Women in Need (Win) is a non-profit organization based in New York City that aims to help unhoused families achieve permanent housing. Win also provides essential services and resources to address the systemic inequities at the root of the homelessness crisis and helps thousands of people every year. The organization, which has been operating for more than 40 years, is the largest provider of shelter and supportive housing for New York City families, which make up 80% of the city’s unhoused population. Beyond shelter and housing, Win offers job preparation, childcare, financial literacy, legal, and health and wellness services to further support families in their search for housing stability.

For eight weeks, we partnered with Win to refresh its five-year strategic plan, in support of the organization’s broader goals to provide safe housing and critical services to unhoused families. To do this, our team and Win followed a multi-step approach to identify and evaluate future growth opportunities and to address any critical gaps in Win’s existing operating model.

To better understand Win’s inner workings and its vision to break the cycle of homelessness, we distributed a questionnaire to approximately 80 employees and board members and interviewed about 40 team members. This enabled the team to glean key insights and to subsequently develop a longlist of growth and operational initiatives that Win could pursue over the next five years to best deliver on its mission to empower families to regain independence and look forward to a brighter future.

To help Win prioritize these initiatives, we then scored them against a proprietary assessment framework, aligned on execution owners for the prioritized initiatives, and worked in close partnership with each initiative’s owner to further detail and align on key activities, milestones, and KPIs. The questionnaire, interviews, prioritized shortlist of initiatives, and implementation plan helped to define a clear view of Win’s five-year growth and operational priorities for the next five years, as well as how the organization should execute on those goals and any key fundraising considerations.

At the end of the project, the Win team was highly appreciative of our support in developing its long-term strategic plan. The end of the project coincided with Win’s largest fundraising event of the year —  the Way To Win gala — where Win raised more than $2.8 million to support its ongoing work and strategic plan. Our team was honored to attend this inspiring event, witnessing firsthand the incredible impact and community support that Win continues to foster in its mission to combat homelessness in New York City.