Case Study
Growing Home
Fundraising & Communications
How Women Unite! Got Connected
Growing Home (GH) was part of WU!’s 2020–21 cohort of partner organizations. Having recently hired its first female Executive Director, Janelle St. John, GH believed that WU! would be a great partner to “help the leadership team succeed, and therefore the organization to succeed.”
Photo courtesy of Growing Home
Who They Serve
GH’s unique model impacts neighborhoods with the greatest need. Their farms are located in the South Side community of Englewood, where 97% of the population is Black. This has been underserved for decades and has extremely high rates of unemployment and poverty, hundreds of acres of vacant lots, and a distinct lack of healthy food choices. By focusing their work on individuals and families from this neighborhood, GH inspires healthy living, economic opportunity, and community empowerment in Englewood.
Photo courtesy of Growing Home
About Growing Home
GH is a USDA-Certified Organic and nonprofit urban farm in the Englewood neighborhood of Chicago. They believe that everyone deserves a good job, to eat well, and to live in a vibrant, supported community. GH serves their communities through paid holistic employment training and local, healthy, affordable food.
Chicago’s leading expert in farm-based training for people with employment barriers, GH provides 25 hours per week of paid on-the-job experience and job-readiness training at their farms, plus the support to conquer issues like criminal records, medical needs, child-care, and housing. GH has changed the lives of hundreds of workers, and thousands of their family members.
The Organization’s Needs
With a solid foundation and infrastructure, GH’s need was primarily around ways to sustainably grow their fundraising, development, and communications. This included how best to engage the Board of Directors, ways to maximize their communications, and strategies around growing their individual donor base. Rather than significant assistance around the nuts and bolts of nonprofit work, GH sought higher level consulting support.
“We knew working with WU! would support our programming—but we didn’t realize how transformational it would be. From small projects like communication templates for emails and social media designs to long-term projects like a donor stewardship plan and strategy that includes an in-depth quarterly newsletter and a full communications plan, the WU! team has truly had lasting impact for us. The key to this success is that Liz and her team truly listen to what we need as an organization and are ready to advise and go into action with our lead. We can’t thank you enough, WU!”
—Janell St. John, Executive Director, Growing Home
Women Unite!’s Impact
WU! consulted for GH on organization development, Board management, development and fundraising strategies and approaches, individual donor stewardship, and more. WU! staff helped GH leadership think through the challenges they faced as an evolving organization. Additionally, WU! provided budget and finance training and support materials for GH’s Board of Directors, to help them better understand how to read and decipher a budget. In addition, WU!’s Director of Communications conducted an email marketing best practices training for GH staff.
On the tactical side, WU! offered website support to assist GH in revamping their website, and also wrote and reviewed communications collateral.
Mission Alignment
GH, “not only provides the support people need to succeed, but also the space to define what success means to them.” Nothing could be more closely aligned with WU!’s goals and vision. When helping nonprofit organizations actualize their missions by providing capacity-building support, WU! ensures that our work maintains fidelity to each individual organization’s definition of success. As two organizations committed to the idea that each individual, family, and community has a unique definition of success and achievement, WU! and GH’s collaboration felt in sync from the very beginning of the partnership.