SOAR – STAFF Staff
What They Said
OUR CULTURE “Equity and inclusion (internally). Leadership has done the hard work of addressing equity and inclusion in our staff and moving our non-profit towards a salaried organization. Allowed them to enter in a competitive way (mainly minorities). Reflected across the board from board level all the way down. Others consider us light years ahead of them. As a white founded, faith-based organization, we are very inclusive and that makes me very proud.” “Welcoming new people” “Meeting people where they are. Accepting people for exactly who they are. That’s big.” “Great work culture” INNOVATION /THOUGHT LEADERSHIP FCS has honed being innovative and thought leadership. As an organization well into its 40s, FCS has gotten to the stage in life (and success) where we have credible leadership. We’ve done the work of building the muscles of expertise of a base organization and when you look at our portfolio (some say we look like a for profit entity), it lends itself to being in worlds that are not always faith based.”
• Culture (DEI- focused internally and welcoming) • Innovation/ Thought leadership • External Communications/ Storytelling • Safe place for youth • Holistic approach to outreach • Partnerships/ Relationships (Purpose build network, Lupton Center)
“We are ahead of the curve in so many ways. When I think about what FCS is doing and the practical ways we live out WHO we say we are. The trends are following us in a lot of ways. “
EXTERNAL COMMUNICATIONS/STORYTELLING & SAFE SPACE FOR YOUTH “Yes, we do great at storytelling. Proud to create a safe space for youth in the neighborhood.”
HOLISTIC APPROACH “Doing a holistic approach to outreach instead of focusing on 1 or 2 areas.”
PARTNERSHIPS/RELATIONSHIPS “Relationships. We do so many things, some programs are run by our partners. Like the city. We have a lot of good connections. We know a ton of people in the Purpose Built network. We know a lot of people” “In the practical and tangible ways, we touch the community. The housing department and how they’re touching the community. Carver Grounds being an anchor in the community. The Lupton Center and the ways we help other people create that same feeling and showing them how to do the work where they are.” “How we’re able to raise and make money. That’s rare. I’ve worked at nonprofits that rely almost exclusively on government grants. That is not the case here where we’ve found a way to generate our own income and supplement it from other sources (housing, Lupton, capital campaign). It seems to me we’ve raised a lot of money really fast. Speaks to us being able to articulate who we are. All of us don’t have to worry about where the money is coming from. We can feel good that income is coming in to support our work.” DEI STRATEGY “For the better part of our history, we’ve always addressed the issues of race and equity but that hasn’t been lead language for us. Often times, people call into question if we’re really addressing race issues. These last few years have moved us to being more apologetic and how we do actually address these issues. Opportunity to grow and strategically scratch the surface. I see that as a strong place for us to grow and scale.”
• DEI strategy (address issues of race equity) • Thought
leadership (affordable housing/health disparities) (increased employee hiring
“Atlanta is changing so fast (wants, pricing, neighborhoods), how are we staying ahead of the curve in terms of housing?”
THOUGHT LEADERSHIP (AFFORDABLE HOUSING/HEALTH DISPARITIES) “The housing market has had a crazy year and a half. It’s more of strength than opportunity but FCS has done a really good job of adapting. I think a lot of the folks at FCS are very plugged into other nonprofits and have connections to the city and builders. People starting to do ADUs to bring more affordable housing. I’ve been pretty impressed at how the people at FCS seem to be paying attention.” “The challenge and opportunity in that (part of our secret sauce) is our head down, committed to our geographic location and not creating a lot of hoopla around what we’re doing has allowed us to purchase a lot of homes and that’s been critically important to our success. We’re entering into a time when that under the radar mode of operating is dying (not to the scale we’ve been doing). This is an opportunity for us to step out into the forefront (carpe diem). Have the opportunity to do well in thought leadership if we seize the moment. We’re Beyonce (get out of the way).” Marketplace changes/trends: - “Gives us opportunities to be recognized as a leader (thought leader, etc.). I feel like people might seek us out to ask how we do that (opportunities for Lupton Center, etc.) We’re primed to receive racial equity funds because we’ve already been doing the work.” - “Opportunity to direct and influence how they’re thinking about. We have a place in the health disparity conversation.” - “On a national level, government (White House level), the issue around health disparities and how they’re tied to housing and education (place) is something we’ve already been in the modus operandi of when everyone else was NOT about place. Because we’ve stuck to our guns and committed to our practice, it makes us thought leaders. It also does that in how we’ve had to diversify ourselves in that we couldn’t just be dependent on grants. Had to think innovatively about funds. Makes us great partners across the board.” CULTURE “Because we have so much coming (expansion), I feel like we’ll be hiring a lot of people. Challenge is expansion but keeping what is special about FCS. Sometimes we can get siloed in our work. Sometimes we don’t know what’s going on in the other pillars and are not able to talk about it. I worry with adding more people that they’re incorporated into the larger team.”
• Culture
with team cohesion)
FINDING YOUR FORTE SOAR SUMMARY & DETAILS
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