Case Studies and Projects
Every leader deserves a sales and operation pipeline that works so smoothly a new hire could succeed on their first day.
Have you ever felt trapped in a starvation cycle where you are overworking yourself with not enough return on investment? Below are some formative experiences I've had with nonprofit and business leaders much like yourself and the work I did for them.
Operations, Grant Writing, Volunteer Management: Community Greenhouse Partners: Working with this urban farm started by Timothy Smith opened my eyes to how much I love operations management. This ambitious greenhouse co-op was struggling to meet their weekly production quotas; only harvesting about 12lbs of their “cash crop” microgreens when they needed at least 15lbs. As a part of my residency, I took over microgreen production. Part of the issue was how labor-intensive microgreen harvesting was. It was too tedious for an self-managed, all-volunteer staff to willfully do. So, I structured a growing schedule, re-organized the hoop house to accommodate for more planters, and made a schedule and secured volunteer staff input and buy-in so that all hands were on deck for the most tedious part of harvesting, but only for a short time. In 2 weeks, I brought production up to 20lbs. Tim asked if I could double production; he knew he could sell the product if I could have it ready. And I did! During my stay at CGP, an urban farm located in Glenville, Cleveland, I tripled microgreen production, made an introductory video, wrote a master proposal for grants, and managed the website. My work helped them secure new revenue, new grants, and new volunteers.
Operations, Grant Writing, Volunteer Management: Stockyard and Clark-Fulton Community Gardens: Did you know that the Stockyard and Clark-Fulton neighborhoods have 40 community gardens between them? These residents were putting their hearts and souls into their community, but also a lot of revenue. I had the pleasure of not only community organizing them into a group but helping them see their combined power. It was with this group that I actually got the idea to make master proposals and a grant calendar. I made an exhaustive list of foundational, corporate, and government grants and a calendar by which to organize their due dates so that a master proposal could be continuously updated and submitted. This kind of administrative assistance is exactly what hard working leaders need when they want to accomplish very big goals with a handful of people with limited expertise. Over the 4 months working with this group, I helped them secure grants and raise funds and gifts for a neighborhood-wide tool bank and secure more teenaged volunteers for working their gardens.
Lead Generation, Campaigning, Account Management, Recruitment, Training: I’ve done everything from door-to-door campaigning and evangelizing to cold calling to specialized recruitment and training since I was 16-years-old with very strong opinions about an election I couldn’t even vote in. Community organizing has always been very important to me and the best thing about it is that it has a compounding power that comes with simply being helpful, open, and honest with everyone you meet. No marketing spin necessary! So, whether it be teaching evangelical practices as a Sunday School teacher, teaching campaigning practices for presidential elections, or cold-calling applicants with a passing interest in mortgage refinance, I’ve performed and taught a dozen campaigns that recruited, orientated, and retained membership.
Administration Document Creation, Training: Kitchens are a wonderful working environment built on a no-nonsense respect for skill. Kitchens, however, are terrible at paperwork and administrative organization. I, however, love office management. So, I have over 10 years of experience creating administrative tools for kitchens, even at jobs where I was a dishwasher! For example, even at The Cleveland Clinic, the new culinary program was terribly undeveloped despite its lofty ambitions of serving hotel-quality food in its VIP kitchens. Even though I was only a floor-level kitchen manager, I took it upon myself to design a culinary training program. With feedback from my Executive Chef, I created a 10-day training schedule for all core positions, recipe cheatsheets, and a master quiz covering nutrition, food safety, sanitation, and cooking skills. This training program was implemented across 3 buildings and was instrumental to training staff.
