2014-2017 Strategic Plan of
The Greater Minneapolis Council of Churches
Adopted December, 2013
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Goal for Hunger and Nutrition
Minnesota Foodshare will strengthen its profile as a leader in providing and advocating for increased availability of healthy and nutritious food for Minnesotans in need

Objective: Expand the scope of Garden Share and build networks to increase the number of Garden Share sites by at least 12 over the next 3 years, with sites throughout Minnesota

Objective: Increase involvement and leadership to position Minnesota Foodshare as a leader in eliminating hunger in Minnesota

Objective: Engage faith communities to increase their impact on combating hunger through Minnesota Foodshare
Goal for Senior Services:
Expand the scope of Senior Services to provide needs assessment, connection to existing resources, and follow-up to keep seniors living healthy, independent lives

Objective: Build on our Handyworks and Metro Paint-A-Thon experience to serve more seniors with more comprehensive assessment and referral services, and consider expanding new programming to targeted populations
Goal for West African Community:
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To work in partnership with the West African Community to strengthen the community and allow it to develop its own support organization through GMCC.

Objective: Establish a West African community center in Brooklyn Center or Brooklyn
Park to serve the needs of the West African Community.

Objective: Create a transitional (up to two years) supportive housing program serving the West African Community – focusing on recent immigrants and offering housing for all family sizes.

Objective: Explore and develop services in partnership with the West African
Community that could include employment services, youth services, elder services and a food shelf.
Goal for Division of Indian Work (to be further developed by DIW in early 2014):
To work in partnership with DIW to empower the American Indian community, and support
DIW in the implementation of their strategic plan.

Objective: Explores additional housing programs that serve the American Indian community

Objective: Develop and implement a sustainability plan for the DIW food shelf that includes additional funding models and greater partnership with Minnesota
FoodShare

Objective: Explore additional funding models for the Youth Leadership Development
Program core services

Objective: Expand our current partnerships with Goodwill Easter Seals and other employment organizations around employment and job training
Goal for Mentoring
To advocate for, and be a provider of, mentoring programming that will improve the general well-being of youth served

Objective: Stabilize and then grow the Kinship Program to serve more youth

Objective: Enhance the Kinship Program to add a component which would focus on providing mentors to youth whose parents are incarcerated
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Capacity Building:
To mobilize, convene and support staff, volunteers and partners in increasing the capacity of the organization to provide effective, efficient, sufficiently funded services and be a respected partner in the community.
Goal for Connecting to Faith Communities:

Objective: Through increased communication, enhance existing partnerships and build interfaith partnerships so that we can increase awareness and engagement around common areas of interest

Objective: Reconnect with GMCC member congregations and redefine what it means to be a “member of the Greater Minneapolis Council of Churches” moving forward

Objective: Engage our member congregations and other faith communities in achieving our goals

Objective: Develop more effective avenues of communication with our faith partners

Objective: Implement new models of volunteer recruitment with our faith partners
Goal for Financial:

Objective: Create a growth model that will bring the organization to a $10,000,000 annual operating budget within the next five years

Objective: Increase operating, deferred maintenance and venture capital reserves, and fully fund depreciation
Goal for Advancement:

Objective: Develop clear and compelling messaging around the impact of GMCC and a strategy to better disseminate that message through traditional and emerging channels

Objective: Identify and implement a strategy to engage “Generation X”, “Nones” and
“Generation Y/Millenials” as volunteers and donors

Objective: Increase the number of volunteer engaging with, and donating to, the organization
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
Objective: Increase the number of individual donors and the amount of revenue generated by individuals including designing and implementing a model for planned giving.
Goal for Social Action:

Objective: Strengthen our existing FoodShare relationships to become more effective on hunger, and then build on these relationships to expand to include effective advocacy in other goal areas

Objective: Further develop and implement a business model for promoting the
“Poverty and Privilege” curriculum developed by Urban Immersion Service Retreats.
Goal for Governance:

Objective: Enrich and expand the Board of Directors to have a fully engaged Board that taps in to the relationships, skills and abilities of the individual members to improve our ability to meet programmatic and organizational goals
Goal for Physical Assets:

Objective: Develop and implement a process to determine any future use of the
Center for Families building

Objective: Assess the current state and utilization of our physical assets, including buildings, vehicles, computers and other technological equipment, and develop a plan for their highest and best use
Human Resources:
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Objective: Assess and adjust our current staff capacity with an emphasis on fundraising and administration across the entire organization

Objective: Create an organizational culture of high expectations, collaboration, transparency, accountability, where staff and volunteers are respected and have fun
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