ENGAGEMENTS
Kela Associates has provided a wide range of executive coaching, organizational effectiveness consulting and/or other services, including work for the following nonprofit organizations, foundations, and community leaders:
Annie E. Casey Foundation -- Baltimore, MD: multi-party meeting planning and facilitation for a grantee organization in the community development field that had experienced an unsuccessful leadership transition and resultant financial reverses -- www.aecf.org.
Catholic Community Services -- DC: assisting the executive director and boards of Catholic Community Services and the Catholic Charities Foundation in Washington, D.C. by helping to plan, and facilitating, meetings with the two boards -- one focused on fund raising, the other on providing community services. These meetings were called to decide upon branding of the organization, improve collaboration between the two boards, and encourage increased engagement by the Catholic Community Services board -- www.catholiccharitiesdc.org. See also Lt. Joseph P. Kennedy Institute.
Charles and Lynn Schusterman Family Foundation -- DC: providing executive coaching, strategic planning and goal setting support services -- including time management and work-life balance tools -- and organizational design counsel in support of a major foundation initiative on increasing community service for university aged Jewish youth -- www.schusterman.org
Community Action Project of Tulsa County (CAPTC) -- Tulsa, OK: executive coaching for an exceptional leader in the field of early childhood development, affordable housing, and individual and community wealth building to fight poverty; advising about organizational realignment in light of changes in the organization's mission and strategic plan; helping the organization develop improved public policy analysis and advocacy capability and a systematic approach to prioritizing issues; assisting CAPTC's Innovation Lab in design and implementation of a new initiative to end the intergenerational cycle of poverty in Tulsa; coaching the new leader of the Tulsa anti-poverty initiative; and researching and developing guidance for successful behavior change initiatives; -- www.captc.org.
Community Foundation Land Trust, California Community Foundation -- Los Angeles, CA: strategic and business planning; strategic communications counseling; and outreach and partnership development support services -- for an innovative program to promote wealth building homeownership for current and future generations of low- and moderate-income residents of the Los Angeles County area (and other high land cost -- http://www.calfund.org/learn/land_trust.php.
Community Links Hawaii -- Honolulu, HI: coaching to assist the Executive Director explore, articulate, and test a new statement of mission, vision, and value proposition for the organization and a new clearer statement of success criteria, SMART goals, and business plan that will appeal to existing investors and attract new ones and that will produce greater beneficial community impact. -- www.communitylinkshawaii.org
DC Children and Youth Investment Trust Corporation: conducting staff interviews; designing and facilitating an all staff retreat to address future goals and reorganization needs of the Washington, DC area's intermediary organization for support of out-of-school time programs in the Nation's capital; and preparing a report summarizing the results of the retreat -- www.cyitc.org.
DC Vote: assisting in planning and facilitating a series of board meetings to reassess goals and strategy, reconcile conflicting viewpoints, and help develop a unified position for the future for achieving full voting representation for the District of Columbia in Congress. -- www.dcvote.org. (Note: the board's consensus position was ratified by the U.S. House of Representatives when in April 2007 it agreed to full voting representation in the House for the District of Columbia); and providing coaching services for the executive director of DC Vote;
George Kaiser Family Foundation -- Tulsa, OK: facilitating a meeting of community, health, and human services organizations to advise the Foundation regarding Tulsa's most pressing community needs and philanthropic investment opportunities likely to produce demonstrable improvements within 2-3 years;
Georgetown University Center on Public and Nonprofit Leadership -- Washington, DC: see Jessie Ball duPont Fund
Hawaii Wildlife Fund/Maui Reef Fund -- Maui, HI: providing coaching and strategic consulting support to the Executive Director and the members of the Maui Reef Fund regarding vision, stakeholder analysis, and priority strategies to assist the ocean tourism industry in leading efforts to protect the reefs
HUGS (Help, Understanding & Group Support) -- Honolulu, HI: providing executive coaching to the organization's Executive Director to help meet new performance expectations of the Board -- http://www.hugslove.org
Inglewood Neighborhood Housing Services/The Ford Foundation: developing a report on a workshop at The Ford Foundation on "Asset Building Services for Moderate-Income Households: Developing an Alternative to Homeownership for Wealth-Building." (Dec. 2005) -- www.homeownershipcenter.com/
Jessie Ball duPont Fund/Georgetown University Center for Public and Nonprofit Leadership: helping design and facilitate a set of meetings between 45 grantee Executive Directors and their board chairs over a three year period to improve board-ED relationships and improve organizational effectiveness; providing a presentation on Executive Coaching for nonprofit leaders, including a real time demonstration of executive coaching, and exploration of its value as a tool for reflection, renewal, and performance enhancement; -- http://www.dupontfund.org and http://cpnl.georgetown.edu
Kellogg Foundation: -- Battle Creek, MI: providing national program design consultation, implementation, advice on grantee selection, community outreach and prototype development support, facilitation, and business outreach support for the Kellogg Foundation's "New Options Initiative." This innovative initiative seeks to develop novel partnerships, new pathways, innovative prototypes, and a national credentialing system for market driven employment in line with the aspirations of young people 16-24 years of age who have untapped potential, yet have not succeeded in traditional public school settings. The work for Kellogg includes helping evaluate, recommend, and work with leading youth and workforce development organizations in six cities -- Baltimore, Cambridge, Oakland, Omaha, Pittsburgh, and Tucson -- and their affiliates and replication sites. Each site is developing locally appropriate new models for connecting disconnected youth with market place employment and enterprise opportunities and for connecting business groups with a talent pool of ready, willing and able employees and entrepreneurs. It also includes outreach to leading national employer and business organizations with an interest in employing out of school youth. http://www.wkkf.org/default.aspx?tabid=75&CID=166&NID=61&LanguageID=0.
Montgomery County Community Foundation (MD) and Nonprofit Roundtable of Greater Washington, DC: developing a scan of exemplary practices of local governments throughout the U.S. in creating innovative partnerships with the nonprofit sector and mechanisms for enhancing the performance of the nonprofit sector and improving the sector's ability to assist local government in delivering essential services to constituents. This scan was developed for use by the nonprofit sector to brief the new county executive of Montgomery County, MD. and resulted in establishment of a new Office of Community Partnerships in the Montgomery County government. -- www.cfncr.org/page18104.cfm and www.nonprofitroundtable.org.
National Coalition for Asian Pacific American Community Development (National CAPACD): program design for technical assistance and training components of business plan; research, outreach and partnership development support services; assistance in upgrading the organization's foundations relations strategy -- www.nationalcapacd.org.
Nonprofit Roundtable of Greater Washington, DC: assisting in designing a series of focus groups among members and staff -- and facilitating meetings of the board -- to identify highest priorities for future program focus of the Nonprofit Roundtable and help develop its next generation strategic plan; and serving as lead coach and helping design the 2007-8 Roundtable Fellows program for "Executive Leadership Beyond the Walls" -- www.nonprofitroundtable.org
Omaha Street School -- Omaha, NE: providing a preliminary needs assessment with specific recommendations for increasing the effectiveness of the school, ensuring its sustainability, and strengthening its infrastructure; providing executive coaching in implementing the recommendations of the needs assessment and strengthening community partnerships, and succession planning -- www.omahastreetschool.org.
Presbyterian Home and Family Service -- Lynchburg, VA: providing coaching to the CEO on organizational realignment and new strategic plan to increase income, endowment, reach and impact of the organization and help shift the paradigm of service to assistant people with mental and other disabilities -- www.phfs.org.
Quality Trust for Individuals with Disabilities -- Washington, DC: facilitating a joint Board-staff retreat to clarify the Trust's vision of success -- how the lives of individuals with disabilities would change if the Trust were successful in executing its vision; providing follow up planning and coaching assistance to the Executive Director -- www.dcqualitytrust.org.
Spirit Sessions Program - Kailua, Oahu, HI: providing coaching and consulting assistance in preparation of a strategic planning grant proposal for an innovative youth development program that enables adjudicated teenage girls to learn how to surf, and in the process develop self-esteem, heightened sense of personal responsibility, new awareness of personal potential, and other important benefits.
State Church Leader: providing executive coaching services to assist in evaluating a significant national professional opportunity, to weigh pros and cons, and explore how to optimize the likelihood both of receiving the offer and negotiating terms and conditions which would make this substantial life change attractive (taking into account a range of personal, family, professional, and spiritual goals and responsibilities).