The Knapp Community Care Foundation is dedicated to improving the health of Texas’ Mid-Valley families. Since 2014, the Foundation has granted $43 million to support nonprofit organizations serving families in the region.
In December 2018, the Foundation made a commitment to further their impact by more fully engaging their nonprofit partners. Their Board then unanimously agreed to fund organizational strengthening grants in early 2019. To achieve their vision, Knapp Community Care Foundation first partnered with Burnam | Gray to manage an organizational assessment process. They invited six grantee partners to participate: Su Casa De Esperanza, TEAM MARIO, Valley Nature Center, Special Olympics of the Rio Grande Valley, South Texas Juvenile Diabetes Association, and Holy Family Services.
Our team began by reviewing all available organizational materials and documents. We facilitated online and in-person surveys, interviews, focus groups, site visits, and phone calls. Burnam | Gray developed surveys for each organization’s constituents and determined the appropriate delivery methods. After listening, learning, and pulling together all data, each organization received their own unique assessment that identified areas of strength and improvement, data trends, and recommendations for where the organization may focus their efforts in order to become stronger. Knapp Community Care Foundation received an executive summary that their grants committee utilized to make organizational strengthening funding decisions. The Burnam | Gray team then worked closely with the Foundation to create project timelines to implement the work with each grantee partner. This included Board governance, leadership, marketing, communications, coaching, fundraising strategies, program evaluation, and more.
In 2021, we launched a second phase of the assessment process inviting four more organizations to embark on the strengthening process. In 2022, we are currently partnering with TEAM MARIO, Open Hands, MARC, and The Weslaco Museum to strengthen their operations, programs, fundraising, Board governance, and executive leadership.
As we have worked hand-in-hand with the Knapp Community Care Foundation and grown to love the strength, resiliency, and warmth of the Rio Grande Valley’s people, our deep partnership has evolved to multiple areas. We supported the Foundation’s Board with strategic planning and implementation, a website redesign, and what we may be most proud of, the launch of a leadership cohort – Nonprofit Leaders for Excellence. This cohort, powered by the Knapp Community Care Foundation and Valley Baptist Legacy Foundation, officially kicked off in August of 2022 with 12 nonprofit leaders. The group will gather monthly to learn, network, and collaborate on leadership, governance, operations, and more. We worked to plan, develop curriculum, and coordinate all aspects of this 10-month journey.
This is what we call ignite, scale, and repeat!