In the almost eight months since I joined the Oishei Foundation, I have spent most of my time meeting, listening to, and learning from our grantees, our many partners, as well as those that the Foundation has not had a relationship yet. I have been able to get a better sense of the community’s needs and the role that the Foundation has and can play in helping WNY thrive. I am grateful to so many who have given me the time and patience to continue my learning!
An important next step for our board and staff will now begin as I am pleased to announce the kick-off of our strategic planning process. This is an exciting and critically important opportunity for us to assess and refine our work, and to strategically align our future planning with community needs and within the context of the overall philanthropic community. We seek opportunities for building and maintaining positive stakeholder relationships to collectively support significant regional impact, particularly in closing racial equity gaps. As many of you have likely already heard from me, our “north star” in this process will be to center racial equity in all that we do as we move forward.
Elizabeth Myrick Consulting (EMC) will lead a team of senior consultants to assist our Board and staff with our strategic plan. EMC understands and appreciates Oishei’s core values, including the importance of an inclusive process where all voices have the opportunity to contribute. In fact, our planning process will begin with engaging key stakeholders so that we can learn directly from our community, helping to inform our planning.
The planning process will be comprised of four phases with expectations that a strategic plan will be developed by the Spring of 2023, followed by an implementation plan later next summer so we can begin executing our strategic initiatives. We plan to communicate throughout the process with updates about what we are learning, what’s been done, what’s to come, and how you can get involved.
We look forward to learning and engaging with you throughout this process.
Christina P. Orsi, President
The John R. Oishei Foundation
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