Aligned Support Through Parental Leave
Challenge (What We Saw)
ONN’s Manager of Communications and Development position was posted as a parental leave opportunity but because of the fixed-term nature of the contract, ONN had a difficult time filling the role. They turned to us to help them cover this management role which required both communications and fundraising skills.
Our Perspective/Process
We worked with ONN to identify which components of the role needed to move forward while the staff person was on leave, and which components could be managed in-house. Our team focused on owning the webinar calendar and fund development through fee for service and sponsorships for ONN’s regional events. In asking questions about “who does what” we were also able to support some greater role clarity within the existing team and streamline some processes.
Opportunity for Change (What We Did)
ONN is a very collaborative team, and we thrive in these types of work environments. Bringing in some fresh eyes to their processes, our team grew both their fee for service and regional event sponsorship pipeline, trialed some new approaches to webinars, and created some back-end policy documents to support the webinar calendar. Our fundraising success with ONN was built upon leveraging many of their existing partners and new recruits. Our ability to solely focus on revenue generation was helpful, and provided the organization with a unique opportunity to have dedicated support in this area for the year.
Throughout the contract we kept a focus on eventually welcoming back the staff person on leave – we kept notes on new processes, organized all relevant files, updated sponsorship decks for the new year, and sent stewardship emails – connecting them with the returning staff person. We provided a week of overlap with the returning Manager, ensuring time to review the work that had been done while they were away and answer any questions about next steps and priorities.
“We loved having Balanced Good’s support for this role – they kept the work moving forward. They were detail-oriented and well organized. The transition back to work for our team member was smooth in part because of their guidance and support. They were a great resource for ONN.”
Danielle Griffin, Director of Strategic Communications & Initiatives and Interim Co-Executive Director, ONN
Outcomes
Our work ensured that the new parent, the team, and the organization were supported—which in turn meant business operations could continue smoothly.
We left the client with a fulsome report which included suggestions for helping make the work more sustainable moving forward, focusing on higher ROI activities, and new revenue generating opportunities.