Ashley Smith is director of finance and operations at Wholesome Wave Georgia, a social services nonprofit that helps increase access to fresh, local-grown food for underserved communities in Georgia. In this interview, she describes how coming to Harvard Business School (HBS) Executive Education and attending the Performance Measurement for Effective Management of Nonprofit Organizations (PMNO) program has given her a new game plan for her organization.
My friend and coworker told me about the program. At first glance, I thought there was no way I would get into a program at HBS. But I was feeling confident that day and started an application. In my professional growth plan, I had expressed an interest in organizational strategy, and this felt like the perfect opportunity to turn that desire into reality.
Too many to count! One of the most important moments was when I realized that our mission, while inspiring, did not really capture the true essence of what we actually do as an organization. While we have a robust evaluation protocol for all programs, it wasn't really tied back to the mission. I began to realize how important it was to reevaluate the mission statement and make sure that our evaluation protocol was meaningful and intentional.
One challenge we're dealing with is that the demand for our programs is increasing, and we don't have the capacity to meet the increased need. We are struggling to find balance between the quality and quantity of our programs. We don't want to simply increase the number of people served, and at the same time we want to increase the quality of the services provided. Our competitive landscape is also becoming a challenge, as there are many organizations that are starting to offer programs similar to ours. This creates competition for funding and confusion for program participants, both current and potential.
Honestly, it's really important to get outside of the office and your daily routine and step back and take a look at your overall strategy. So many times, we just continue doing what we're doing because it's what we have always done. It was nice to have the space and time to see things through a different lens.
