RAYMOND L. RIGOGLIOSO
Consulting Services for Nonprofits
Raymond L. Rigoglioso
Consulting Services for Nonprofits
Copyright 2011 Raymond L.Rigoglioso
All Rights Reserved
The Organization. The Youth Pride Chorus gives lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) youth in New York City a chance to grow as musicians and performers while building self-esteem and life skills. A unique collaboration of Big Apple Performing Arts, which operates the New York City Gay Men’s Chorus, and the New York City Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Community Services Center (The Center), Youth Pride Chorus offers LGBT youth choral and performance instruction within a program that provides a full range of social work support.
Challenge: With the deadline for producing next year’s budget looming close, Big Apple Performing Arts and The Center were struggling to identify priorities for the coming year, and their visions for the future differed. They needed a facilitator to help them develop a plan for the next budget year and a vision for the future.
Co-Designing the Process. I spoke with directors from both partner organizations separately and quizzed them about: the history of the partnership, its accomplishments, its strengths, its challenges, their frustrations, what was going well, and what wasn’t going well. The partners asked me to facilitate their next regularly scheduled meeting. I would have just two hours to help the partners accomplish two seemingly mutually exclusive aims: immediate and long-range planning.
Creating a Tailored Meeting Structure. The meeting would open with an honest assessment of what the partnership had achieved, its strengths, its drawbacks, and the frustrations that each partner had. I would then break participants into groups representing their organizations to identify their own priorities and plans they would like to initiate. The partners would then present their findings to each other, followed by a discussion and next steps.
Result. In just two hours, these partners opened a productive dialogue and deepened their relationship and commitment to the Youth Pride Chorus. By giving each partner the permission to voice its needs from its unique professional perspective, the partners discovered just how much commonality existed in their plans for the immediate future. The session could not resolve questions of five-year growth, but it laid the groundwork for long-term planning, and it yielded new messaging the partners will use in fundraising.
Case Study: Youth Pride Chorus
“Ray helped Big Apple Performing Arts and The Center open an honest, productive, and meaningful dialogue around the Youth Pride Chorus. We reaffirmed just how committed we both are to the mission of the chorus and the development of the individual participants, even if we speak different languages professionally. Through this respectful exploration, we realized how much we share in common. Immediate priorities for the coming fiscal year became clear, and we began the process of creating a vision for our 3-year strategic plan.”
--Peter Criswell, Executive Director, Big Apple Performing Arts
“It was a pleasure working with Ray. His honest, open facilitation helped strengthen our collaboration with Big Apple Performing Arts as we entered an exciting new season. At times it can be challenging to take a step back and reflect on the work that you are doing. Ray provided a productive space to clarify short-term goals that helped move us forward as a team, as well as allow us to refine a shared vision for the future in our work with youth.”
--Nicole Avallone, Director of Youth Services, The Center
