Kids’ Chance

Location: National

Industry: Nonprofit Charity

Size: 30+ People

It was an otherwise typical Tuesday when an email appeared in our CEO’s inbox. It was from the executive director at Kids’ Chance of America. Our sister company, Matter 7, had been serving as their primary creative partner for well over a decade.

Surprised to see the email in the wrong company inbox, she furrowed her brow and gave it a click. After the usual pleasantries, the email read, “I know this is your second company and you do work in the area of strategic planning. Kids’ Chance is at an inflection point as an organization and needs a different approach to developing its next three-year plan. Would you be interested in exploring the opportunity?”

Needless to say, she raced to write a response. The following email exchange and Zoom sessions revealed that Kids’ Chance would soon hit their goal of being present in all 50 states.

Now the national organization needed to redefine its role for the next stage of its development.

the status and challenges

Broadly, Kids’ Chance provides scholarships to the kids of workers who have been injured on the job. It brings with it intricate relationships and a history of independence.

The founder, Bob Clyatt, started Kids’ Chance of Georgia. His vision was to have a Kids’ Chance in every state.

He recruited other members of the workers’ compensation industry to get the first state organizations started. As they added more and more states, the need for a national umbrella emerged.

With investment in infrastructure, including experienced staff, through the creation of Kids’ CHance of America, Kids’ Chance spread even more rapidly than before. New organizations or relationships with existing organizations blossomed in states across the country.

Kids’ Chance of America focused on the vision of its founder: starting a Kids’ Chance in every single state. They planted seeds, engaged volunteers, helped file paperwork, and got websites off the ground. They even offered resources to help states run their organizations better.

But there was an ever-present challenge: each state exists as an independently incorporated organization. They choose to engage with Kids’ Chance of America. As a result, the national organization had to walk a fine line, balancing the steps to unite a national community while mitigating the risk of offending states who could walk away.

With a presence in all 50 states, the national organization needed to decide how to grow together with its states.

And we also needed to answer another important question: when you achieve your original vision, where do you go next?

the work

We started by collaborating with the executive director to form a leadership working group. We also designed ways to get input from state organizations, the rest of the team, the national partners, and the kids themselves.

With those insights in hand, we taught the members of the leadership working group about the elements of a Core strategy and facilitated sessions to refine the strategy for Kids’ Chance.

The purpose with which Kids’ Chance of Georgia was founded remained the purpose for which all Kids’ Chance organizations continued to exist: to give the kids of injured workers a chance at a better future.

But for the first time, the leadership defined the mission of the national organization as different from the mission of the state organization. The state organizations awarded scholarships; the national organization did not and never had.

After reflecting on the input they received and thinking strategically about the value they exist to deliver, they set the following:

The mission of Kids’ Chance of America is to unite the workers’ compensation community in support of the kids of workers who have been injured on the job. We provide resources, develop sustainable state organizations, and power the pipeline of eligible applicants.

The mission of Kids’ Chance of [State] is to provide scholarships and support to the kids of workers who have been injured on the job.

This clarity allowed for a refreshed perspective on the actions the national organization could take as it moved forward.

With the Core strategy set, we facilitated the process of developing their roadmap for the next three years. We also designed a workshop for the board, to engage them with the roadmap and help them connect their individual purpose to the contributions they were volunteering to make.

We also collaborated with the executive director to realign the team and onboard the staff onto our platform, which centralized all the pieces of their logic and helped to keep them aligned.