“True community requires commitment and openness. It is a willingness to extend yourself to encounter and know the other.” –David Spangler
As WRFN continues our journey with the 2024-2028 Strategic Plan, we reflect on our commitment to deepening community connections and expanding our reach.
This effort includes conducting a community-led needs assessment aimed at collaboratively understanding and addressing the evolving challenges faced by children, youth, individuals, and families. By strengthening these relationships, we not only enhance our impact but also accelerate meaningful systems change that benefits our community.
Grow the number of families we serve so more families get what they need earlier to reduce stress, and feel empowered & heard. This includes increasing our internal and financial capacity to meet this need.
1. Deepen our network roots by enhancing meaningful existing community connections that reflect the diversity of our community while growing new connections.
2. Expand our financial base with an emphasis on longer-term funding opportunities.
1. Community-led Needs Assessment to explore the children, youth, family and individual needs & resources in our community through a collaborative co-creative approach including diverse perspectives to accelerate systems change.
2. Increase donor engagement, acknowledgement, and appreciation through personal outreach; measure and grow donor retention rate, click-through rate for donations, and donor satisfaction via surveys and personal conversations; increase monthly and major gift donations; investigate Planned Giving options for donors; create compelling annual appeals with video narratives illustrating the impact of donations; and increase revenue and attendance at Evening of Elegance.
Strengthen our reach so that: we can continue to support the diverse and changing needs of families, and we ensure more community members know how to support families with exceptionalities.
Marketing and Branding: Strengthen our ability to share our social impact so families who need support know how to find us and other key stakeholders understand the important role we play with exceptional families in Waterloo Region.
1. Marketing audit & branding refresh - Request for proposals to marketing firms.
2. Engage key audiences to participate in the audit & branding process.
3. Enhance targeted communications to important audiences across different media.
4. Measure & grow social engagement rates.
Capture organizational knowledge and practices so that WRFN can sustain its unique value and approach into the future.
Succession planning and knowledge transfer: Ensure knowledge important to the organization’s sustainability and continued success is shared across key staff and leadership.
1. Develop a plan to review & document key processes.
2. Executive Director processes are documented & reviewed to ensure streamlined transition.
3. Board ensures the Executive Director succession plan is reviewed regularly & communicated to relevant stakeholders as appropriate.