helps Leadership understand the reasons behind staff and board engagement and what makes a high-performing team. We then work with staff and leadership in implementing necessary changes to increase board and staff retention, satisfaction, and effectiveness.
Effective capacity building encompasses the four pillars for organizational health we’ve just explored. At Lee+ Associates, we work diligently to serve nonprofits and support you in bringing your visions to reality, empowering your mission to serve more effectively and ultimately to help expand your capacity “wings” to help you reach new heights.