Setting Girls Up To Succeed With Girls on the Run South Louisiana

Nonprofit organizations are known to do a lot with less. With the demands of outreach, fundraising, service provision and program development, they rarely have the opportunity to step back from the day-to-day and really look at their strategic plan and facility needs. This is where the Success Labs LAB Grant steps in.The grant connects local nonprofits with emerging business leaders in our Resilient Leadership Series and Management Incubator classes, who are charged with providing consulting services to the LAB Grant recipient. These services include:

• A total assessment of a strategic problem facing the grant recipient
• Actionable recommendations to solve or mitigate that problem
• A day of facility enhancements at the nonprofit site

While the LAB Grant was designed to give area nonprofits the kind of support they might otherwise have trouble accessing, it also provides class participants with an invaluable real-world opportunity to use their business leadership skills to make a difference. This synergy was on display with our recent LAB Grant partner, Girls on the Run South Louisiana. Workshop participants brought a fresh perspective in consulting with GOTR leadership; in the process, they learned how powerful their skills can be in making a difference in the community.“Girls on the Run was created to give girls skills to boost their confidence at a vulnerable time in their development, when they are just entering young adulthood,” says Carley Fuller, Executive Director of Girls on the Run South Louisiana. “As we know, COVID-19 greatly increased anxiety and isolation among youth. By helping us do more with our resources, this partnership will help us reach and serve even more girls with our programs.”The Resilient Leadership Series took the business strategy arm of the partnership, analyzing how the organization can attain and retain more program volunteers and participants. Some of their weaknesses in this area included volunteer attrition, program site recruitment, and transportation for youth participants… not to mention the challenges of running community programming during a pandemic. They also established that GOTR programs have significant strengths, such as proven results for young girls and low operation costs.RLS participants identified several ways to leverage those strengths into future opportunities – including heightened promotion through corporate partnerships, increasing digital marketing efforts, creating virtual trainings for volunteers, and identifying GOTR Champions: well-connected community members who believe in the mission and can serve as ambassadors for the program.The Management Incubator was charged with solving space challenges at the Girls on the Run South Louisiana office in Baton Rouge. Their small building needed to hold all of their program materials - which generates a lot of supplies and swag - while giving staff and interns space to work. After walking through, consulting with GOTR staff, and meticulously planning the space, class members implemented all of the organization and physical upgrades in one day. Management Incubator participant Catherine Thomas (Pennington Biomedical Research Center) said that she was able to “develop and practice essential leadership skills, such as problem-solving, exerting influence, and taking action, through our work with GOTR South Louisiana. I feel a renewed sense of community and camaraderie since completing the project.”Ultimately, the goal of the LAB Grant is to have our community partner drive the project and outcomes, so that it advances their mission and impact. For Girls on the Run South Louisiana, a more efficient and welcoming space will help to push their work forward and impact more girls in their 18-parish service area - and they now have a range of strategic recommendations to apply to their program sustainability challenges.Everyone here at Success Labs, and all of our Resilient Leadership Series and Management Incubator participants, were thrilled to be a part of this project. Thank you to the emerging leaders who committed to giving their best to this partnership by using their talents to improve the lives of young girls across South Louisiana.The LAB Grant has been connecting talented, local emerging leaders with Baton Rouge-area nonprofits for over 15 years. This longstanding partnership will continue with our Fall 2021 leadership workshops. The application period will be announced this summer, but in the meantime, if you know of a local nonprofit that could use the support of the LAB Grant, send them our way! Our team of consultants will be happy to answer questions and discuss the process in detail.Follow Success Labs on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and LinkedIn or sign up for our newsletter to keep up with news about the LAB Grant. You can follow GOTR SOLA through Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and Pinterest.Success Labs is a leadership development and management consulting firm in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. For more than 25 years, our expert team of consultants has worked with hundreds of companies to grow leaders, build teams and drive results through great people strategy. Contact us to get proactive about expanding your company’s potential, and stay up-to-date with our latest news and leadership development updates here.