Expanding Staff Capabilities at Strong Communities Organization

Rebecca Eastwood

Background

Strong Communities is a local non-profit organization that provides youth programming. Strong Communities has 7 staff members and has been operating for 20 years. For most of that time, they have primarily provided youth programming such as a mentoring program, after school programs, and a summer camp. Attendance at the programs has increased over the past few years, showing a need for such programs. Unfortunately, Strong Communities’ financial streams have recently taken a hit as state funding has decreased. As a result, Strong Communities would like to expand their focus beyond youth programming to also include lobbying in order to influence future funding levels for their programs.

The Dilemma

Strong Communities believes having a lobbying presence will aid their ability to provide programming but they do not have staff with the necessary experience. One staff member, however, has expressed interest in moving into this work. Strong Communities leadership would like to hire immediately as the state budgeting cycle will begin soon and rumors are, they are facing yet another cut.

Strong Communities is balancing the desire to begin the lobbying effort immediately by hiring an outside lobbyist with the requisite experience or investing in its current staff member who does not have lobbying experience but has deep knowledge of Strong Communities’ programming and its benefits. The organization must decide between prioritizing the technical skills necessary to lobby effectively or the more human and conceptual skills already present in its current staff member.

Decision-Making Process

The Executive Director of Strong Communities reviewed the structures of other organizations with both programming and lobbying departments. They also consulted with the leadership team within the organization to determine the appropriate hiring process. Part of this consultation process was an analysis of their current budget and whether it makes more financial sense to hire a contract lobbyist (with potentially many other clients) with the immediate technical knowledge or to invest in their staff member, who currently runs one of the youth programs, and provide them the training necessary to lobby.

The Decision

Strong Communities’ Executive Director ultimately decided to hire the contract lobbyist for this upcoming legislative session.

Outcomes

• Short-Term

• The organization was able to immediately start building a presence at the state capitol and initiating relationships with legislators key to the budgeting process. This did create more up-front cost to contract with the lobbying firm.
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• Long-Term

• In the meantime, the Executive Director also decided to invest in training for their current staff member to be able to transition into lobbying potentially in the next legislative session. They also made plans to fill what will be an open position in programming once that staff member moves positions. 

Discussion Questions

• How did Strong Communities’ Executive Director employ a skills-based leadership approach?
• Would you have prioritized different skills when making this decision?

• License

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• This case study is licensed CC BY-NC 4.0.