“I am looking forward to an exciting collaborative ramp-up in the coming year as well.
Bernadette Maisel
New Title Needed
Year End Donations Fund Running Water
Case Study
Rapid Growth Workshop
Building a model for cybersecurity and space that transforms our nation’s ability to detect, protect, and deter threats.
The Challenge
Colorado-based National Cybersecurity Center (NCC) meets the growing threat of cybercrime using industry leadership, collaboration, and education.
Numerous NCC programs involve educating both children and adults, not only for cyber-threat awareness but to address the critical gap of skilled cybersecurity talent.
Still other programs involve security in space, no longer the sole domain of governments. Threats from private enterprises may come from the industry’s complex supply chain, a wide array of business systems, and the very missions themselves.
With countless cyber issues present in virtually all commercial, government, and public sectors, NCC needed to focus on what was core to their mission and objectives.
In so doing, NCC also had to prioritize projects that addressed strategic objectives and overcome challenges, and to develop a diversified revenue plan for resources needed to move the organization forward.
When NCC approached CauseMic, they essentially asked four questions:
- How do we get the board and staff aligned on our strategic direction?
- How do we diversify funding streams to reduce our reliance on just a few key grants?
- How do we educate the board and staff on their roles and responsibilities for accomplishing our strategic objectives?
- How do we create an actionable plan with “task owners,” supporters, and firm timelines to help us realize our priorities?
Our Solution
For NCC to gain momentum for their vital mission, their operational strategy required focus, prioritization, and buy-in. To help provide that, we executed our Rapid Growth Workshop.
Simply put, our Rapid Growth Workshop brings into sharp relief the specifics needed to achieve organizational goals. Here’s how we partnered with NCC:
- CauseMic performed a discovery exercise with staff, executives, and board members. This resulted in not only understanding differing views of organizational challenges, but also in uncovering opportunities to help thwart cyber threats.
- CauseMic conducted a two-day workshop in which representatives of the board, executive team, and staff aligned on NCC’s overall strategic objectives and the key revenue goals needed for priority initiatives.
- CauseMic and NCC created a prioritized backlog of specific tasks and changes to quickly move the organization forward in its now well-aligned strategic direction.
- CauseMic developed materials with NCC executives to clarify the organization’s vision and path for board members and donor prospects, along with outlining their roles in how to help NCC achieve greater community impact.
The Results
Working with NCC, CauseMic created a One-Page Strategic Plan and a prioritized backlog of initiatives to align stakeholders on strategic objectives, approach, core messaging, and key dates.
NCC was well-positioned to present its newly focused strategy to the board, quickly securing buy-in and support for next steps.
NCC was able to expeditiously place the right people in the right roles to start work on their highest priority initiatives. These included identifying a needed donor database, meeting with prospective major donors, and redesigning their website to achieve greater visitor conversion.
Make the most of your top-level meetings.
Adopting an inclusive workshop process helps ensure the best, most feasible notions surface from all your meeting participants. With CauseMic’s expert, facilitated structure, you’re well on your way to a successful, solution-oriented gathering.
