YW Boston seeks an experienced consultant to facilitate the organization through a strategic planning process, culminating with a plan for the next three to five years (2025-2030). YW Boston is at an important inflection point in our history, with the anticipation of welcoming a new CEO in early 2025. YW Boston’s leadership team, Board of Directors, and staff look to embark on a strategic planning process to address where we are as an organization. 

The landscape of diversity, equity, and inclusion is changing rapidly, with growing opposition and uncertainty challenging the progress we’ve fought so hard to achieve. Yet, in the face of these headwinds, YW Boston remains undeterred. We know that our work—empowering organizations, nurturing leaders, and mobilizing communities—has never been more critical. YW Boston now seeks to assess its impact and future direction to best serve Greater Boston. 

About 

YW Boston was founded in 1866 as the first YWCA in the United States and has long been a leader in advancing equity and opportunity for women and people of color. YW Boston’s mission, shared by all YWCAs nationally, is to eliminate racism, empower women, and promote peace, justice, freedom and dignity for all. 

Our approach, tailored to the local context, is currently composed of two core focus areas: 

  1. DEI (Diversity, Equity, Inclusion) Services for businesses, nonprofits, schools, and other workplaces, including:
    • Leadership development through our LeadBoston and Community of Practice programs, 
    • Youth programming through our Fierce Youth Reigniting Excellence (F.Y.R.E.) program, 
    • And general DEI consulting and training. 
  2. Advocacy work including legislative advocacy, coalition building, and mobilizing public action to promote policies that increase equity for women, girls, and people of color. 

YW Boston is at an exciting moment in time, with an anticipated new CEO in place by early 2025. Additionally, YW Boston’s last strategic plan concludes at the end of 2024. We hope to reevaluate priorities and assess how we can move towards greater and deeper impact. 

Strategic Planning Process 

Project Goals 

YW Boston’s strategic planning process should help map out the next three to five years for our organization, driving us toward greater programmatic and organizational sustainability and impact. This process should include:

  • Creating organizational goals: Collaboratively setting goals on how we intend to operationalize YW Boston’s mission statement over the coming three to five years. 
  • Evaluating and aligning programming: Advise on programmatic portfolio that will best meet evolving community needs and market demands, while aligning YW’s services and programs around an evidence-based Theory of Change. May potentially include sunsetting existing offerings, developing new initiatives for emerging needs, and/or reorienting existing offerings. 
  • Engaging key audiences: Actively engaging staff, board members, and key community stakeholders in the strategic planning process, and amplifying diverse voices in our ongoing work to ensure an inclusive, community-driven direction. 
  • Ensuring financial sustainability: Evaluating current revenue-generating programs, fee-based services, and contributed revenue initiatives for financial viability, sustainability, and impact. 

Desired Outcomes 

We are seeking a consultant to design and lead an equitable and inclusive strategic plan process for our organization that is in alignment with our core values – People, Collaboration, Liberation, Courage, and Shared Leadership – and meets our below desired outcomes: 

  1. YW Boston staff express increased clarity and alignment on our organization’s strategic vision, goals, and organizational values. 
  2. YW Boston staff can name how their department and role contribute to achieving our new organizational goals and delivering community impact. 
  3. YW Boston staff express feeling that their voice and perspective was included, heard, and valued as a part of the strategic planning conversations and process. 
  4. YW Boston leadership and staff feel increased confidence in the financial health and sustainability of the organization. 
  5. YW leadership and staff express confidence in and understanding of our organization’s Theory of Change and can name how our strategic direction and vision will deliver community-level change and impact. 

Key Deliverables 

At a minimum, we are seeking the following tangible items as a part of a consultant’s scope of work: 

  • Devise and design an equitable and inclusive strategic planning process for our organization. This process should include thoughtful and intentional uses of both in-person and remote facilitation, as necessary and appropriate. 
  • Lead and facilitate the strategic planning process with the internal YW Boston team. 
  • Provide written documentation and communication on the strategic planning process and final results for both internal and external use. 
  • Embed feedback and evaluation methods into the strategic planning process to measure success in achieving the project’s key outcomes. 
  • Engage key external voices in the process to ensure all perspectives are heard and included. 

Project Timeframe 

Our intention is to start the strategic planning process after hiring and onboarding our new CEO, which is currently on-track to happen within the first quarter of 2025. As a result, our current plan is to start the strategic planning project in the second quarter of 2025 and have it concluded by the end of 2025.

Experience/Qualifications 

In a successful candidate, we are seeking the following: 

  • Demonstrated experience designing and leading strategic planning processes for nonprofit organizations, especially those focused on diversity, equity, and inclusion. 
  • A demonstrated commitment to centering equity, inclusion, and social justice principles throughout the strategic planning engagement. 
  • A track record of engaging diverse stakeholders, including staff, board members, and community partners, in collaborative strategic planning efforts. 
  • Familiarity with the Boston-area context. 
  • Strong facilitation skills to guide workshops, discussions, and working sessions with the YW Boston team. 
  • Expertise in conducting organizational assessments, analyzing data, and translating findings into actionable strategic priorities. 
  • Proven ability to deliver high-quality written documentation and communications to support the strategic planning process and final plan. 
  • Knowledge of best practices in nonprofit financial management and program evaluation to help ensure the long-term sustainability and impact of YW Boston’s initiatives. 
  • Experience working with organizations undergoing leadership transitions. 

How to apply 

Please submit a brief project proposal to operations1@ywboston.org by Friday, January 10. This proposal should include: 

  1. Cover letter highlighting your relevant experience, approach, and fit for this project.
  2. Brief overview of your proposed strategic planning process and methodology, including:
    • Approach to constituent engagement and ensuring an equitable, inclusive process 
    • Methods for organizational assessment, goal-setting, and action planning
    • Timeline and key milestones 
  3. Proposed project team and bios, highlighting the relevant expertise each team member would bring. 
  4. References from 2-3 recent clients that can speak to your strategic planning work, stakeholder management, and quality of outputs. We will only contact these references if you are a finalist for the partnership and will notify you before reaching out to them. 
  5. High-level budget not to exceed $70,000. 

If you have any questions while completing your application, please reach out to Kathryn Henderson, khenderson@ywboston.org. 

After the submission deadline passes, we will be reviewing applications and scheduling follow-up conversations with top candidates. We intend to make a final decision by January 31, 2025.