Situation:
Strategy and Decision Support was engaged by the Executive Director of Development & Alumni Engagement, Faculty of Medicine, to lead an internal review of the team's Donor Engagement & Operations group. The review aimed to clarify the group's operational structure and supports, articulate a governance and decision-making framework, and assess potential operational redundancies and gaps.
Our Actions:
- Collaborated with the Executive Director to identify and articulate key issues for exploration and analysis
- Conducted exploratory interviews with staff and management to establish a baseline and gather insights on areas of excellence, improvement, and strategic opportunity
- Performed a governance audit across functions within the Donor Engagement and Operations team
- Discussed findings and sought input from UBC colleagues, while supplementing insights with desk research on industry best practices
Results:
- SDS provided recommendations on re-aligning functions with organizational needs for the Donor Engagement & Operations group
- Developed an accompanying responsibility assignment matrix to aid in workflow planning and clarify lines of final accountability
- Articulated change management strategies and methods to ensure organizational buy-in. Collaborated with the Executive Director on implementing select recommendations
“The operational review conducted by SDS not only validated observations and assumptions on our team, but also provided a clear roadmap on how to improve our operations, outlined skills that would be required, and initiated some of the change management required to make these changes. The process gave current staff members a voice in future changes, and the report informed key hiring decisions. The SDS team brought objective rigour and an operational management expertise — supported by research to this project — and I am incredibly pleased with the process and outcomes of working with them.”
-Leanne Denis, Executive Director, DAE, Faculty of Medicine