A Blackfish Success Story:
Streamlining Disaster Relief Efforts

– Too many groups were spoiling the disaster relief mission
– We realigned multiple factions behind one core mission
– Stability has returned, and disaster relief efforts are more effective

IMPROVEMENT:
Better Service Through Organization

The Problem:
A “strategic realignment” in the nonprofit world basically means you need to get your stuff together, or your ducks in a row – whatever it takes to get everybody on the same page.  Your problem may not be as clear on the outside or even to the casual, noncommittal volunteer. But it’s real.  It’s there in the backrooms and boardrooms of your fragmented organization. And it’s killing your organization.

Usually there’s too much and too many, or too little and too few. In the case of one national nonprofit, we brought 20-plus “too-many” groups into alignment, forming one committed, cohesive front for disaster relief.  It took a major natural disaster for the cracks in this long-running organization to really show, but when they did, it was U-G-L-Y.  They had five CEOs in seven years, and four factions each warring against the others, competing for funding and credibility. All the while their mission is to help people.
 
Good luck with that. It just wasn’t working.  Not as well as it should.
 
What Blackfish Did:
Blackfish stepped in with a total realignment.  We brought some organization to their organization.  We showed them that all of their programs had one common core business – just one – and it was mobilizing resources.  Not taking blood or passing out bottled water. Those are the end result, but not the core business.
 
Rather than chasing different missions for each division, we pulled these factions together for one common mission – putting human and cash resources in motion.  Now with solid, strategic alignment behind one united mission, they make better help available for disaster victims when they need it most.