Start with the End Goal in Mind with Tamra Ryan, CEO of Women’s Bean Project
If you want to succeed, rather than starting right at the beginning, think about where you want to end up and work towards it. Without a destination, how will you know when you get there?
It’s time for the fourth episode of Nonprofit Connect, hosted by me, Matt Barnes, brought to you by the one, the only (queue boxing match host voice) Rooooooogguueeeeeee Creatives!
In this episode, I’m joined by Tamra Ryan, the CEO of the Women’s Bean Project, an employment social enterprise with a mission to uplift women through employment and empower them to be change-makers in their lives. As the CEO, Tamra is their visionary leader, providing strategic vision for the team, including the staff and board of directors.
Where Are You Headed?
Imagine you’re in a taxi, on the way to the airport, at seven in the morning; your partner has booked a surprise holiday, and you don’t have a clue as to where you're going because, well, it's a surprise. That’s the whole damn point.
When you finally arrive, you’re standing among the chugged sounds of suitcases, confused old folks trying to figure out how to use the ticket scanners, and boards with flight times and gates, yet you still don’t have a clue where you’re going. It’s okay, you tell yourself, my partner knows.
The plane takes off, sifting through clouds, the ground beneath you minimized to the size of sand grains. You land, it’s sunny, the heat throwing itself at your face, and you notice; this is Spain.
“Is this where we’re going?” you ask your partner giddily.
“I’m not sure,” they say. “I just booked a holiday on a random airline ticket generator. I think we have to go on another plane.”
You’re a bit miffed by this, but you trudge on and get on the plane again. For the next two days, you get on and off and on and off and on and off a myriad of different planes. Neither you nor your partner have any idea of where your destination was, and you’ve somehow found yourself in a Kafkaesque situation of turbulent yet monotonous frustration.
Eventually, you decide to pack it in and go home. So much for surprises, huh?
Your End Goal is Your Starting Point
“Matt, what was the point in that story?” I can hear you say through your screens.
Well, in the nonprofit world, you need to have an end goal in mind. Hell, whether it’s nonprofit or for-profit, you need to know where you’re headed, otherwise how will you ever know you’ve arrived? Perhaps it sounds like silly advice, but you’d be surprised just how many charities I speak to who don’t have a clear vision or mission! Tamra mentions how important it is for you to know what you want to accomplish with your work.
“Just even the idea of, what are we trying to accomplish? Start with the end in mind,” she tells me. “If we want it to look like this at the end, what do we need to do to get there? If we have no idea where we’re going, we won’t know when we get there. Let’s be really clear on that. If success looks like this, here are all the things we need to do to get there.”
Figuring out the end goal of your nonprofit is merely the first step; it’s all the parts in between and how to get there that takes up the most time. You need to convince your donors that you know what you’re doing, and that their investments will be put to good use and spent wisely, and you can’t do that unless you know where you’re headed.
“I think about it - and how I communicate it across to my donors - is by saying ‘we’re putting your money to work,’” she explains. “And that’s a nice metaphor for the work that we do as an organization; people think of it as an investment in something. An investment in a community or human capital is how I prefer to frame it. We all look around and see things we don’t like, but we don’t all do something about it.”
Listen to the Whole Episode!
Right then, dear reader, there you have it. That was just ONE of a billion lessons from my episode with Tamra Ryan (maybe not a billion, but you catch my drift). Follow the link below and listen to the full episode of Nonprofit Connect! Or better yet, connect with Rogue Creatives directly to see how we can improve your nonprofit’s story to raise more revenue.
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