Strategic Planning Proposal - NATIONAL COALITION FOR HOSPICE AND PALLIATIVE CARE
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NATIONAL COALITION FOR HOSPICE AND PALLIATIVE CARE Strategic Planning Proposal
January 11, 2021
Amy Melnick
Executive Director
via email
Amy,
I am delighted to send this proposal in response to your request for more information
about strategic planning. We crafted this proposal thinking of your Coalition and your
beginning work to developing a racial equity infused strategic plan. We'd love to work
with you to help create an actionable strategic plan to move your organization forward
and advance the coalition's goals.
This proposal reflects our three-part process, Gather, Soak, and Radiate, that will help
the coalition use collaboration and consensus to build a plan. During Gather, we will
work with a strategic planning committee to design the most effective way to gather
information and collect information from stakeholders to understand community wants,
needs, and desires. In Soak, we'll dive in with the organization to make sense of what we
learned and apply it to your future, leaning on individuals' expertise at differing levels of
the coalition's membership. Building on the first two steps, Radiate takes us through
plan drafting and a final set of recommendations.
We prefer to engage in face to face meetings with our clients; however, given the
realities around COVID-19, we are utilizing virtual tools to move forward on projects and
fully serve our clients. Much of the work outlined below can be done virtually and begun
as soon as you all would be ready to start.
Our team would welcome the opportunity to develop a multi-year strategic plan for the
Coalition to enable you to continue to serve the needs of your memberships and create
a lasting impact for individuals around the country.
Sincerely,
Sarah Milston, CEO on behalf of The Spark Mill Team
The Spark Mill | January 2021
2
OUR OVERALL APPROACH
At The Spark Mill, we don't believe in a boilerplate process. Our strategic planning
approach is to gather information, absorb and apply the findings, and craft a
Strategic Plan through a collaborative process. The last phase of the process is to
convert the knowledge into an Implementation Plan to strengthen the organization's
future programmatic goals.
We Believe
The process of strategic planning is just as important as the final product.
Collaboration and consensus-building are an integral part of our strategic planning
process. We cannot author your report alone. Instead, we will work through
facilitated events and group work sessions to help you draft a plan that is visionary,
culturally appropriate, and, most importantly, actionable.
Our objective is to build a strategic vision to accomplish your desired
transformation while maintaining a balance with real-world obstacles. We achieve
this by using realistic goal setting inclusive of action steps and funding
requirements. Our goal is to end the strategic planning process with an aspirational
plan that will affect the change and growth your organization desires.
Community Engagement Best Practices
We have a deep commitment to centering all strategic planning in the engagement
of your community. We will work with you to create moments of engagement,
feedback mechanisms, and co-leadership opportunities. We know that strategic
planning that keeps the end client/customer/ resident at its core is more robust and
more relevant.
PROJECT PHASING
We use creative methods to refine strategy and end with an actionable plan that is
immediately useful to guide decisions. We work together with clients to design a
process that meets the overall goals of the project. The exact steps and timeline are
adaptable to your organization, culture, and expectations. Our role as your
consulting firm is to guide rather than lead. We rely on a wide variety of resources
and tools during our engagement, including interactive facilitation techniques,
group-process dynamics, strategy development models, conflict resolution,
financial modeling, and board governance best practices.
The Spark Mill | January 2021
3
We will begin the process by investing time and energy internally. We start the planning
process by gathering the Strategic Planning Work Team together to refine the project's
process, steps, and calendar. During this phase, we will listen internally and externally to gain
insight into your organization. Our team will spend time looking at quantitative and
qualitative data-points. Part of what makes The Spark Mill different is our comfort working
with a flexible project. We know what the book says, and we will learn what you need. The
sweet spot is where these two spaces meet.
INPUTS Given the nature of your organization, we suggest an internal strategic planning
process collecting feedback from within member organizations by selecting key employees
and volunteers in non-leadership positions. We propose beginning the process with a series
of focus groups and/or interviews with individuals that are part of the member organizations
but not in the highest level of leadership. We project spending about 32 hours in total on
this phase, including gathering information from the environment and your stakeholders,
assessing and reviewing your current data and your internal systems. We are open to
alternative methods of data collection and plan to co-design this phase of the project with
the Strategic Planning Team.
OUTPUTS Preliminary Findings Report
STAKEHOLDERS METHOD HOURS
One-on-one interviews
Stakeholders 20
and Focus groups
Strategic Planning Team Kick-Off Meeting 2
Review of Internal Documents Data Review 5
Project Management Management 5
The Spark Mill | January 2021
4Once we have spent time reviewing your internal and external stakeholder feedback, we turn
our attention to making sense of what we learned and applying it to your organization. This is
a creative space where we consider options and answer, "In order to, we will..." We will
present the Preliminary Findings Report to the full board to gather responses and "deal with
the data."
This retreat session will help to create a draft structure for the Strategic Plan. After this
session, we suggest pulling a smaller focus group retreat back together to review an
executive summary of the findings and to seek their input and insight as the plan begins to
take shape. This final feedback and guidance loop will ensure that your desired racial equity
lens is embedded in the process in an authentic way.
INPUTS Board Retreat, Focus Group Retreat
OUTPUTS Retreat Reports
The Spark Mill | January 2021
5The last phase of the contract is to transform the knowledge into a Strategic Plan that will
help strengthen the organization's future programmatic goals. The Strategic Plan will include
goals and objectives identified and prioritized for at least a three-year period, as identified
through all qualitative and quantitative data collection efforts described above. The final step
will be implementation planning to provide measurable guidance to the organization for
moving forward. Our goal is to craft a plan with you that is alive, that drives decisions that the
board and staff refer to while making prioritization decisions and drafting work plans.
FINAL PLAN TYPES
Clients request a variety of types of final drafts of the plan, and we plan to work with you to
discover your intended use of the plan and develop final products that meet your needs. At
the minimum, we will work with you in the final stage to develop at least three types of plans.
1. Internal Strategic Plan – An overview plan that may include background information
and will at least include goals and strategies. It often includes relevant jargon and
internal-facing work
2. Community Facing Plan – a plain language plan that is geared towards a key
audience such as an 8th-grade reading level
3. Implementation Plan – This can be an excel spreadsheet, an Asana project board, or
a word document – our goal is to create an active document that matches your
project management culture.
INPUTS Staff Implementation Sessions
OUTPUTS Strategic Plan, Implementation Plan*, and Coaching
=
The Spark Mill | January 2021
6PROPOSED SCHEDULE
The following schedule is presented as a general idea about the flow of the project. It is
important that the process is designed to meet the needs of your organization and your
constituents. Therefore, it is malleable and adaptable and will be refined in the initial
meeting.
MON 1 MON 2 MON 3 MON 4 MON 5 MON 6
Strategic
Planning Initial Work
Retreat
Team/Focus Meeting Session
Group Team
Plan +
Drafting Implementation
TSM Informational Interview + Data Gathering
Feedback Coaching
Moments
Initial Implementation
Staff Joint Retreat
Meeting Coaching
Feedback Implementation
Board Kick-Off Joint Retreat
Moments Coaching
Gather Soak Radiate
The Spark Mill | January 2021
7PROPOSED BUDGET
Total
Phase Description of Work Line Total Totals
Hours
GATHER 32 $ 5,475.00
5 hours of project management 5 $ 750.00
Kick-off Meetings 2 $ 350.00
31 hours of data gathering
- Organizational Assessment 5 $ 875.00
- 20 hours of Stakeholder data
20 $ 3,500.00
gathering
SOAK 34 $ 4,900.00
8 hours of facilitated retreats/work
16 $ 2,800.00
sessions (2 facilitators)
-Focus Group Retreats - 4 hours
- Board - 4 hours
6 hours data analysis & report writing 6 $ 900.00
8 hours project management 8 $ 1,200.00
RADIATE 24 $ 3,650.00
5 hours plan writing, editing & revisions 5 $ 875.00
5 hours in feedback session and work
$ 875.00
session facilitation 5
4 hours implementation planning 5 $ 700.00
8 hours project management and
$ 1,200.00
admin 8
TOTAL 118 $ 14,025.00
The Spark Mill | January 2021
8THE SPARK MILL
Founded in 2009, The Spark Mill is headquartered in Richmond, Virginia, and works with
nonprofits, corporations, government agencies, and coalitions in strategic planning and
change management. This varies from 18-month projects to one-day team retreats and from
community engagement to brand strategy – all centered on making change possible. We
also believe that all organizations, regardless of size, can have high functioning and high
return teams and visionary goals. We pride ourselves on recommending cost-effective and
practical solutions with tangible action steps that can be implemented. Our sweet spot is the
space where strategy, creativity, and action meet. Visit us online for more information or to
read about our passion for change.
TSM is a certified Micro-Business in the Commonwealth of Virginia and is 100% woman-
owned. Our commitment to our clients is to practice values-based change management. For
us, that means centering our core values in all of our projects and helping navigate change
both its transformative powers and its painful moments.
We have five key beliefs that guide our work:
1. All organizations and companies can do amazing things.
2. There is latent potential in our clients, and they have asked for our help.
3. Movement should be scaled.
4. Our clients deserve better than boilerplates.
5. Representation matters and will guide our advice, process, and planning.
Our values
• Joy infused change • Momentum
• Strategic guidance is our best role • Relationships matter
We have worked with over 300 organizations in the past several years, primarily within the
Commonwealth of Virginia. While we observe a general flow to our projects, each final result
is guided by client needs and designed in their own words. Additionally, our team is
passionate about the intersection of equity and change and takes great effort to push our
clients towards diversity and inclusion at every opportunity. Our team members each bring
valuable insights and experience to excel in this project.
The Spark Mill | January 2021
9THE TEAM
SARAH MILSTON, PRINCIPAL & SR. CONSULTANT Starting her career for
nonprofits focused on fundraising, marketing, and board development, Sarah left to build a
varied and diverse consulting practice focused on strategic planning and nonprofit
sustainability. Whether a guide, instigator, or knowledge base Sarah is passionate about
connecting the dots and giving people the right plan and tools to make stuff happen. Over
the last eight years as a consultant, Sarah has worked with over 100 associations, nonprofits,
and businesses to help at the intersection of creativity, strategy, and action. Sarah is an active
speaker and trainer around the Mid-Atlantic region on all aspects of strategic planning,
nonprofit sustainability, and marketing.
CHRISTOPHER BENNETT, SR. CONSULTANT Chris is passionate about big ideas
that create a lasting positive impact. His 10+ years of experience in faith-based nonprofit
leadership has equipped him to engage organizational challenges at a variety of levels. Chris
has worked with dozens of nonprofits to help them craft strategic plans that drive towards
growth and community thriving. Chris's energy and passion, combined with big picture
thinking, has helped teams create and deliver innovative and exciting solutions to
organizational problems.
LINDSEY O-PRIES, SR. CONSULTANT Lindsey serves as a development coach and
facilitator for The Spark Mill clients in need of personalized attention. Among the vast
experience, Lindsey brings to the team is years with a national social justice nonprofit where
she worked to increase the capacity of small nonprofits across the country. Lindsey offers a
wealth of knowledge and the unique ability to transform offices into high functioning units.
ARMANI HALL, ASSISTANT CONSULTANT Armani brings a background of state
agencies, nonprofits, and for-profit work focused on customer service and change
management. He has an amazing ability to make groups relax into change. Armani joined the
team in 2020.
COURTNEY LAYMAN, BRAND STRATEGIST & ANALYST Courtney serves in the
dual role of brand strategy and analysis. She oversees all quantitative data collection
methods at the firm and is brought into projects that chose to use a survey tool as a
collector. She is also the author behind most of TSM's words managing the blog and our
brand and writing projects for clients. She is a lover of words and everything brand and very
passionate about the oxford comma. An Air Force Veteran, she brings a diverse work
background with a focus on volunteering and making the world a better place.
RAIN THOMAS, OPERATIONS COORDINATOR Rain is a former founder of a
thriving start-up and manages all things operational for the team. If you have a question, Rain
will have, or will find the answer for you.
The Spark Mill | January 2021
10CLIENTS
CURRENT RECENT
Hope Inc. Virginia Municipal League
Lord Fairfax Community College CrossOver Healthcare
Virginia Press Association Brain Injury Association of VA
Virginia Association of Housing and Sickle Cell Disease Association of
Community Development Officials America
Pathways Virginia VCDC
REFERENCES
VCDC
Bob Newman, Chief Executive Officer
P: (804) 0482-5387 E: bnewman@vacdc.org
Planning Council
Angela Kellum, Executive Director
P: (757) 622-9268 E: akellam@theplanningcouncil.org
FEE SCHEDULE
DEPOSIT $4,675 Due upon proposal acceptance
1ST PAYMENT $4,675 Due Month 3
2ND PAYMENT
$4,675 Due Month 6
TOTAL $ 14,025.00
The Spark Mill will communicate ahead of time about anticipated travel reimbursements.
The Spark Mill will cover lodging costs, and the Client will cover mileage at the nonprofit
discounted rate of $.40 per mile.
The Spark Mill | January 2021
11TERMS + CONDITIONS
The Spark Mill, LLC ("The Spark Mill") welcomes the opportunity to assist National Coalition for
Hospice and Palliative Care ("Client"). This letter agreement will set forth the basic terms and
conditions of our working relationship.
Client has engaged The Spark Mill to provide the services outlined in the proposal and according
to the submitted calendar and payment schedule. The Spark Mill will communicate ahead of time
about anticipated travel reimbursements. The Spark Mill will cover lodging costs, and the Client
will cover mileage at the nonprofit discounted rate of $.40 per mile. Any additional expenses will
be mutually agreed upon in writing with Client prior to being incurred and will be included in The
Spark Mill's invoice at the time they are incurred. We will charge 1.5% interest per month on all
overdue amounts, and any costs of collection, including attorneys' fees, will be borne by Client.
Client's designated representative, from whom The Spark Mill will take direction, and to whom
The Spark Mill will direct its communications and invoices, is ______________. Client may
change its designated representative by written notice to The Spark Mill, for which email will
suffice.
Unless requested to communicate or publicize such matters, The Spark Mill agrees to keep
confidential and to protect the secrecy of all information related to Client's strategic, financial,
and personnel matters, as well as other matters identified by Client to The Spark Mill as
confidential.
This agreement will remain in place until the conclusion of our engagement and the satisfaction
of all payment terms. The confidentiality commitments will survive termination of this agreement
and/or the completion of The Spark Mill's services. Either The Spark Mill or Client may terminate
this Agreement by written notice, at which time The Spark Mill will invoice Client for any work
performed and not yet paid.
While the pricing and terms in this agreement will only cover the services listed, we are happy to
extend our engagement and assistance. Unless a further agreement is reached, we will invoice
monthly for services not listed in this letter agreement, at the rate of $175.00 per hour with prior
approval
If the terms of this letter agreement are acceptable, please sign below and return a copy to The
Spark Mill for our files.
Sarah Milston
The Spark Mill, LLC
I have reviewed this letter agreement and the accompanying proposal and agree to its terms.
Client Representative Date
The Spark Mill | January 2021
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