BHAG Blog

Discerning together our Big, Hairy, Audacious Goal for SVP Portland

It seems to me that we’re on the precipice of something. Something big. Venture philanthropy in Portland (that’s us!) will soon turn ten years old. That’s not ancient, but in social enterprise years, it’s quite a milestone. Lots of Partners get lots of credit for nurturing the organization (and themselves through SVPP) for all those years. Fourteen founding Partners are still with us. They’re still some of the most active, dedicated Partners we have and I’m grateful to them. But 37 of you became Partners since last year; 51 since 2008, representing a net growth of 37.5% even since the economy tanked.

We’re on the precipice of something big because all of you who have joined the effort has also fueled our energy and made us stronger. It shows that we have something special here and the word is getting out. (Halleluiah!) There’s way farther to go and we’re working on that too.

Time for a Gut Check

But awareness and growth is not all I’m talking about. There’s a rumbling in my belly and I’ve heard the same from many of you. In the Partnership Satisfaction Survey, over 92% of you said that your overall experience with SVPP has been well above or above average (yahoo!), but almost 20% of you were not sure you’d renew your Partnership contribution this year. There may be many different reasons for that, but I know that at least one factor is that we are not compelling you….to give, to act, to think audaciously about solutions to community needs. It shows up for me when someone who was dedicated drifts away or loses heart in our effort. It shows up when I can’t tell potential Partners what we’re united to achieve in a measurable way.

Don’t get me wrong, we are providing tremendous value to nonprofits and the larger community now and over the past nine years. We can point to evidence of our effectiveness with current Investees, but I am gathering a team of Partners to help us tell those stories of how our past Investees have fared since our investment. I invite you to participate in that effort. But what does all that value and impact mean for the community? Has it been focused enough to make a significant difference on a community problem? Does it need to be that focused? Our Board of Directors and I believe it does.

We have a strong, unique mission in the Portland community. The venture philanthropy model asks us to select the most promising nonprofits and surround them with money, time, brain power, connections and everything that we can bring to bear on their vision for greater impact. The model invites you to step into this relationship with your heart and mind, transforming the organization as well as yourself. Strengthening organizations and donors at the same time is not common and there is tremendous room for growth in our efforts.

But what happens when we apply that mission of strengthening organizations and catalyzing donors toward a focused effort?

What would our organization and impact look like in ten years if we decided we were truly going to make difference on something that matters deeply to us and that we can change with just the right amount of bold thinking and gathered resources?

What would that feel like to you as a Partner?

Borrowing from What Works

Management authors Jim Collins and Jerry Porras, in Built to Last, their great study of long-lived business organizations, called what I’m talking about a BHAG: a Big, Hairy, Audacious Goal. They defined this as “an audacious 10-to-30 year goal to progress towards an envisioned future,” and their research showed that setting these big, motivating goals was a practice that distinguished lasting companies from less successful ones.

In a book that helped crystallize our crisis at SVP for me, Dan and Chip Heath’s Switch: How to Change Things When Change is Hard, describes this as establishing the “destination postcard:” a vivid picture from the near-term future that shows what could be possible. It’s tough to explain what we do. But it’s even tougher when we can’t speak from the heart about what we’re united to achieve. In my opinion, our efforts are too watered down. Successes are evident, but random and too often one-off and limited in scope.

Now I don’t pretend that it will be easy to determine our Big, Hairy, Audacious Goal. But if we don’t engage in the conversation, I don’t believe we’ll see the impact and growth we all hope to achieve. I don’t believe you’ll be compelled to stick around any more than I will when we’re only working from our heads with this “smart” philanthropy model and not directing our hearts and our guts toward a problem we care about.

And the crisis is not just internal. The Portland community NEEDS us to act in a focused, bold way. There are far too many intractable problems that take a toll on our community. There are kids falling through the cracks and if we do nothing new, we’re just letting it happen.

What We're Going to Do About It.

So all that said, I’m inviting the Partnership into a discernment process, of sorts. We’re gathering a group of Partners to help us think through this BHAG. It’s our top priority through the end of the year in order to go into our Tenth Anniversary year with gusto and vision. We’ve also gotten the expertise of Monique Breault, an experienced visioning consultant, to facilitate the group thanks to her employer, PointB and its local market leader and our Partner, Steve Brook.

I’d like to maintain communications with you here throughout the process and let you know what’s going on and what the task force and I are thinking. More importantly, I want to hear what YOU are thinking and how you are reacting. We’ll have a formal survey to better understand the passions and interests of the Partners in this regard, but I hope you’ll stay actively engaged in the conversation here or call me and the Partners to talk it out.

To start with, let me know your reaction to this posting. Share your thoughts, feelings and needs about this BHAG/destination postcard/vision for the community. Let’s be in relationship in this discernment process more than ever.

It’s critical to the strength of the Partnership and personally important to me that we do this together and that every voice is heard.

In future postings, I will talk about what short and longer term implications I think setting this BHAG might mean for us. For now, I want to share with you the formal process we are undertaking so you know what to expect.

  1. Gather Task Force. Currently committed are:
  • Dina Alexander, Task Force Chair and Board President-Elect
  • Les Soltesz, Board President
  • Kerry McClenahan
  • Steve Brook
  • Julie Young
  • Mark Van Ness
  • Sarah Allan, Former Partner
  • Mark Holloway
  1. Clarify process, objective and desired outcome of process;
  2. Examine internal and external (community) trends, needs
  3. Review relevant organizational and historical materials, “bright spots” and challenges
  4. Brainstorm the BHAG
  5. Survey Partners on interests and BHAG possibilities
  6. Present BHAG to SVPP Board of Directors and recommend any subsequent course of action
  7. Communicate BHAG publicly

If you would like to dive deeper into this area, here is a selected reading list:

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