Lisa Vasquez: Hi, everyone and welcome to Tips for Successful Foundation Board Planning, a session with the Council for Advancement and support of Education and the Center for Community College advancement. I'm Lisa Vasquez, and I am here with my Co. Presenter. Lisa Vasquez: Lisa Dietlin. I'm the Vice President advancement for Colin College, and Lisa is the President and CEO of the Institute for Transformational Philanthropy. So you're probably asking, why are we here before I get into the nuts and bolts of the presentation. I wanted to share that Lisa Vasquez: this relationship. And the plan is in part the result of relationships developed through case when I served on the district for board. One of my colleagues gave us the reference to itp and it was just the perfect timing because we were looking for Lisa Vasquez: some specialists who could help us, particularly some that were interested in the community college space and understood us. So with that, as our our starter. Lisa V. And Lisa D. Are going to tell you a little bit about this. The process that we underwent. So the Colin College is a multi campus community college district. We have 11 campuses. Lisa Vasquez: We're not small. we are. We have about 58,000 students and our for the in terms of the foundation. Our assets are just, our total assets are just under 20 million. Just for some perspective. We have a 30 member board of directors that includes the college president as well as 3 trustees and Lisa Vasquez: my department, where Len and mean one, maybe not me. And we're just lane there's 5 of us, and that includes 2 development officers, one of which me? Lisa Vasquez: So as we're talking about the strategic plan process, you know, you would say you know what we needed a strategic plan. But why? The first reason is that our our current, the foundation's current strategic plan, had concluded. Our plan is synced with the colleges strategic plan, and the college had historically done them every 5 years. And so it was our turn. So we needed a new plan. In the past. We had done plans that were Lisa Vasquez: we'd look at peer institutions and see what their metrics were and how we stacked up against them. And we're trying to level up to be best in class. But instead of it just being all about, you know the data and how many dollars you raise and how? How do you compare to the other colleges of your size? Lisa Vasquez: We wanted to look at some different things that we're more qualitative, and we felt like we didn't have all of that experience in house. So our college had our our our our college culture had in the past been an answer. We call the anti consultant culture, and we felt like we. We can figure it out on our own and our to the credit of our board or Board of Directors, and specifically our board chair. Lisa Vasquez: He really advocated that the foundation needed to invest in bringing in an expert facilitator particularly related to the development of the plan and to the the to the retreat with our board of directors. Lisa Vasquez: So we did go through that process. And so that's why we had an Rfp. To bring in a a. A consultant. Our selection process consisted of it wasn't unlike any any other selection process. We identified a pool of people that were qualified. We sent it a request for proposals. We vetted the proposals. We had a criteria for what we were looking for. We interviewed the candidates, and then we selected Lisa Vasquez: the best candidate for the job, which was Lisa Vasquez: our good friend at least a day, and so I'm going to hand off to Lisa and tell her talk a little bit about the how that went down from her perspective. Lisa Dietlin: Well, thank you, Lisa V. And I think the toughest part of our consultancy was making sure that people know if Lisa D. Or Lisa V. Were talking, or at making a request, it was Lisa Lisa, and the call jam for those of you who know that ban from the eighties. But it was a complete honor to be asked to submit an Rfp. For Colin College Foundation Strategic planning process. Lisa Dietlin: Upon being notified that I was selected. The first step in the process is to dot the eyes and cross the Ts. Which Lisa Dietlin: means obviously, having assigned contract. Once that was done, Lisa V. And I had an initial conversation. The conversation involved. What were the expected outcomes? What did she see and value as success at the end of the entire process? What were the milestones that she wanted to hit, as well as were there any mine fields or issues Lisa Dietlin: that could disrupt the process? You know sometimes you don't know as an outside consultant that Lisa Dietlin: a President's going to leave or a new President's coming in, or there's a change in Board leadership. Lisa Dietlin: I then sent, after we have that conversation, a standardized list of information requested. It's a exhaustive list. everything from you know who's on your board. Tell me you know the various positions they hold, and how long they've been on the board to send me a copy of your former strategic plan. One of the things I do ask my clients to do is not to create anything. If it's not if you don't have it, and I'm asking for it on the list. Simply tell me that, because that's added information. Lisa Dietlin: At that point I had a conversation with the board chair, usually with a college president, too, about what they want and what they view, is successful in this process. And again asking, are there any mind fields? Are there any issues that could disrupt this process? Are there any difficult personalities that will be in the room on the day of the retreat. Lisa Dietlin: and then we do a board survey, asking attitudes from everything about the actual strategic planning process to how do they feel about fundraising to what is their understanding about the roles of the various staff. And then my final step is creating a very interactive retreat day for the participants. Lisa Dietlin: My process is 2 steps that we have one step that's in person and another step. That's the creation of the actual strategic plan. Obviously, I've got that interactive day with Lee sa Vasquez and made sure that she was in agreement that the activities and the details were aligned with the culture of Colin Colleges Foundation. Lisa Dietlin: So again, that a misstep wasn't made. Sometimes when you bring in outsiders, we've all been to those fundraisers or those events where they say the wrong name, or they use an acronym. You know there was a community college I was working for working with, and I had done a document and used a shortcut for their name. They like, Yeah, we don't go by that. This is what we go by again. You want to make sure that your consultant is prepared for success. And that's why it's important that that last step Lisa Dietlin: on the interactive retreat day is vetted with your key contact on Campus Lisa Dietlin: Lisa back to you. Lisa Vasquez: Excellent! So Lisa Vasquez: the other Lisa just referred to the the strategic plan retreat, and this was a the very deliberate attempt to put certain voices in the room, and I think one of the things that we did right was that we got good representation from the board, and we had. So we had all. We started with our executive committee. Lisa Vasquez: and we at invited past Presidents We also included the of, of course, the President, the president of the college is a member of the Foundation's board, so he would be there, and 2 trustees of the college As so we had. We kept grounded on really what our purposes, you know, I I think when a Co. A community college foundation breaks away from the vision of the President and the vision of the board of trustees. Lisa Vasquez: You've gone down a road to disaster. So it was really important to us. We always stay in sync, and that was intentionally designed that way. So Lisa took us through some exercises on on that morning, and I'll let her tell you more about that half day that we spent. But first I want to mention that the this picture may look like just any other boardroom or any other room, but it was intentionally designed that we did it in. Lisa Vasquez: and the board, the room where the Board of Trustees meets. we're all out. The foundation board usually meets as well, because we wanted it to be the representative of what we do. So at least, at least the I'll let you talk about where we how we went through that Lisa Dietlin: absolutely, you know, part of the process is when you have people in the room and understand that this was a retreat that was done, a strategic planning retreat that was held after we had come out of Covid. So a lot of people had not seen each other in a long time they had an interact with each other, and we had new board members that had joined the board meeting. People were re engaging for the first time after a while. Lisa Dietlin: of course, Colin College Foundation Board had met via Zoom, and remotely, and there had been discussions had, but we wanted to make sure that everybody was feeling really comfortable, and I have exercises that I take the group through to make sure that everyone everybody is feeling comfortable, and that their voice is heard, and I would Lisa Dietlin: recommend that you make sure as the outside consultant. If you bring in an outside consultant, or if you're an internal person serving as that facilitator of the day that you work really diligently to make sure all voices are hurt. Sometimes you have people that have a lot of opinions, and they can dominate the conversation. Sometimes you have the wisest voices and the wisest opinions Lisa Dietlin: and thoughts coming from the quietest people doesn't mean, because they're quiet. They don't have anything to say, but they are not that person who's going to step forward. So oftentimes I'll be Lisa Dietlin: making fun of myself and others, and I'll say, Oh, my gosh! We've heard a lot from the left side of the room. But what about the right side of the room. So all you know, I'm coming at you, you know. Make sure that you have an idea or a suggestion ready, and to everyone's great surprise, everybody does. Everybody wants to participate, everybody wants to be included. So your facilitator, whether they're external, like I was, or internal. Sometimes by Lisa Dietlin: the budgetary restraints. The culture that Lisa had talked about that existed at Colin College prior to them. Bringing me in didn't allow for outside facilitators 150 Lisa Dietlin: you want to make sure that the goal is everybody's voice gets heard. Now that said, you do have leadership in the room, and leadership can dominate. And one of the things we worked on is to make sure that the leaders knew they were going to be asked to voice and share their ideas, less not out of the fact that we didn't care or they weren't important, but more out of the fact. We didn't want people Lisa Dietlin: playing. Follow the leader. We wanted to hear all voices in the room. We had games and toys. A list of things I sent to Lisa. Little fidget step, because it is a long time to set and to have discussions. We had people getting up, people getting down, you know, working on flip chart paper, sticky notes on the wall, changing up the groups and the alignment that you're just not with your posse that you sit down with. Lisa Dietlin: So to make sure that the day was fully interactive, Lisa. Lisa Vasquez: So the next phase after the And discussion part was trying to decide what were our priorities, as because that would be our plan for the that that would be our roadmap for the next level, the plan. So we took the items that we literally everybody stood up, walked to one side of the room. We'd put all the post, it notes on the wall, and then we grouped them and then talked about what were the priorities. Lisa Vasquez: and it was surprising to see what would the outcomes of that discussion were, and they ultimately became the themes for our strategic plan. We were looking at things that were further down the road than we usually did is, so what are the seeds that we are going to be planting through this one? We're not just for the next 5 years. But we're for long after we are all retired, and the next generation is running the show. So Lisa Dietlin: right before we go there, can we say? I want to say one more thing about that is, if you look here. There are so many the sticky notes, the bright yellow. At the top are the headers where things were put under. So you can see through the discussions that there was quite a lot of agreement amongst the board members they might have written different things, but when they categorize them they ended up in these buckets that you know there's 5 of them, and there's one outlier but that they were in agreement of the direct Lisa Dietlin: that they wanted the foundation to go. The other thing was the question that was asked, is, What is your dream? You know? Where do you think the foundation can be? What could we do in 5 weeks? 5 months, 5 years, and beyond. And that's where these categories started. They started dreaming. They started thinking like, sometimes we get so stuck in a room where we're thinking like, Oh, my gosh, this is what we've always done. So we always have to do that. Lisa Dietlin: Mit Ctl. And because this group had that freedom to think, where are we going to be, as Lee Sabaska said, in the generation beyond this, where is Colin College's foundation going to be so? This was a great exercise. It also got people up and moving. Lisa Vasquez: Yeah. And we're it's important to know, too. We're a relatively young Lisa Vasquez: college and a relatively young community college, where the colleges is a third is in the about 37 years old, and we were right behind it. so the these are new ideas for us in some ways that, you know, getting more ambitious and looking more long term. We yes, we've had endowments forever. But this is this was a different level, because we're moving from being a a young college to being a much. We're a mature call. We have 58,000 students, right? Lisa Vasquez: So in the end our plan came down to having 6 or 5 goals, 16 objectives. Lisa Dietlin: and 36 actions, and our timeframe is specified from fiscal 23 through fiscal 25. Lisa, do you have any notes you want to share on the the structure of that I absolutely do. So. One of the things that we made sure everybody who was participating in the retreat day we're aware of is that we were not going to walk away with a document that was finished. They were at the start. This was the start of our journey, that the retreat day was the start, and that Lisa Dietlin: Lisa and I and the staff, as well as board members, would finish up the document, and they would all see it again in a couple of iterations and be able to vote on it. Obviously, as it's the Foundation Board's strategic plan, I always say 4 to 6 goals. You can't have more than that. Think about your life, you know. You might say I want to go to the gym, I want to learn a new language all of a sudden. You're overwhelmed if you got too many goals. So Lisa Dietlin: 4 to 6 goals, and Colin college foundation ended up right there in the middle with 5 obviously with 16 objectives. If it was equally distributed. And it's not, you know, it'd be like 3 objectives for each 3 things we're going to do, we as the staff, and me as the facilitator and the consult, you know, assigned who was responsible. The what's the timeframe? If there was budgetary impact, and then those objectives, each have action items underneath of them, specific things that need to be done. Lisa Dietlin: One of the things that Lisa and her board chair both committed to is that this written strategic plan, once it was adopted, will be brought before every board meeting or every other foundation board meeting, so that it doesn't get stuck on a shelf somewhere. People did amazing work to get to this point, and what the dream is. Lisa Dietlin: Colin College foundation, and we want to make sure it comes to life. And the only way we can do that is keep reminding ourselves. What are our goals. Lisa Dietlin: how our objectives aligned with them! And then what are the actions? And everybody knew that these could change if something happened like goodness knows, we had Covid. I had clients that had just finished their strategic planning in February of 2,020, and of course Covid hit in March of 2,020, or that's when the shutdowns happen. So we do have to all be mindful that you can have the best laid plans and things can disrupt them. Lisa Dietlin: or opportunities can come along. Lisa Vasquez: Yeah. And I'd like how you mentioned that this is just the planning part of it, because with any campaign or any strategy. You start with your research stage. Then you go to the planning stage, then to the implementation, and ultimately the evaluation. So the objectives that we set in the planning stage are your measures of success. And so you can see your outcomes at the end. So that is just the very first, but we thought you might want to see what those 5 goals are. Lisa Vasquez: And again, this is just for us. Everyone's is different. so they, they, they. the 5, the 5 goals center around some major themes. So the first one is scholarships. Long story short, we would like to have to be able to help the students who can't afford to go to college, otherwise go to our college. Lisa Vasquez: the very big initiative around alumni. We just started an alumni program a few years ago and gathered data for our alumni, our our alumni database. Because of the way we defined our alumni for this program. It's more than 550,000 alumni. So it's an enormous number of people, most of whom live in Texas. Lisa Vasquez: so we want all our alumni to be engaged in service or philanthropy ultimately, and that we know, and in that order in service, and then philanthropy. Lisa Vasquez: of endowments is a very big goal for us. our our assets, I mentioned before, we're about 20 million, and the goal is to get to 50 million by 2027, our our board engagement strategy. So Lisa Vasquez: every board ever seems like every gathering of executive directors that I ever talk about everybody as well. How's your board engagement. So you know, we're, we're really. We're lucky because we have good board members who bring a lot to the table. And they, you know, we had a hundred percent participation. That's what we're going. But Lisa asked a good question. She asked. How many of them identify us as one of their top 3 charitable causes. Lisa Vasquez: and that was in that board survey, and that was very, very enlightening. So we need to leverage all of their strengths, make them more comfortable with fundraising, make them more comfortable with stewardship, and help them along that journey, so that we can earn their spot as the in their top 3, and finally branding in North Texas, where we are. Lisa Vasquez: people think a lot about the the foundations of the local school districts. They think about the foundations of the large universities in Texas, the University of Texas and Texas Christian University, and our market also Southern Methodist University. Those are, you know, institutions that we knows. So we're not. We're not on that scale yet, but we feel like we should be at a higher level, at least in our community. Lisa Vasquez: where everybody is aware, as aware of the Colin College foundation as they are all of the school districts in our region, and ultimately our. But you know, we're talking about board members dreaming they want us to be recognized as a pre premier model nationally, ultimately. So there, these are the 4, the 5 things that we have chosen scholarships, alumni endowments, board engagement, strategy and branding Lisa Vasquez: what we learned. Okay, 3 things. Lisa Vasquez: This is the end. We had had a lot of fun talk. 3 things we learned. we had a really short timeline on this, and I I'm proud to say that we delivered on time. Lisa Vasquez: I think that one the one of the most important things that I learned in the process it was that you got we did a good job of getting all the right voices in the room and listening to everyone that we listen to board members who are new and board members who'd been on the board for a long time we listen to all feedback from all, all different groups, and I think that was something we did right. Lisa Vasquez: something that didn't go so well was when the day that we brought the plan to the Board of directors for the final approval, the Executive Committee had already approved it. Lisa Vasquez: we chose to do that in person, because we thought it was important for dialogue and engagement in person. They done all the offline stuff. Now it's time to do it in person, and we didn't have very good attendance that day. In fact, we didn't even met quorum that day, so we weren't able to vote that day to officially approve and had to Lisa Vasquez: do it. Do it later. That was something we learned. We also tried to, you know, hybrid Lisa, and to present from from her Lisa Vasquez: out of State residence, and that didn't work The you virtual is fine in person is fine. Hybrid in my experience is, is sometimes a challenge, and that was especially a challenge that day. So my top 3, those would be among our top 3 that have the right people in the room Lisa Vasquez: stay in sync with the college, and we met our deadline. Lisa Dietlin: I am the top. 3 things I learn is just reinforcing how important the client lead is, you know. Where is the client going? You? If you're bringing in somebody from the outside, or using an internal facilitate, or make sure that they understand that this is not. You know Lisa Deepland, bringing her great ideas. It's you know. Where is the client headed? Where's the college headed? Lisa Dietlin: And how can I help you? How can I get in the boat and grab an or and and help you get there? I just read a book about rowing, and I you know the person who shows through the the megaphone. That's who I am or who, I think so, you know. Be sure that that your your facilitator, your consultant, is following the client lead and listening to the client. That is so. Key, you know you have to hear what they're saying. Lisa Dietlin: not be so worried. How are you going to execute that? You forget to hear what they say? Lisa Dietlin: You have to engage everybody. As I said earlier this, the people who are quiet, the people who are allowed everybody has to be engaged. The session that I zoomed in on there was a disruptor. There was somebody who, in the middle of the approval process, when we're still hoping people are going to show up to vote, you'll throw as a monkey wrench in. I think you can still say monkey, right? It throws a wrench in into the gears, and it went. Lisa Dietlin: you know, like the big and you know we had to hear that voice, and we had to hear what that person was saying and engage. We couldn't just shut it down and say, and Lisa asked us was very deferential, and worked very well with that individual in the room, and when we came back, of course it was a Lisa Dietlin: what that person thought. Was that true? And the pro strategic plan was uproot. So engage everybody, even those naysayers, even those people who are like, you know. none of us like to hear negative things, but it's important to hear everything and engage everybody and then have fun. If you're a facilitator or your consultants not laughing with you and not making it fun Lisa Dietlin: mit Ctl, and you might be taking yourself a little bit too seriously. And, You know I love to have fun, and I love to hear people laughing, and part of this process 2 Lisa Dietlin: with the board being engaged is having them laugh and enjoy themselves because they bring you closer together to. When people are having fun, they they want to come back, and they want to do it again, and they want to serve longer. And that's why mixing people up, having little fidget toys. We had snacks for people, and we were throwing out prizes. Oh, you got an answer right, you know, and it was like, maybe a little real week's cube teaching. Oh, you got an answer right? Oh, you got this, you know, just having fun with people Lisa Dietlin: and making it light-hearted. This is serious work. We're doing. The work we're doing is transforming lives of individuals who are trying to improve their lot in life, for in trying to prove their career path, who are maybe the first ones in their family going to school. This is serious work we're doing, but just because it's serious and important doesn't mean it can't be fun. Lisa Vasquez: So we have a parting gift for you. And it is a strategic plan sample, Kit. Lisa Vasquez: And if you would like to go to the URL that I have on this page, you can see these these documents that we used in the course of our of our plan. I've got a list of the milestones, the different steps that we hit at the different points in time. I've got a copy of our request for proposals that includes both our criteria for what we are looking for, as well as the cover letter that we sent to the bidders. Lisa Vasquez: we. I included the facilitator interview questions and also our strategic plan presentation as well. I. Everybody's plan is different, but I thought it was a fair game for you to see what where we landed in this plan. So the special thanks to case and to our good friends with the Institute for it. It's from Institute of Transformational Leadership of Not for Lisa Vasquez: This has been a great experience, and we're very grateful to Case, and a special shout out to Paul Heon. Lisa Dietlin: thank you. It's been an honor to work with Colin college and other community colleges throughout the case network and honored to work with you, Lisa and I can't wait to see the good things that Colin College Foundation does.

strategic plan

Colin College Foundation

board members

goals

objectives

actions