Youth INC

Over 20 years, Orr Group managed all of Youth INC’s fundraising event production, several charitable programs and its finance and administration function, releasing Youth INC’s board and staff to focus on serving the young people of New York.

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Situation

Established in 1994, Youth INC’s mission is to improve the lives of America’s youth through a unique venture philanthropy model that empowers, develops, and educates nonprofit organizations serving young people in New York City. In much the same way as a private equity manager, Youth INC forms partnerships with small charities for nonprofit assessment, reviewing every aspect of how they are run and identifying and recommending the resources and changes needed for improvement. Motivated to find a way to help the many, small youth-oriented charities raising funds to help New York children improve their educational outcomes, Orr Group founder Steve Orr founded Youth INC and served as its Executive Director for 20 years.

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Solution

Youth INC engaged Orr Group to collaborate on its first-ever strategic planning process. Using the Nonprofit Coherence Framework, Youth INC underwent a comprehensive, year-long planning process. This method examined five organizational elements critical to the success of a strategic plan: culture, structures and systems, resources, stakeholders and environment. Orr Group successfully engaged members of the Board of Directors and presented a plan to reconfigure Youth INC’s programs. We then continued to work with Youth INC to determine long-term metrics and goals, determine a funding model, and assemble a strategic development plan.

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Impact

Over a period of 20 years, working alongside Youth INC’s full-time staff, Orr Group managed all of Youth INC’s fundraising event production, several of Youth INC’s charitable programs, and its overall finance and administration. By providing nonprofit management services to Youth INC, the nonprofit’s board and staff were freed up to focus on managing Youth INC’s programs and helping the organization to achieve its mission. Over the course of the partnership between Orr Group and Youth INC, we achieved the following:

  • Raised more than $55 million
  • Empowered 120 nonprofits
  • Impacted the lives of nearly 600,000 New York City children and youth
  • Placed 149 corporate professionals as nonprofit board members. 70% of board placements have served for three or more years
  • Trained more than 1,500 corporate executives as potential board members, and
  • Awarded more than $1.4 million in capacity-building grants.