Benefactor Group: Serving those who serve the common good.

Benefactor Group is not your average consulting firm. It exists to serve those who serve the common good and prides itself on helping nonprofits wherever they are in their lifecycle. With services including capital campaigns, executive searches, strategic planning, and more, Benefactor Group helps nonprofits build capacity, achieve ambitious goals, and advance their causes.

These organizations have different strategic planning needs than for-profit organizations.

Benefactor Group serves mission-driven organizations that have different strategic planning needs than for-profit organizations. While valuable aspects of strategic planning can be adapted from the for-profit sector, nonprofits have different and special needs. How do you best include the board? How does the plan inform fundraising? How are you addressing the interests of multiple constituencies and the community at large? Non-profits need consultants who have a deep understanding of philanthropy and bring something different than strategy maps, balanced scorecards, and other traditional strategic planning tools.

Benefactor Group saw this need and stepped in the gap.

After experimenting with several approaches, Benefactor Group developed a proprietary strategic planning methodology specifically designed for nonprofits. Known as the 4Ds, the methodology takes clients through four stages: Dream, Discover, Design, and Deliver.

Consultants and organizations alike benefit from the transparency that Allovance’s Strategic Value Scorecard provides.

With a solid methodology in place, Benefactor Group began to consider how it could be enhanced. Kaitlyn Kendall, Senior Consultant at Benefactor Group, noted that implementing strategic plans “worked well for many organizations, but we knew there was more we could do and that is what led us to Allovance.”

Allovance brought something different to the table. Consultants and organizations alike benefit from the transparency that Allovance’s Strategic Value Scorecard provides. Participants capture the vision, primary goal, and strategic priorities and objectives in a centralized location, allowing facilitators and participants to update these pieces in real-time. Different from the traditional strategic planning process where plans are set (and too often forgotten), Allovance’s dynamic nature offers the flexibility for changing priorities and objectives as internal and external factors impact the organization.

In addition to Allovance’s dynamic nature is the fact that the software is built on and incorporates decision-making science. This was key for Steve Beshuk, Principal at Benefactor Group. It’s one thing to make a list of priorities and objectives. It’s another to distinguish what really matters. “If everything is important, then nothing is important,” Steve stated. 

Allovance’s Compare tool, which leverages pairwise comparison methodology, has shown itself to be a difference maker. By collectively comparing the organization’s strategic priorities and objectives side-by-side, participants experience a more collaborative approach to making critical business decisions, with increased alignment and decreased bias. And when relative weights (or importance) are generated for the priorities and objectives, it’s easier to agree on what truly counts.

“I really enjoy the Compare step and the resulting prioritization. It’s so interesting to hear our clients discuss the importance of one priority or objective versus another. You learn a lot about people’s perspectives. You also have a chance to learn more about why they care about the organization’s mission,” noted Kaitlyn.

Kaitlyn further stated, “participants experience an ‘a-ha’ moment when they see the scorecard after completing the comparisons. They are always surprised to see how those small choices add up to become the relative weights. The final scorecard presents their prioritization with an incommon clarity. It can be an uncomfortable at first. But, we believe that growth and focus emerge from discomfort. It’s a productive experience.”

While the scientific principles behind the system are certainly noteworthy, an equally compelling advantage lies in its capacity to diminish tedious tasks and flatten the learning curve significantly. Steve observed that this very feature was instrumental in drawing Benefactor Group to Allovance. “Having a software where we don’t have to learn how the complex math behind a pairwise comparison works helps focus on what we do best – helping our clients decide what matters.”

“One of the things that we’ve loved about Allovance is scoring projects. Clients see how one project can impact multiple priorities. And then assigning a strategic value score to the work empowers the leaders to make strategic, data-driven decisions”

It’s no secret that the strategic planning process has growth opportunities. So many strategic plans are created and then left on a shelf. Operationalizing the plan is a critical next step that is often overlooked. Allovance gives organizations that edge. Once the Strategic Value Scorecard has been finalized, existing and proposed projects and initiatives are added to Allovance and given a score – or strategic value – to determine strategic alignment. This score makes it easier to determine where organizations should allocate people and financial resources while reducing inconsequential pet projects or projects being assigned by the loudest or most senior voice in the room.

Equally important, Allovance proves that one project or initiative can impact many strategic priorities. This can help decrease internal competition for resources and attention while increasing cross-functional collaboration.

“One of the things that we’ve loved wabout Allovance is scoring projects. Clients see how one project can impact multiple priorities. And then assigning a strategic value score to the work empowers the leaders to make strategic, data-driven decisions,” Kaitlyn expressed. “There is value across multiple priorities. Being able to decouple those things and share that with our clients and have them understand that this project is even more valuable than you realize, not just because it’s someone’s pet project, but because there’s reak impact here.Being able to quantify that, I think that has been one of the biggest transformations in the framework.”

Today’s consultants and organizations need and deserve smart, dynamic tools. They need tools that help increase collaboration while managing constructive debates. They need tools that meet today’s needs while being flexible enough to adapt to future changes. Most importantly, consultants and organizations need tools that help them bring clarity to some of the toughest business decisions faster and with less friction.