Crabtree Farms Revives Missional Alignment and Operational Efficiency
Crabtree Farms Revives Missional Alignment and Operational Efficiency
Industry: Non-Profit Urban Farming
Location: Chattanooga, TN
Tactic: Operational Improvement
Results
An increase in missional alignment and clarity
Operational objectives for the next 2-3 years
Improved operational efficiency
About Crabtree Farms
Since its inception over 20 years ago, Crabtree Farms has built a reputation as a leader in local farming, teaching and advocating for sustainable farming, promoting other local farms and healthy eating, and celebrating local food culture. Their mission supports the greater Chattanooga area by connecting people from diverse socioeconomic backgrounds to nature and place, helping individuals reconnect with the land through their seasonal on-site farm store, their plant sales, and through workshops and internships.
The Challenge
As they prepared their strategy and funding for 2024, Crabtree Farms knew they needed missional realignment and operational improvement, but they weren’t sure where to start. Though they had a stated mission — to be a community-focused urban farm committed to education, food access, and sustainable agriculture — they questioned whether they were really delivering on this mission to the best of their ability. With a small team and various ongoing projects, Crabtree Farms recognized several key questions.
Were they aligned on what their missional focus should be? Were they being operationally effective and moving towards sustainability in their funding? Were they making the best use of financial and labor resources to distinctively serve their community?
Feeling overwhelmed by the task at hand and pressed by a short timeline, Crabtree Farms engaged Bridge for a financial and operational improvement project to enhance their financial sustainability and increase their ability to deliver on their mission.
The Solution
To start their operational improvement plan, Crabtree Farms partnered with Bridge Innovate to clarify the project goals, timeline, and research team.
From there, Bridge created a customized plan for Crabtree Farms to help them reach their goals. “Bridge was able to work with us by modifying a version of their usual operational improvement process and allowing us to customize something that suited our needs on relatively short notice,” shares Crabtree Farms Board Chair John Sweet. Though pressed for time, CTF set three attainable goals with Bridge: to gain missional alignment, to define a strategic tactics plan for key areas, and to discuss leadership alignment.
Bridge Innovate assisted the CTF team with a focused research plan in order to define a future vision and outline funding tactics for the organization. The plan was for CTF to interview and analyze other urban farms across the United States for inspiration, and then evaluate funding opportunities and community needs related to their mission. Sweet describes, “Through a series of online meetings and in-person meetings, they guided us through executing the research work that we insisted we do ourselves.”
With a plan and timeline in place, the CTF team broke into four different Research Teams to investigate their primary areas of funding, while also contacting numerous other farms in the US to gain insight into improvement possibilities and operational opportunities. Over the following two months, the research teams got to work, gathering information to present in their Tactical Priorities Sessions with Bridge. They moved fast and regrouped to present research, pull out key insights, and look at the connection between CTF operations and missional alignment.
During the first half-day session with Bridge Innovate, the discussion was focused on funding tactics, and the second half-day session was on making Crabtree Farms operationally effective. With the CTF leadership team, Bridge facilitated a discussion to review a current state summary of all Farm activities and how these activities aligned with their mission and need for sustainable funding. This allowed them to evaluate which projects and tactics to pursue most in the coming three years.
Through both sessions, Bridge also facilitated discussion around mission statement alignment, how to best mobilize the CTF team, and where to pursue grant funding in order to best support their mission.
The Results
The research and workshops with Crabtree Farms were a massive success. Through the two sessions, Bridge Innovate was able to help CTF identify key areas for growth, investment, and operational improvement to reduce waste and boost its missional reach. In addition, the board and leadership found full alignment, determining a clear mission statement that would drive all major operational priorities in the coming years.
According to Sweet, “The two in-person half-day sessions at their very nice facility were incredibly fruitful. Plus, the entire team was very professional, on top of being friendly and easy to work with.”
Through this customized method of operational improvement, Crabtree Farms took their clarified mission and newfound operational plan and established clear action steps for each part of the organization, empowering their organization to grow sustainably. Because of their work with Bridge Innovate, Crabtree Farms is empowered to accelerate their growth in the coming years.
Take the first step towards sustainable growth. Let Bridge Innovate help your team pursue missional alignment to improve your operations.